Reviewed by Ro

TITLE: Morgan

SERIES: Swift Brothers

AUTHOR: Riley Hart

PUBLISHER: Riley Hart

LENGTH: 240 pages

RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2024

BLURB:

Morgan

When I left Birchbark angry and broken-hearted, I vowed never to return.

Fate had other plans.

The father I hate had a stroke. Now, at thirty-five-years-old, I’m back in the upper peninsula to take care of him. Being a Swift has never been easy. The locals treat Dad like royalty, while Dad vacillates between open anger and flat-out ignoring me. Add on that my relationship with my brothers is a mess… Being back here is 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. We’re trying to put that behind us. Despite my endless family drama, Dusty becomes my solace, and it’s not long before our emotional connection becomes physical. Dusty worships my body in ways no man has before, but more importantly, has stolen my heart. Except Dusty’s home is here, and mine is in Santa Monica, as far from Birchbark as I can get.

While I’m battling it out with Dad and my brothers 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 any chance at real happiness, I’ve got to work through this anger and grief…even as 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.

REVIEW:

For anyone hating family drama, please read the trigger warnings because there are some toxic family dynamics here. Like, wow. Gregory Swift is the father of the Swift brothers and he adores his wife, Allison. They pretty much have kids because she wants them and she is a loving, doting mom while he is a loving husband and an absentee father. When Allison dies after having twins, Gregory checks out from any semblance of being a good father. He leaves his two oldest children, Rhett and Morgan, to raise (along with nannies) the twins Allison wanted so badly, Easton and Ella. Then a tragic accident takes Ella, and Gregory turns into a nightmare, always belittling his sons, constantly working, and never being satisfied.

Morgan, who has been kept sane only by his responsibility to the twins and by his best friend, Dusty, witnesses something that basically breaks him. He hightails it to California, far from the UP where the Swifts and Dusty live. For ten years, he’s had no contact with Dusty and very little with his brothers. When Gregory has a stroke, Rhett calls him home, and (for some reason) he goes.

The brothers together are not good. Rhett did something that night ten years ago to purposely hurt Morgan, and he’s not sorry. “He’ll get over it. He’ll stop being a big fucking baby and get everything he wants because that’s how life works for him.”  Dusty knows better, though. Morgan won’t forget. The worst part is, all Rhett has ever wanted was his father’s approval and honestly, you can see he will never get it. Gregory pits the sons against each other.

Easton is so lost with the death of his twin and from the treatment from his father that he speaks to very few, except Dusty, who is his boss, and Pretty Girl, who is his boss. I’ll say, I can’t wait for Easton’s story.

But I digress. Morgan returns to this family that has faced so much trauma to help care for his hateful father. “You left us. You fought with your brother, and you left us, Morgan. Swifts don’t abandon their family.” Coming from a father who was never there, that’s rich. Morgan carries so much guilt from the past, and he never lets anyone in. It can be easy to judge his California boyfriend, Rob, but I didn’t. That was what Morgan allowed – superficial and nothing from the heart. Dusty and Morgan do start to repair their friendship, but it is difficult when Dusty is also friends with Rhett. “If we’re supposed to be friends, you don’t get to use my pain to hurt him.” That is Dusty trying to stay friends Rhett while laying down some boundaries.

One of the greatest quotes of the book is, “But you’re allowed to feel how you feel. And love is earned, so is respect, and like, it’s not something people get just because they share the same blood as you.” Huge respect for that quote right there. But blood-wise, Dusty’s parents are amazing and wonderful. They are the polar opposite of Gregory Swift, and it was a relief to see.  There is also Spencer, a California friend of Morgan’s, the best friend despite Morgan never opening up to him about his family or past. When he finally did, I was so glad for Morgan.

One thing that kept this from an even higher rating was just too much sex once Morgan and Dusty had rekindled. I was so into the story, eagerly waiting to see if Rhett remained a jerk, if Easton could open up and if Gregory would do everyone a favor and disappear but there were so many sex scenes in the last half. I started skimming to get back to the plot.

The story is not just about Dusty and Morgan getting a possible second chance but also the relationships, or non-relationships, and interactions with the brothers. There is a lot of hurt everywhere and a lot of baggage. But underneath it all, there is a foundation that hopefully will be enough for change. Rhett, Morgan, Easton, and even Dusty have been damaged by Gregory, the loss of mother and sister, and the way they have been thrown against each other. Something I appreciated is that not everything is magically fixed. There are still significant issues, lots of problems, and relationship complications. But there is hope, and that’s what counts.

RATING:

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