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A review by bookitallaway
Shallow River by H.D. Carlton
4.0
As always H.D. Carlton does not disappoint and as always READ the trigger warnings for this book and really just do it for all her books.
Overall I was very happy with this book, but the storyline just didn't do it for me as much as the others. The spice was great when it was there and the plot was well done. I found myself more frustrated throughout the whole book rather than wanting to see where it ended. It deals a lot with domestic violence and how women stay instead of leave, or when they do leave, they return after promises to change, etc. It definitely does a lot of mind games and there is a torture scene that was rough to read. I felt that the MFC dilemma dragged on longer than necessary and as such could have added to the flow of the book better. However, the side characters were really well done I thought, and they wove seamlessly with the MFC and MMC. Sometimes I find side characters are just there for fluff, but in this case I thought they added a lot more weight to the story as well as to the main characters. We follow our MFC as she goes through events that will make her choose to stay or leave and the subsequent consequences of living with whatever she chooses.
Spice: 5/5
Plot: 4/5 (only because of my above mentioned frustration throughout most of the book)
Character Dev: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
Overall I was very happy with this book, but the storyline just didn't do it for me as much as the others. The spice was great when it was there and the plot was well done. I found myself more frustrated throughout the whole book rather than wanting to see where it ended. It deals a lot with domestic violence and how women stay instead of leave, or when they do leave, they return after promises to change, etc. It definitely does a lot of mind games and there is a torture scene that was rough to read. I felt that the MFC dilemma dragged on longer than necessary and as such could have added to the flow of the book better. However, the side characters were really well done I thought, and they wove seamlessly with the MFC and MMC. Sometimes I find side characters are just there for fluff, but in this case I thought they added a lot more weight to the story as well as to the main characters. We follow our MFC as she goes through events that will make her choose to stay or leave and the subsequent consequences of living with whatever she chooses.
Spice: 5/5
Plot: 4/5 (only because of my above mentioned frustration throughout most of the book)
Character Dev: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5