bookishblasian 's review for:

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth O'Roark

4.0

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This author is something special! This book was another good one. While I did enjoy it, these two have NOTHING on Tali and Hayes for me. That's not a dig at the writing or the story either, I just didn't connect with Drew and Josh like I did Tali and Hayes. Either way, this book was still a great read. If you read the first book, you know Drew is on again / off again with her rockstar boyfriend Six. In this book, she's supposed to be going on a family vacay with him and his fam only he gets arrested and isn't there for most of the trip. She gets to know his asshole brother Josh during that time, and they are way better suited for each other. It was clear in the last book and now, she stayed with Six because it's who she thought she deserved. She never thought she was worthy of the good guy and never wanted to be until Josh. I don't usually like the dates one brother and ends up with another type of book, but in Drew's case, it was absolutely necessary. Again, they have nothing on Tali and Hayes, but compared to Drew and Six, Drew and Josh are pretty electric. In fact, the whole book is just foreplay and friendship because they don't actually do much of anything until the end. With the family dynamic issues and their current living situations, they're basically star-crossed lovers who can't be together. Overall, I did really enjoy this book! Just not as much as book one lol though that book did really set high expectations. The first 75% of the book is spent on vacation so it's a great little escape as we get to know Josh and Drew. After they leave Hawaii, everything is kind of chaotic and stressful. They can't be together, they're both working things and in places they'd rather not. Again, it's very stressful to witness. In the end, everything ends up happily ever after as it should.

Spoiler

I feel like the apology for being so rude to Drew when she showed up in Somalia the first time wasn't as good as it should've been, but I get it, he was just worried about her. At the time, it didn't really seem that way. The second time she's in Somalia obviously goes much better when she's there with the fam. I feel like that really solidified how they felt about each other and the fact that those feelings weren't just going to disappear.

Basically this book was well written, had likable characters, but is no match for book one. Either way. I'll definitely be back for the next book.