Reviews with content warning for Murder - Shallow River

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

ellebills's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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sarahanne_65's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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samlauren07's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Heavy trigger warnings for DV and Suicide
I didn’t like the jump from one romantic interest to the other. It felt like bad timing.
The book was incredibly sad to read. It didn’t take a turn for the better till 3/4 of the way through the book.
I felt like the author repeated a “scene” from one of her other books.
Mako was a great dynamic character. It felt like the wrong person with poor timing.
1.5🌶️ (the non assault scenes)

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shedevls's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

getting to watch a woman come back into her own, and acknowledge and take control of her power is always one of my favourite things

(especially when her getting revenge on those who wronged her is part of that process)

, but because of my own experiences, i really just didn't vibe with the way it all played out. there was a lot of nonsense and quite a few moments that felt more like they were there for shock value rather than having any real meaning. mako and river's bestie (whose name i am unfortunately blanking on) were the only saving graces of this story imo.

i can, however, see how this could be therapeutic in a sense for some. so read if you want, but this book doesn't make my recommendation list.

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vouija's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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jessanicolesingh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

*HEAVY trigger warnings on this book; I think this was the most intense book I have read to date

Shallow River is 70% a domestic violence survival story, and 30% a serial killer thriller (VERY different from the other dark romances I have read by this author). The rinse and repeat cycle of DV is incredibly well written, and you will be stressed from cover to cover. While there were some consensual spicy scenes, there were equally as many assault scenes, so do NOT go into this thinking it's a typical dark steamy read. Don't worry though, there is a HEA

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mizfitzkay's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is triggering for a rape survivor and as a person who watched a friend stay in an abusive cycle. I couldn’t tell you how frustrated I was with the MC. Almost DNF’d because she was insufferable.

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amylferg's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

More like 3.5 ⭐️

With a ton of spice

Listen, I am a big lover of HD Carlton’s books and it took me a minute to understand where this fell flat.

You have this strong, resilient FMC who continuously claims she takes no shit. She’s obviously grown up in these horrible conditions and everything about that made my heart break for her. I truly believed her strength.

BUT then you see she finds herself in one of the most volatile DV situations I’ve ever read. And I won’t even begin to pretend that I would know how to handle that situation but I think my confusion came from how unestablished her “love” for Ryan felt.

The timeline goes:

River mentions a crush on Ryan, finds out he’s recently single and mentions maybe pursuing him.

You jump 2 years and they’re already in a fully established relationship, deeply in love. River briefly mentions how she ended up pursuing him but that’s really it.

You don’t get to see their relationship and love build at all. In fact, the 2 year jump immediately brings you into the very early stages of Ryan’s abuse so you have no time to form any good connection with him.

So that being said, for the majority of the book, I could not understand in any capacity why River stayed/goes back. I kept thinking she had an ulterior motive and we were all going to be shocked that she’s had this master plan the entire time but after a while it became clear I was wrong.

The subplot of the serial killer/childhood tormentor and Mako really brought the story back but I just personally wish River & Ryan’s relationship was established more before everything started to fall apart so I could feel more connected to Rivers mindset.

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