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gemsliterarygems 's review for:
Deep End
by Ali Hazelwood
emotional
informative
lighthearted
medium-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
Scarlett "Vandy" Vandermere and Lukas Blomqvist are both competitive college level athletes. Scarlett is a diver recovering from an horrific injury that almost ended her career and Lukas is a child prodigy Olympic swimmer who is focussed on all things control, be it in the pool or the bedroom. When Luk and his girlfriend Pen break up due to his wish to be more dominant in the bedroom, she confides in her diving team mate Vandy, who as luck would have it is a willing submissive.
Now I love Ali Hazelwood's books, having read almost all of them now, and as always there was a nice throw back to an earlier one as The Deep End features both Olive and Adam from the Love Hypothesis. But this one just didn't do it for me! There was all the talk of BDSM and then barely anything more than a few slightly spicier than usual sex scenes. Which would be fine if the characters really had that much chemistry. They jump from barely knowing each other to sleeping together, and yes they then start to chat more but they're so frequently in different parts of the world that the story is mainly made up of Scarlett trying to overcome the mental block of her injury and the two characters having fairly vanilla sex.
I didn't hate the story, the way that Lukas is dominant without verging on mentally damaging is well done, and there's clearly some research gone into how divers both train and recover from injury. It was just a bit flat for me. I either wanted a more epic love story that then turned into a kinky one, or full on smut that had less talk and more action, this was neither. And I really missed the STEM elements which this started to go towards and then took a sharp turn away from never to be mentioned again!
Now I love Ali Hazelwood's books, having read almost all of them now, and as always there was a nice throw back to an earlier one as The Deep End features both Olive and Adam from the Love Hypothesis. But this one just didn't do it for me! There was all the talk of BDSM and then barely anything more than a few slightly spicier than usual sex scenes. Which would be fine if the characters really had that much chemistry. They jump from barely knowing each other to sleeping together, and yes they then start to chat more but they're so frequently in different parts of the world that the story is mainly made up of Scarlett trying to overcome the mental block of her injury and the two characters having fairly vanilla sex.
I didn't hate the story, the way that Lukas is dominant without verging on mentally damaging is well done, and there's clearly some research gone into how divers both train and recover from injury. It was just a bit flat for me. I either wanted a more epic love story that then turned into a kinky one, or full on smut that had less talk and more action, this was neither. And I really missed the STEM elements which this started to go towards and then took a sharp turn away from never to be mentioned again!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail