Voices Carry by Alison Rhymes

Voices Carry by Alison Rhymes
Stowaway #1
Contemporary Romance
June 28, 2026

💔Domestic Abuse Survivor
🧒🏻Single Dad
🧑‍🧑‍🧒Found Family
🛑Family Trauma
✅Green Flag Hero
🏘️Small Town

The shores of Stowaway, Oregon, have been a safe harbor for many over the years. Louisa Moreno hopes it will be hers, as well.

Coming from nothing, she quickly found herself living a life of luxury, decadence, fame, and things no woman wants to find herself in front of. Now, years later, she’s fleeing that life. Hiding out in a last-ditch effort to save herself.

What she finds will change her forever.

Grady Steele came home to Stowaway to rebuild his life after a bitter divorce. He keeps his head focused on a single goal – putting his daughter first. Not much else matters.

Until a mysterious, bruised and broken woman shows up next door and reminds him of what he could have.

And what he could lose.

With their combined baggage threatening to sink them to the ocean floor, they’ll both need to learn to trust if they ever wish to love again.

Download today or read with Kindle Unlimited: https://geni.us/voicescarry
Paperback: https://geni.us/voicescarrypb

I lie against his skin and stare at the darkened sky. Holding up our entwined hands, I study the difference between us. His rough to my soft.

“It’s hard for me,” I say, beginning a conversation that should have happened before now. Before it was too late for my battered heart. “It’s hard for me to trust this. To trust the things I feel. My heart has betrayed me before.”

In the worst way possible, it convinced me what I had with Pierre at the beginning was true. That it was love. He told me it was us against the world and I thought he was being romantic. Not that he meant to isolate me from as much of life as possible. How f*cking stupid was I?

“It’s hard for me, too,” he says. “After what Brenda did, trust doesn’t come easy. I’ve forgiven her for that, and myself for any role I may have played in pushing her toward that. Besides my parents, she was who I trusted most with my daughter, with my heart. It’s a hard lesson to learn and a harder one to get past.”

“I’m not her Grady,” I say. “I’d never do that to you. Or Paige.”

“And I’m not him,” he says, nuzzling the crook of my neck. “Things we both know and also don’t.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” I say.

Trust in another person is a leap of faith. Always. The question isn’t, can we trust again; it’s, will we allow ourselves to chance getting hurt again. Honestly, that may be easier for me to get past than him. He has a daughter to think about, a family. I only have myself.

“We’ve got time to figure it all out,” he says, pressing a kiss to the sensitive spot just under my ear.

We’ve got time…we do, I try to convince myself while I push out the doubt that creeps in. My habit of second-guessing. Or is it my conditioning? Some of both, perhaps. There’s time for that, too. It may never leave, completely, and maybe that’s a good thing. I should hold on to some of my wariness of others, in order to not fall for it again. The worst traits I learned from my time with Pierre will fade, though. They already have so much.

“You spend a lot of time in that pretty head of yours. You grow quiet, and I know you’re reliving things I wish you’d never had to experience in the first place. I’ll say it again. I’ll say it as often as you need, for as long as you need. I’ll be your safety. I’ll be there if you need me.”

“What if I want to save myself?”

“You already have,” he says, turning my head with a gentle palm to look at him. “You already have, Lou.”

“I have, haven’t I?”

Voices Carry by Alison Rhymes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***Review copy requested and reviewed on behalf of OMGReads Blog***

Voices Carry is book one in the new series Stowaway and contains the following tropes; domestic abuse survivor, single dad, found family, family trauma, green flag hero, and small town romance. With that said please read your trigger warnings if your sensitive to these topics or any other topics that may appear in this book.

Rhymes has knack for writing emotionally charged books that touch on heavy topics and this book was no different. I found it extra heavy after she shared that she can relate to this book through her own personal experiences.

This book was raw and powerful. The main characters were loveable and relatable in their own ways, and the side characters were just as loveable. Rhymes incorporates enough of them that they don’t overpower or overshadow the story, while still leaving you wanting to know more about them. *cough* *cough* Jules and Mac.

Despite all the heavy Rhymes was still able to incorporate humor, spice, friendship, small town comradery, family/friend trauma and drama, and so much more.

Lou stated she’s not a victim, she’s a survivor. Those words couldn’t ring truer. She was warrior as well as sweet, caring, selfless, intelligent, and multitalented. She was a shining star even in her darkest moments, her abuser didn’t succeed in trying to dim her shine.

Grady Steele was 100% the green flag we all need. Supportive, protective, thoughtful, caring, and an amazing friend, father and son. I will never understand how his ex could drop the ball on this keeper. But that’s OK because he was born to meet and be with Lou Moreno.

As With every Rhymes book I devoured it quickly. I become emotionally invested in her stories. Her writing is always phenomenal and straight from the heart. She’s a one-click author for me, and I already can’t wait for the next book she comes out with!

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MEET THE AUTHOR: Alison lives somewhere in the shadow of a Pacific Northwest Mountain, bordered by the Puget Sound, and not too far from the country roads she grew up on.

When she’s not writing, she can be found avidly reading, traveling with youthful wanderlust, or slowly turning the inside of her home into her own personal houseplant jungle.