alyssadorn 's review for:

Shallow River by H.D. Carlton

2.5

dark sad medium-paced

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This book is okay, but there’s a lot that doesn’t seem motivated by the characters, but rather by the author trying to meld torture porn and actual erotica in a way that didn’t quite work. For instance, rape followed by her fantasizing about sex— albeit with someone else, but it was jarring. Or a sudden sex scene with no bread-crumbing ahead of time that that was a possibility for the two characters involved. 

It’s a lot of very dark stuff written in a way that doesn’t overall feel very authentic to the characters. Even when stuff happened that was unexpected, instead of showing why the character acted that way, the author told readers in a way that felt very surface-level so it didn’t feel believable. 

There’s also some parts that feel repetitive, and the main action could’ve happened way sooner.