A review by courtsbooknook
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

I wanted to love this one so much, but the last chunk had me yelling, and not in a good way. I loved that Ali Hazelwood wrote a sports romance. The characters were so fun, and I thought she did that well. I also enjoyed the cameos from Olive and Adam; it was a nice touch to see those worlds intertwine. The swimming and diving aspects were also well thought-out. I have to say that while this was the spiciest of Ali's books, I felt like I was missing the kink that was expected based on the nature of the book. Lukas was a very enjoyable MMC, and I loved the little Swedish moments peppered into the book. However, he and Scarlett really needed to have some more conversations. I get why the ending happened like it did based on her as a character, but when I tell you we had a conflict 95 percent through the book and an abrupt ending, I was far from happy. Again, the nature of what they were for each other makes sense, but it still irritated me. I also thought Pen's character development went so far down the drain at the end. I really liked most of this book, but the last 20% was pretty upsetting. Thank you to Libro.Fm for the ALC.