Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Deep End

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

201 reviews

circe813's review against another edition

2.5

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

There were some elements of this book that I really (really) liked. I felt the majority of the book had a nuanced portrayal of consensual BDSM. But Lukas crossed the line when he was angry in her bedroom.

Content Warnings

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I wanted to read this book because I enjoy Ali Hazelwood’s books, and this one has been raved about on the book community. I didn’t mind it, but the third act conflict and Penelope ruined this book.

This book has two points of view. The first is Scarlett Vandermeer and she is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in performance diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships – at least, that's what she tells herself. The second point of view is Lukas Blomqvist, and he is the swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy and he thrives on discipline. It's how he wins gold medals and break records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes. So, they start an arrangement. And as pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water.

As always with Ali Hazelwood, I love her style of writing, and I love how she depicts characters and how they talk about different things such as Scarlett’s therapy sessions with the twisties and helping her gain her confidence back with the help of Lukas. I love the character development Scarlett went on and how she went from being unsure of herself and everyone she doesn’t know, and she was literally swimming, working, going to class and then going home to becoming this social bitterly and being brave enough to stand up for herself and the people she loves. Lukas took a little while for me to like, he was just giving me weird vibes not because of his need for control he just didn’t really open up as much as I thought he would and the second he wanted more from Scarlett, he should have told her because the whole time Scarlett was debating between the fact that he was still involved with Penelope and that he was only wanting her for sex and not really knowing that he wanted to be with her as a public relationship. However, did love that he was so blunt when it came to Scarlett, he called her out of the bullshit and knew when she was running. I love the little cameos from Adam and Olive, I nearly threw my book across the room when I saw them and how Adam was trying to refer to Olive as Doctor but was struggling. I love the aspect of exploring the BDSM between Lukas and Scarlett. I love that they both trusted each other and got what they wanted out of each other.

I absolutely hate Penelope; she just ruined the book. Even though she was the one who suggested Lukas and Scarlett get together because they are into the same kinky stuff which started the whole relationship like great. But besides that, she wasn’t needed. She wasn’t a good friend to either of them and the third act conflict was entirely Penelope fault and broke the trust between Lukas and Scarlett. I ended up losing interest towards the middle of the book, it was a bit slow, and it was getting repetitive - sex, swimming, Scarlett overthinking, Lukas sorting her out, sex etc. But I would have rather have that instead of the conflict that Penelope bought. I would have liked to see more of the Olympics, after all the build-up to the qualifiers, we only found out how they did in the epilogue, and it was literally some inner dialogue. I would have loved for the epilogue to have been the Olympics.

Overall, it was a good book, and I enjoyed it more than Not in Love and I am excited for Ali Hazelwood’s upcoming releases.

Content Warnings

witcheep's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I read this as a buddy read, which was great. I might or might not write a proper review later; I already got to share my thoughts while reading.

Content Warnings

natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hands down my favourite Ali Hazelwood book to date!

With an addictive, character driven narrative and a DEEP focus on trust, overcoming fears, trauma and healing— I loved every second!

The emotional growth and journey our endearing MC, Scarlett, takes and the slow but swoonworthy relationship that grows between her and Lukas (who is far more caring and cinnamon roll-y than he first appears) was amazing. And the chemistry was absolutely scorching!

As was the level of trust, support and love that we see grow between them. Not to mention the pressures of their physically taxing disciplines (Scarlett’s a diver and Lukas an Olympic medal winning swimmer), the conflicting feelings Scarlett has about their arrangement, her best friend (who happens to be Lukas’ ex) and her growing feelings for Lukas.

I was seriously addicted and soo emotionally invested, I literally couldn’t put this down!

Oh, and before I forget, we’re also blessed with a cameo from my former fave Ali Hazelwood couple (Scarlett and Lukas have now stolen first place) I won’t spoil who they are, but if you’ve read Hazelwood’s previous STEM romances you’ll certainly recognise them!

Content Warnings

knightcourtbabe's review against another edition

3.5

lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Almost DNF’d but kinda glad I didn’t although I didn’t really love the FMC/MMC until like 70-80% into the book.

Content Warnings

auntierarareads's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

glotabor's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

alex_bousquet's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

leclercs_wife_16's review against another edition

3.75

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

3readingcircus's review against another edition

3.0

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really enjoyed the newbie, exploration in the beginning and thought it was cute. Anyone scandalized by this book never visited ao3 or ff.net.

FMC had literally dozens of Os. She should be studied by scientists, truly.

The OW drama really soured this book for me in the last third. It was bad enough that FMC was constantly worried what she would think early on, but then they both started prioritizing her.

Content Warnings

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