A review by wizardingwisteria
In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens

adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

2.5

I expected this to be a 5 star read for me. I was disappointed

The writing style really dragged for me. The dialog felt really flat.  The author had to explain the emotions in text because they just didn't come through when the characters actually spoke

There was zero chemistry between the two leading men. They meet and are just instantly obsessed with one another and base all of their decisions on that initial feeling

What makes the lack of chemistry worse is how the narrative gives everything to Tal and nothing to Athlen. Athlen felt so underdeveloped because the author spent so much time with Tal. Despite the fact that Athlen has a skeleton of a backstory and that he has a solid goal:
find his family
his development is entirely overshadowed by Tal and his journey.  He is forced to give up his entire character to make Tal complete. By the end of the book Athlen doesn't even seem to care about
his family because he decides that Tal and his family are his now
.  Maybe if Athlen had been developed more that decision would have felt more natural. I wanted to know so much more about Athlen

I was hoping for a lot more from this
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