Scan barcode
A review by clinchcoverenthusiast
Deep Desires by Charlotte Stein
5.0
First, I received a copy of Deep Desires with the understanding that I would provide a review so here it is.
I enthusiastically volunteered to read this book because I am an unabashed Charlotte Stein fanwoman. I like her style of first person POV, I adore her “weird” characters, and she puts beautifully poetic, often stealthily hilarious, down and dirty sex words together like no one else.
Deep Desires has all of those things but it’s also darker and a bit ominous. Without spoiling anything, I’ll warn you that the main characters have been through some difficult stuff. I’m okay with that because it makes the story more real. Real people go through painful, awful things. They struggle silently while the world goes on, trying to stay under the radar to keep from getting smacked down again, but they have the same wants and needs as everyone else.
This is where emotionally damaged Abbie Gough is when we meet her in her first voyeuristic encounter with mysterious and equally broken neighbor Ivan Orlinsky. The entire time I was reading, I was feeling this mix of arousal, dread and joy as Abbie and Ivan dismantled each other’s walls to come together. One minute I was near tears with empathy and the next, gasping in shocked delight at how they got so into each other that practically nothing was off limits. How can you not love writing that makes your panties wet and puts a lump in your throat at the same time? And Ivan is another heartbreakingly sweet Stein hero, right up there with Van from Sheltered and Gabriel from Control for me.
So yeah, I really liked Deep Desires. I’ll read it again, all the way through for the story, and in bits and pieces for the language and the words and the feelings they invoke. The only problem I had with it was that it was too short.
I enthusiastically volunteered to read this book because I am an unabashed Charlotte Stein fanwoman. I like her style of first person POV, I adore her “weird” characters, and she puts beautifully poetic, often stealthily hilarious, down and dirty sex words together like no one else.
Deep Desires has all of those things but it’s also darker and a bit ominous. Without spoiling anything, I’ll warn you that the main characters have been through some difficult stuff. I’m okay with that because it makes the story more real. Real people go through painful, awful things. They struggle silently while the world goes on, trying to stay under the radar to keep from getting smacked down again, but they have the same wants and needs as everyone else.
This is where emotionally damaged Abbie Gough is when we meet her in her first voyeuristic encounter with mysterious and equally broken neighbor Ivan Orlinsky. The entire time I was reading, I was feeling this mix of arousal, dread and joy as Abbie and Ivan dismantled each other’s walls to come together. One minute I was near tears with empathy and the next, gasping in shocked delight at how they got so into each other that practically nothing was off limits. How can you not love writing that makes your panties wet and puts a lump in your throat at the same time? And Ivan is another heartbreakingly sweet Stein hero, right up there with Van from Sheltered and Gabriel from Control for me.
So yeah, I really liked Deep Desires. I’ll read it again, all the way through for the story, and in bits and pieces for the language and the words and the feelings they invoke. The only problem I had with it was that it was too short.