Reviewed by Jen
TITLE: Shattered Innocence
SERIES: Lockswell Boarding House
AUTHOR: River Winters
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 416 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2026
BLURB:
Kasey has no memory of the life he lived before Lockswell Boarding House.
No family. No friends. No past worth keeping.
So when Alpha Evander Whitlock takes him home, Kasey assumed its just another assignment. Another Place to obey, endure and survive.
But Evander watches him with a familiarity Kasey can’t explain, and speaks to him with a gentleness he doesn’t know how to trust.
Evander knows exactly who Kasey it. Who he was. And what was stolen from him the night the Omega vanished.
But the boy he once knew is gone, replaced by someone silent and terrified of the world, of kindness.
As Kasey struggled to navigate a world outside captivity, Evander walks a fragile line between protecting him and revealing the truth.
REVIEW:
Off the bat, I have not read the first book in this series, although I don’t believe it is necessary to understand where this one starts. Lockswell is supposed to be a sort of boarding house/school where Omegas are sent to be trained and taught. Unfortunately, it takes that to a very dark level where it breaks the Omegas and retrains them into shells of themselves through abuse and torture. Kasey is one who was abducted and ended up in Lockswell when he was eight years old and told his parents were killed in a car accident. We get to see a little bit of life for Kasey inside Lockswell before Evander comes into the picture and rescues Kasey.
Evander and Kasey were bffs when they were young and Evander has never stopped searching for him. Much of the book is spent with Evander and Kasey together and Evander trying to undue the behaviors and mentality that has been beaten into Kasey. This gets really repetitive at times. I tried to remind myself the author was trying to convey what Kasey was going through, but it was very choppy reading. Aside from their initial contact, these guys do not ever become more than friends.
I am usually a sucker for damaged character stories and especially those who overcome and find their happiness. By the end of this story, Kacey has not made a ton of progress, although it does seem he is on the right path and now has a bigger support system to help him. Then, the Prologue is one year later and apparently Kacey made a ton of progress with himself and his relationship with Evander has progressed a tiny bit farther beyond friends.
Two other issues I had were the holes, i.e. I never understood the premise behind the Alpha/Omega storyline. I kept waiting for more explanation or background on it, but it never happened. Is this a psy-fi or fantasy or paranormal story? We never know beyond some are Alphas and some are Omegas and Omegas are basically on the earth to cater to Alphas. Likewise, it was mentioned at times that Evander had to work, but we never found out what he even did. It felt odd not knowing. My other issue, and I don’t usually even mention this with review copies, but the editing was really bad at times and I often had to reread sentences to know what was meant. I don’t recall having this issue with the other book I read by this author, so maybe this one just fell through the cracks.
RATING: 
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