Review

This is another book I anticipated like nobody’s business. I mean Samantha Young, author of On Dublin Street (one of my favourite books of all time) is venturing into new adult! Can you say pre-order?

By the time I sat down to read Into the Deep, I’d already read Chapters 1 and 2 and I was hungry for the rest. What the hell happened with Charley and Jake to break them up in high school? All I’m thinking is it has to be really really bad. No spoilers here but suffice it to say it was pretty bad. But you’re not going to find out what it is until about three quarters of the book.

In the meantime,  Charley and Jake are both exchange students in Edinburgh, Scotland. By the way, that’s not a coincidence. You’ll see what I mean when you read the book.  Jake is involved with a wonderful, beautiful girl named Melissa. Seriously, Melissa is very very nice. I loved that she’s was the stereotypical bitchy girlfriend. Actually, she was almost too good to be true. I’m wondering if in the next book she’ll turn. There’s a thought. Oh and yes, there will be another book about Jake and Charley. More on that later.

Anyway, after trying to avoid Jake, Charley realizes that’s going to be a fruitless endeavor since his best friend Beck is really good “friends” with her BFF Claud. More on those two later—Beck and Claud—and their “weird” relationship. Plus Jake’s desperate to talk to her. To apologize. When he finally does they decide to "be friends".

Yeah right. You know how well that’s going to work, right? Not! Problem? Their past and his current girlfriend. The thing is Charley is not over Jake and has only had one relationship with an old boyfriend in the almost four years since they’ve been apart. And it’s clear Jake is not over her. So clear. Honestly, if he were my boyfriend, I would have dumped him when Charley came on the scene. But in Melissa’s defense, there were things she didn’t know and which Charley assumed she knew.

I’m going to take a second to tell you why this book didn’t get a Top Pick review from me as I assumed it would based on the fact that I love Samantha’s contemporary novels and her delicious, sexy alpha heroes. One is the back-and-forth-in-time thing that drove me nuts. It’s one of my pet peeves. The minute I’m getting all immersed in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, I’m jerked back into the past. For me, it stops the forward momentum of the story.

That’s what happened here. We’re in the present, in Edinburgh with Charley and Jake, and then every other chapter, we’re taken back to when they met in high school. We see the first meeting and everything that happened until they broke up. All of those events take up a good 35-40% of the book. When I started to skim (and I don’t skim Samantha Young novels), is when I knew I’d had enough of Charley and Jake in high school. I felt the same way when I was reading Private Arrangements (superb read despite that) by Sherry Thomas at 3:00 am in the morning. And I did the same thing, started to skim, if just to get some sleep.

The other thing was I didn’t know this was a series, as in Charley and Jake get another book because they get a very shaky kind of HFN. The ending isn't a cliffhanger but it leaves the reader with an oh boy, they sure have a lot more shit to work out before I’ll be able to say it’s a HFN or HEA feeling.

Beyond that, and if those things don’t bother you, this book is a homerun. I loved Charley and Jake. They so belong together and I desperately want to see them get their HEA. The sexual tension between them is intense. But they both know they are playing with fire, hanging out together as much as they do. You know that term tempting fate? Well they do that a lot.

There’s also Lowe. He’s in a band—I think he’s the singer—and it’s clear he’s into Charley. Charley would probably be into him too if Jake wasn’t around. But hey, Jake has a girlfriend so why shouldn’t Charley hook up with someone too? LOL. Well, you know. There is even a scene with fisticuffs (fancy word for fight for those scratching their heads) between a jealous Jake and Lowe.

Speaking of secondary characters, I absolutely love whatever the hell is going on between Claud and Beck. Seriously, those two need a book. I hope it’s coming because I can’t wait for it. As I told you above, Claud is Charley’s BFF and Beck is Jake’s. They are totally hot for each other but Beck is kind of a manwhore and refuses to start anything with Claud because she’s a “nice” girl. They decide to be friends. Yep, the kind of friends that get upset when the other is dating someone else, sleeping with other people. Yeah, those kind of friends. It’s amusing and heartbreaking to watch them. Like I said, they need a book.

So there you have it, that’s the book in a long nutshell. I feel the review is a bit unfinished because Charley and Jake’s story is unfinished.  I’ll have a better picture of it when I finally get their HFN or HEA, and I will because Samantha did her job, she has me completely hooked.

Reviewed by Beverley