That Deep River Feeling

Jackie Ashenden

Jul 2021 · Alaska Homecoming Book 3 · Sourcebooks, Inc.

About this ebook

Jackie Ashenden brings the heat to Alaska in her contemporary romance featuring:

• An independent woman dedicated to protecting her town—and her heart
• A mysterious mountain man with a past shrouded in secrets
• A small Alaska town that'll take your breath away

Zeke Calhoun doesn't care much about Deep River, but he'll do just about anything to keep the promise he made to look out for his best friend's sister.

As the sole police officer in Deep River, Morgan West won't be bossed around, but Zeke is irresistible. He's tough, challenging, and all kinds of sexy, but getting involved is the last thing on her mind. Or is it...?

"The heroes of Deep River are as rugged and wild as the landscape."—MAISEY YATES, New York Times bestselling author

Ratings and reviews

3.75 stars—THAT DEEP RIVER FEELING is the third instalment in Jackie Ashenden’s contemporary, adult ALASKA HOMECOMING romance series focusing on three friends who inherited the small town of Deep River, Alaska. This is bush pilot Zeke Calhoun, and Village Safety Protection Officer Morgan West’s story line. THAT DEEP RIVER FEELING can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order for back story and cohesion. SOME BACKGROUND: Thirteen years earlier Silas Quinn (Home to Deep River 1), along with his best friend Caleb West, swore never to return to Deep River but with Caleb’s death came the ownership of the town of Deep River, owned by the West family for close to one hundred years. When the sole surviving West refused all ownership, the town of Deep River was passed on to our heroes Damon, Silas and Zeke. Told from dual third person perspectives (Zeke and Morgan) THAT DEEP RIVER FEELING focuses on Zeke Calhoun, the final partner in the privately owned small town of Deep River, Alaska. For two months Zeke has been MIA; no contact with his friends Silas and Damon, and in this Silas and Damon struggle with potential offers to buy Deep River, Alaska. Deep River sits upon a ‘gold mine’ of oil, oil that a Texas company is hoping to own, while secretly approaching the people in an effort to buy what’s left of the town. Morgan West is the only member of the local law enforcement, and the only surviving West family heir, and with it comes the knowledge that someone is hoping to gain access to the Deep River oil. Enter Zeke Calhoun, the third partner bequeathed ownership of Deep River, Alaska and the man with whom Morgan West will fall in love. What ensues is the struggling romance and relationship between Zeke and Morgan, and the potential fall-out as Zeke’s secrets are about to be exposed, as our hero struggles with issues of rejection, trust and low self-esteem. Zeke Calhoun worries that once the truth is revealed, his friendships and relationship with his best friends Damon and Silas with spiral out of control. Having suffered through a dysfunctional relationship with his family, Zeke prefers to live life on his own terms but meeting Morgan West stirs something deep within our story line hero. Morgan West has lived all of her life in Deep River, Alaska, and like Zeke, struggles with demons from the past. Believing she is unworthy of love, Morgan finally opens her heart only to discover that Zeke’s time in Deep River, comes with an expiry date. The $ex scenes are limited but intimate and passionate, without the over the top, sexually graphic language and text. The secondary and supporting characters include Silas Quinn and his girlfriend Hope Dawson; Damon Fitzgerald and Astrid, James; Astrid’s son Connor; Zeke’s sister Izzy Montgomery, as well as Filthy Phil, all knowing, all seeing elderly gentleman -the people of Deep River are very protective of our story line heroine. THAT DEEP RIVER FEELING is a story of secrets, family, relationships and love. The premise is entertaining; the romance is captivating but I struggled to feel any palpable sexual attraction between our leading couple. Perhaps it was Zeke’s less than stellar attitude towards everything, or his need to move on without the woman he loved.

Stunning, unique, powerful romance! Having loved the first two books in this series, I was eager to learn about the mysterious Zeke and was thrilled to see him paired up with Caleb's sister. The series starts off with Caleb's death and each book shows how he set things in motion with his will and personal letters to his friends, making the reader believe that he'd been doing a little matchmaking along the way. Each book moves rather quickly, resulting in less than six months from Caleb's death to the epilogue of this third book. Zeke is a bear of a man, part wild mountain hermit, someone who appears to be happy as a loner. However, as we get to know him throughout the book, it becomes clear (though never directly stated) that he's got all the markers of a man on the autism spectrum. It's nothing short of inspirational to see how he's made such a success of his life in spite of the way the deck was stacked against him - not because of his differences, but due to his parents' treatment of him. Morgan is a caregiver, someone who has dedicated her life to taking care of the town she belongs to, despite the fact that she has no family left. I love the way the author showed her coming to grips with the reasons behind her drive to take care of people, and what that meant in her relationship with Zeke. That they each found themselves acting out of character for each other was not just exquisitely demonstrated, but it was clear that this was the entire point of their relationship - to make each other whole by filling a role that neither knew they even needed. This story also brings the situation with the town's oil reserves to a climactic and triumphant conclusion. You'll understand this dilemma more if you've read the previous two books, but this story does stand on its own with enough explanation that you won't be lost if it's the first one you've read. That said, I highly recommend reading all three books as this is a terrific series from start to finish. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

I’ve read each book in this series and this is my favorite. This book is centered around Morgan West, a descendant of the founding family of Deep River, and Zeke Montgomery, the son of the oil company wanting to drill for oil in town. Zeke was asked by Morgan’s deceased brother, Caleb, to make sure Morgan is taken care of. Zeke takes his responsibilities seriously, but he didn’t know Morgan and him would have such amazing chemistry. No spoilers, so grab your copy and see what happens when the secrets come out. I also liked getting to catch up with the characters from the two previous books. I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

About the author

Jackie Ashenden is the international bestselling and critically acclaimed author of over seventy books (and counting). She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, two kids, one cat, and one dog. When she’s not torturing alpha males and their kick-ass heroines, she can be found drinking gin and tonics, reading anything she can lay her hands on, knitting yet another sweater, baking pavlova, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband. You can find Jackie at www.jackieashenden.com or follow her on Instagram @jackie_ashenden.