Hold Back the River
Ashley Dill
Rated: 4.71 of 5 stars
4.71
· Steam/Spice level: 2 of 5
Behind closed doors [?]
· 7 ratings · 385 pages · Published: 03 Aug 2023

Returning to his empty childhood home by the river is harder than Patrick Moore expected. His memories of the riverbank were tainted the night he was arrested and his high school sweetheart went missing. After a fourteen year prison sentence, he searches for her, hoping to find companionship and a normal life.
Julia Collins is an adrenaline-junkie with one mission: outrun grief or die trying. After being furloughed for her mental health, she’s forced into sobriety and must navigate life without her poisons of choice — tequila and her job. That’s when she hits it off with the mysterious Patrick at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Fresh hope dawns in her heart, and she wonders if she can thrive despite her secrets and enjoy life again.
But it isn’t long before currents of regret rip them apart.
Can Patrick and Julia outlive the past? Or will they succumb to the river’s fury?
Hold Back the River, a contemporary romance set in Middle Tennessee, is a heart-rending story about how a lonely soul, a guilty conscience, and a broken heart find healing together at the river.
Tagged as:
- contemporary 3
- mystery 3
- small town 1
- new adult 1
- funny 1
- angst 1
- m-f romance 1
- friends to lovers 1
- hurt/comfort 1
- slow burn 1
- christian 1
- cheerful/happy heroine 1
- independent heroine 1
- sassy heroine 1
- sweet/gentle heroine 1
- competent heroine 1
- take-charge heroine 1
- tortured heroine 1
- grumpy/cold hero 1
- shy hero 1
- tortured hero 1
- male pov 1
- dual pov 1
- first person pov 1
- grumpy & sunshine 1
- secret child 1
- short king 1
- Add topics
- geography
- north america 1
- usa 1
- tennessee 1
- content warnings
- suicide / ideation 1
- mental trauma 1
- death / grief 1
- substance abuse 1
- alcoholism 1
- miscarriage / infertility 1
- third party abuse 1
- rape 1
- third party sexual assault 1
- past sexual abuse 1