Morgan

The Swift Brothers, Book 1

By: Riley Hart

Narrated by: Gregory Salinas

Morgan

When I left Birchbark angry and heartbroken, I vowed never to return.

Fate had other plans.

The father I hate had a stroke, so now I'm back in the Upper Peninsula to take care of him. The locals treat Dad like royalty, while Dad vacillates between open anger and flat-out ignoring me. Throw in my messy relationship with my brothers, and being in Birchbark becomes unbearable.

The only saving grace is Dusty, my childhood best friend. He's always had my back, save for one night ten years ago that changed everything. Despite my endless family drama, Dusty becomes my solace, and it's not long before our emotional connection becomes more. Dusty worships my body in ways no man has before, but more importantly, he's stolen my heart. Except Dusty's home is here, and mine is in Santa Monica, as far away as I can get.

While I'm battling it out with Dad and trying to hold the family together, my every impulse is to leave the first chance I get. But I can't leave Dusty behind. Not again. If I want a chance at real happiness, I've got to work through this anger and grief—even if the hits keep coming.

Morgan is a small-town, friends-to-lovers romance with all the feels, heat, and character development you expect from a Riley Hart novel. It deals with themes of grief, loss of a parent/sibling (off-page), and toxic family relationships.

©2024 Riley Hart (P)2024 Riley Hart

A surprisingly captivating book

I usually go for romcoms and sports related books. However, I like this author and decided to give this book a go. It was phenomenal. The characters, the narration, the story were so beautifully written and expressed. Though this book contained heavy themes, the author managed to portray them realistically. It wasn't just a flashback or stray thought discussed in passing. The characters go through grief and pain, spanning years, where it has become an integral part of who they have become. The focus on relationships in this book truly told the story. The ending also leaves the readers with a lot of hope for the characters. So, the MC's romance was passionate and heartwarming, and Dusty was the heart of the book. But the real theme of the story was finding family again amongst grief, guilt and painful love. I cannot wait for Easton's book.

Outstanding

This audiobook was fantastic. Highly recommend it. It's gutwrenchjng and I can't for Easton and Rhets stories!!!!

new favorite narrator, another heart wrenchingly good story from Riley Hart

Loved the narrator! he has the best natural sounding chuckle I've yet heard in an audiobook and did a nice job of creating distinct character voices without sounding forced or over the top.

As I expect from the author, the story was a heart wrenchingly good romance with plenty of aches but without drawing things out too much.

I did think Dusty forgave Rhett too easily, and Dusty and Morgan got together with a lot less angst than I expected. I think ultimately it felt right though, their pull together was just that strong and inevitable. I can't wait for the next two stories!

my biggest criticism was the natural/scent k1nk. it just wasn't for me, and no offense to those into it, but it's one that I'm squeamish too, so none of the spicy scenes were enjoyable for me. I sometimes wish these 7 book a year authors didn't feel the need to make every book some kind of k1nk, because it's off putting when it isn't your k1nk, but that's just me. definitely still worth the listen!

really love this one.. like alot

the story is gripping and emotional. liking all the characters specially the 3 brothers. damn I just wanna hug them and comfort them. Narration is pretty awesome. new fave narrator added. looking forward to the other brother's story ( East and Rhett)

I really enjoyed this!

Who doesn't love a hero who leaves his small town with a wounded heart who comes back years later and tries to make repairs in his familial relationships as well as with the love of his life; the best friend turned lover. Any work Riley does will almost always find a place in my Hart 😏 and any performance of Gregory Salinas is always satisfying....some of those scenes with Morgan and Dusty were absolute 🔥🔥

4 starz - worthy of a repeat listen

Love gay

Great book about past present and the future of family problems and mending broken family

Morg, Dust, pretty underwhelming.

When looking at the Riley Hart titles in my library, some are among my favorite listens - Risk the Fall, On the Mountain, or Wild at Heart. A few I really enjoyed - His Truth, even The End Zone or The Endgame. There are even a few I really hated like Crossroads, or Something About Us, the painful sequel to the decent Something About You. Having completed the groan inducing Morgan, I feel Riley Hart is more than one person. It was that alter-ego that wrote this.

Starting with the narration, this is my first exposure to Gregory Salinas. Clearly a popular narrator based on the number of titles he has recorded. But for me I was left feeling quite meh. A very pleasant tone, I didn't find his characters were particularly distinct. When he chuckled as a character was supposed to laugh I realized why I wasn't clicking with him. If Alexander Cendese and Stephen Dexter had a narrator baby, it would be Gregory Salinas. He adopts the slow, breathy quality to some characters in the vein of Dexter, but the forced chuckle was all Cendese, a narrator with lots of vocal shenanigans that tend to fall flat.

Then there is the story. To read the synopsis, it sounds all Riley Hart. Buried pain, current anger, hard knocks and a chance at making amends, it is all there. But there is none of the grit or visceral pain of Riven in Risk the Fall. Riven is bitter and nearly resigned to miserable existence. Hart takes us through all of it, making the transformation all the better. It is incremental, sweet and hesitant. None of that really exists here.

In this story, the three angry brothers cannot speak to each other, or even their father. Cold and distant, their father has a stroke that brings 35 year old Morgan back to Michigan after a ten year absence. He takes a leave from work to return and care for dad. On paper, sounds like a solid premise. However, the family is rich - dad was a US congressman and now mayor of their town. The kiss-up older brother is still on good terms with the father and lives nearby. The father is fully ambulatory and needs very little care, he hasn't resigned as mayor. So now the question becomes, why did Morgan come back? Did he know the father's condition? What kind of care he could offer? No and no. There is already a part time nurse. As presented, it made no scene for him to come home.

Hart has the bitterness and anger between the brothers and father continue non stop throughout the book. Then there is Dusty. He has been in love with Morgan since they were young, but never told him. Morgan begged Dusty to leave town with him, but Dusty says no and does something that tears apart their friendship - Morgan leaves for the California and doesn't return, or really communicate much with his family for a decade. As written, it is very flimsy, with a lot of hand wringing. Morgan has a BF he lives with, but it's not particularly loving or passionate relationship. This idea of Morgan and Dusty resurrecting their friendship and then more is hardly organic in this book.

Once I hit the midway point, I began to re-write the story in my head. Had Hart written Morgan's return and his desire to come to terms with awful issues of past and try to build something with his father who has shown he is human and could die, this would have flowed so much better. But, I can't re-write the book, so I am stuck with what Hart wrote. While I didn't hate it like Crossroads, I just found it very blah. The family conflicts for the most part are forced, the relationship with Dusty - who is called Dust - is like a flipped switch, not at all believable as presented here. There is too much sex, all the armpits and such gets to be a lot. My general feeling is when an author doesn't know what to do with the story, they add more sex. Hart must have had a serious case of writers block, they just keep going at it.

At the end, I didn't have enough interest in this book to even contemplate the next one.