SPOILER-FREE REVIEW OF DEEP END

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Ali Hazelwood is a favorite of mine when it comes to the rom-com scene. Her banter and integration of STEM and academia are chef's kiss and always provide fast-paced, kick-your-feet type of love stories. Deep End was super highly anticipated by the book community (I mean, look at that cover!) and the special edition that came out with the sprayed edges is to die for. Not to mention that Ali's online presence and personal commentary about her releases forms a much-deserved fandom that adds something special to her book releases (aka WHET - iykyk).

SYNOPSIS (SPOILER-FREE)

Scarlett - known to most of the sports world as "Vandy," is a junior-year diver at Stanford in the running for qualifying for the US Olympics. Well, she was - before she suffered a mental block after an injury that threatened her diving career. Now fully physically healed, Scarlett is back at the grind, though she still struggles with the mental aspect of things, even with the help of her therapist, Sam.

Things start to change after Scarlett's teammate, Pen Ross, confides in her about her failing relationship with accomplished Swedish swimmer and Stanford colleague, Lukas. This confession leads to some secrets of Scarlett's spilling, which ultimately leads to Pen concluding that Scarlett and Lukas should hook up. Which is crazy, right? Well....

Scarlett battles with her inner turmoil as she quickly realizes that Lukas provides a safe space for her to be herself, confront her mental block, and actually feel the things she pushes away so often. Everything seems right with him, so why does it feel so wrong?

MY THOUGHTS

Don't hate me, but this wasn't my favorite Ali read. Now, I liked it. I liked it a lot, even, but I know that there's better out there - and for that reason maybe I was a somewhat harsh on this rating. There were a few aspects of this read that left me wanting a little more in the end, and a few things that had me pondering their purpose. Here's a breakdown of the things I loved, hated and why:

Things I loved:

• Firstly, as per usual with Ali Hazelwood, the banter was so much fun. I loved the back and forth with Lukas and Scarlett over text, and I also enjoyed the non-seriousness that Lukas brought out of Scarlett.

• So high on my list of pros is the Adam & Olive cameo. I'm the largest Love Hypothesis stan, so it always warms my heart when I see my fave power couple killing it in the STEM field at Stanford in Hazelwood books.

• Speaking of STEM field, this is another of my pros. The sports romance aspect was new and fun and Hazelwood, but I love how she still made the MCs nerdy little knowledge lovers.

• The concept of how this love story unfolded was super unique to most of the other rom-coms I've read. There was a sort of love triangle type thing (consented, totally fine), some taboo-ish spicy things that brought some excitement (also consented, totally fine), and a little drama (not all that consented, but when is it ever?)

• Lukas was a great male love interest in my opinion. He was patient, understanding, and quietly protective without being brooding or red-flaggy. He was open to lots of new concepts and ideas, smart, hard-working and seemed to have his crap together. He also was pretty good at communication, which the lack of is a trope that typically irks me.

Things I didn't love:

• Because I left off on Lukas as a MC in my loves list, I'm going to start off with Scarlett as a FMC in my not so loves list. Now, she wasn't bad, per say, but she wasn't the best. I understand that a huge part of the plot was Scarlett finding herself within her relationship to diving, Lukas and Pen, but she stubbornly just... didn't. She ignored any semblance of a progressive thought or feeling and reveled in the self-loathing in a quiet "I don't need anyone or anything" way while still very much needing everyone and everything.

While I did mention that I liked the uniqueness of the love story plot in my loves, I didn't love the execution of it. I felt as if there was way too much focus put on Pen, and honestly, no one in their right mind would be as patient and forgiving to the way Pen was acting and the things she was saying as Scarlett was. Her need to stay friends with Pen after some of her actions was unrealistic, and really she didn't act like a good friend until the very end.

• I felt a lack of chemistry here. Though it was all one-sided on Scarlett's account, I didn't feel the connection beyond a sexual one (which even so was mediocre) unless Lukas said something swoon-worthy. Maybe Scarlett's determination to push Lukas away was a little too affective, because as a reader I felt the detachment and never got that giddy feeling.

• While I appreciate Ali's attempt at adding an extra spicy element to that of her rom-coms, I don't think it worked as well as she would've liked here. The hyped-up 50-Shades-esque aspect fell flat and didn't even really have much of a presence other than Scarlett talking about a little pain here and there, having a safe word, and crying a whole lot.

• Lastly, I didn't understand the reason for including Sam, the therapist. She was literally no help to Scarlett (not helped by Scarlett's inability to look within herself unless she was told to), and she never made any forward progress with her. I feel like the mental health representation could have been impactful had Sam actually brought Scarlett to a breakthrough instead of Lukas.

READ MY REVIEW ON GOODREADS

OVERVIEW

To summarize, this was still great. 3.75 is a good rating, a step above a forgettable read and I will still recommend it to spice and quirky romance lovers. I really loved the diving/swimming setting as well as the academia/STEM rep. Ali Hazelwood is still one of my all time favorites when it comes to creating MCs that just work together and understand each other in a way that real-life couples rarely do. There were a few things about this book that caused it to dip below 5 and even 4 stars for me, but as usual, reading is sooo subjective. Please read what you love, love what you love, and stan what you love.

READ IF YOU LIKE...

• Sports romances

• College setting

• Swedish MCs

• Heavy spice presence

• Best friend's ex