Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

127 reviews


This was a good book.

What I didn't like:
Penn was too prevalent in this story, especially considering she didn't make a move for the MMC.  She knew she was done with him she was panicking and acted like an arse.

For the two main characters to be elite athletes, they were very emotionally immature which usually isn't the case with highly driven athletes and pre-med students.  Their emotional immaturity made them good for each other, though

I wanted their lists done together to discuss.

The weird addition of threesomes and bisexuality in the plot near the end.  Why? 

Troll? That is never a cute nickname nor a term of endearment in any language.

The long times in between communicating.  It isn't the way that people communicate nowadays.  These relationships would have been dead in the water in real life.

Side story of Penn's old rivals.  The story wasn't about Penn.  We never got clarification if Penn was a bad person or if she was in the wrong place and cried about abuse and wore the consequences.

What I did like:
The level of spice for a new BDSM couple.  I imagine that their experiences would grow with experience. 

I liked the chemistry between the two and when they were just a couple, I found them endearing, though they didn't know they were a couple yet.,

.

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emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

Oh my god this book was so good! Ali Hazelwood always does her research and her reads always feel scholarly without being snooty (and they’re always fun 😉) the sprayed edges really made me feel like I was in the pool with the main characters! This book touches on so many great topics: mental health, STEM careers, swimming and diving (I had to google a bit) found family, healthy interpersonal relationships both physically and emotionally. It’s all there. I took my time with this one because it really is Ali’s best work to date (and I loved Bride and her other books). Definitely will be rereading this one. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted 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: Yes

Scarlett and Pen. Pen and Lukas. Lukas and Scarlett. Extra drama as they're college aged and their time is torn between competitions for swimming and diving as well as college courses. Yes, super angsty. Yes, frustrating at times. Overall it kept me reading and I enjoyed the story. I was worried since I'm not in competitive swimming or diving there would be a lot of frustrating technical terms, but that wasn't the case at all. Good, very spicy book!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional lighthearted relaxing 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: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Really appreciate that Hazelwood is expanding on the physical traits of her MCs. The science took a real back seat in this one but still had some fun nerdy girl vibes. Overall, I liked this better than many of her more recent books.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny tense fast-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I haven’t ever read a book with this specific kind of sexual content but I found that it really played into the relationship so well. It just made sense for them and even if this book had a lot of smut it didn’t feel like too much because it played a huge part in the relationship building throughout. 
I love Scarlett and Lukas! They are very cute and their chemistry was off the charts. I was giggling like an idiot so much because of their cute conversations and inside jokes! 
I enjoyed the diving and pre-med content as well. I really liked that it was different than other Ali Hazelwood books I have read to throw the sport in and it worked so well! I enjoyed that the characters were involved in multiple passions and to see how they balanced them.  
I really loved the cameos of characters from The Love Hypothesis too!
The most off putting thing to me in the whole book was Pen.
The whole time I couldn’t see her as anything more than a toxic mean girl. When Scarlet got warned by another diver about Pen I figured we’d get a big reveal of how horrible she has always been, and while we sort of did it wasn’t as explosive as I expected. I saw Pen’s outburst at Scarlet and Lukas coming and it was horrible of her to do that to Scarlet in that moment. But then Pen ends up apologizing and Scarlet accepts it way too easily and apparently they stay besties. I guess maybe my own feelings about girls like that has tainted my belief that she would “change”. She seemed like a good friend at moments, but I just assumed that it was all a ploy so it was hard to reconcile that she wasn’t as bad as I had made her out to be in my head.

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