Release Blitz: Morgan: Riley Hart
April 4, 2024
Amazon
Amazon
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.
Morgan Swift is heading home to Birchbark due to a sense of family duty. But the problem is that his family is broken due to shared grief and loss and he has not been home in ten years since running away from his best friend and family. He has been living in Santa Monica, focusing on work, guarding his heart, and keeping his past buried.
Dusty James was his best friend and his everything. He was there for Morgan through his tumultuous childhood and pain and was his first love even if he never admitted it. But when he perceived that Dusty had betrayed him, he left and never came back. But seeing Dusty now brings back all of the unresolved feelings good and bad.
Dusty was always in love with Morgan but was afraid to tell him. And now that he is back, he knows his heart is in danger again. He has always been intertwined with the Swift brothers and is friends with the other brothers Rhett and Easton. He is the peacemaker and fixer. But these brothers and their family might be too far gone to fix. And as much as they care about each other, Morgan is not sure he can stay due to his grief and toxic family, and Dusty is not sure he can leave his home.
This is an emotional and messy, hurt-comfort, second-chance love story about coming home, facing demons, repairing friendships and family, and finding hope and healing. I loved Morgan and Dusty together and their special bond. It was forged in childhood friendship, shared pain and history, and rekindled into an even stronger connection and sparked into hot chemistry and true love. I liked that as adults they actually communicated, were honest, and did not want to waste any more time. But there is definitely more story to tell with these complicated and damaged Swift brothers and this small town. I am looking forward to more with Easton, Rhett, Archer, and Cass.
Keep reading for a look inside Morgan!
Easton is thirty minutes late.
This is the first time in two months, so I try not to get too frustrated, but it’s hard.
Because Morgan spent so much time taking care of his family, I spent a lot of time with them too. In many ways, Easton feels like a little brother to me. While people on the outside know what the Swifts have been through, I saw it from the inside. I felt it through Morgan, as much as someone other than a Swift could feel it.
So yeah, I have a bond with Easton. I care about him a whole hell of a lot, but this is also my place of business, and being professional is important to me.
“Sorry I’m late,” the tattooed blond in question says as he comes in through the shop’s heavy metal door. Dusty’s Collision Repair is my baby. I’ve always loved putting cars back together—not the fixing of mechanical parts as much as the body work. It’s really all I’ve ever wanted, which is why Easton not taking it as seriously is like sandpaper against my skin.
Leaning against the wall, I stare at him a moment. Sometimes it’s hard to believe he’s the same little kid who was the first diaper I ever changed, hard to believe he’s Morgan’s little brother. As far as I know, my ex-best friend doesn’t have any tattoos, and Easton is covered in them. He’s the only Swift who didn’t go to college or who has a record. I guess it’s possible those things have changed with Morgan in the last ten years, but I doubt it.
“East, we talked about this. You know your shit—you’re probably the best apprentice I’ve ever had—and it’s clear to me how much you love it.” I’m not sure East has ever loved anything the way he does auto body work, much to Mayor Swift’s dismay. “But I can’t keep letting you get away with—”
“Morgan’s back,” he interrupts, making my heart drop to my gut.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, not with Gregory’s stroke, but then I know how Morgan feels about his dad, and about Rhett—and clearly about me since he left town and never spoke to me again.
I wasn’t sure my goddamned heart would ever recover. Sometimes I’m still not sure it has. Case in point, my words are still lost to me after the two simple ones East spoke. Morgan’s back.
I clear my throat. “And you were with him?”
Easton shakes his head. “Haven’t seen him yet. Just thought you might want to know. I won’t be late again.”
Cleary done with the conversation, East heads over to the SUV we’re fixing after it was rear-ended, and he gets right to work.
I shouldn’t let him get away with that. I should say something, any-fucking-thing, but I don’t.
Morgan is back.
I’ve often wondered how much Easton or their dad know about our loss of friendship. Rhett is at the center of it, so he knows. Plus, he and I struck up a friendship after Morgan left. Rhett and Morgan went years without talking at all, but now they call each other when it has to do with the family. Rhett wanted to tell him to call me, but I nipped that in the bud. No good would come of it. All it would do is make Morgan pull away even more. The idea of Rhett going to him about anything would get him all up in his head, automatically on the defensive. The Swifts are all tangled in so much family drama, so much pain, that none of them can see any of it clearly.
Not my problem. None of it is my problem.
But I’ve sure as shit done a good job keeping myself entangled with them my whole damn life. First through my friendship with Morgan, and then in the way it was blown to hell.
“Fuck,” I groan to myself before heading to the paint stall, where I have a Honda waiting for me, hoping it will keep my mind off the Swifts, but knowing it won’t.
Riley Hart's love of all things romance shines brightly in everything she writes. Her primary focus is Male/Male romance but under various pen names, her prose has touched practically every part of the spectrum of love and relationships. The common theme that ties them all together is stories told from the heart.
A hopeless romantic herself, Riley is a lover of character-driven plots, many with flawed and relatable characters. She strives to create stories that readers can not only fall in love with, but also see themselves in. Real characters and real love blended together equal the ultimate Riley Hart experience.
When Riley isn't creating her next story, you can find her reading, traveling, or dreaming about reading or traveling, spending time with her two snarky kids, and swoony husband.
Riley Hart is represented by Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret Literary Management. She's a 2019 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Of Sunlight and Stardust.
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