My first introduction to Ali Hazelwood was when The Love Hypothesis was all over the place right before publication. Many people were wildly enthusiastic about this book, and I got curious. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join the hype train, because this book was not for me. I then read several other books by this author, Check & Mate which I enjoyed and Bride which didn’t work for me. I am therefore a bit hesitant when it comes to books by this author. Deep End was therefore not on my immediate to read list, but my curiosity got the better of me once again. Did this book work for me or was this the final straw for this author?

About the book

A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

My review

Before reading

I have to admit that I barely have seen any other bloggers talking about this book. Maybe it’s not very popular amongst the blogging crowd, or I don’t follow these bloggers who indeed talked about this novel. I only found out about this book through social media. If it weren’t for Instagram or Discord servers, I probably wouldn’t have known about it. It’s there that I learnt that this romance is different from the rest of Hazelwood’s bibliography so far. The spice was next level and I wasn’t sure whether I was keen on reading such a smutty story. This made me a little hesitant to pick it up at first, but once I knew I wanted to give it a chance I took the bull by the horns. I’m not someone who strays away from smut, but it has to add something to the storyline. Whilst this was still spicier than I’m used too, I definitely enjoyed this reading experience. And no, not solely for the smut.

Characters

One of the main reasons why I enjoyed this reading experience is the characters and their growth. Our main characters are Scarlett and Lukas, both professional athletes in their university sports teams. At first, I wasn’t really sure what to think of them. Both seem cold and distant, not something you’d expect in a romance novel. They live for being an athlete and they seem to have some huge walls around them which makes it hard for them to open up. Later on, it becomes clear that this mainly applies to Scarlett. Lucas still seems distant, but slowly we get to know his soft and caring side. Something you never expect when you know his preferences in sex. Scarlett has the same preferences so that’s what brings them together at first. It’s all just for a good hookup and nothing more. Right? Right. It’s undeniable that there is chemistry and that these characters compliment each other when they spend time together. This makes them grow so much, although this growth is more visible with Scarlett as we lern more about her past. She experienced a lot of trauma which still impacts her to this date. Once the story progresses and she spends more time with Lukas, she slowly starts to heal and actually live a little. Still, I find it hard to relate to them, because they still keep their distance towards the reader it seems, despite their growth. I’m still a bit conflicted about the characters here, as it’s a character driven story where I still feel some kind of distance. The cameo for our main characters from The Love Hypothesis was a real surprise though!

Writing

Hazelwood’s writing is fine. The chapters are neither too long, nor too short. I found it hard to get into her writing though, especialy in English. This is not uncommon for me as I have this experience with all books by this author. I therefore switched back toDutch, like I did with the other books as well. However, I would have loved to get Lukas’ side from the story so we could get the bigger picture. Not that we don’t get it know, but I think it would have added up to it and his potential character growth. The writing style is nothing special actually, it’s ust good.

Plot

Like nearly all books within the romance genre, this one is character driven. The plot therefore is subordinate to the characters and is there to support them in their growth. This is no different here. We follow Scarlett and Lukas over the span of an entire sports season, with several time jumps. These became more frequent towards the final chapters as this fits the timeline of the occuring events. I was quite intriguedby this book, especially when I switched to the Dutch version as I was able to get into this story more easily. The worldbuilding was okay, it’s not extremely important. It was clear however that this novel is set at Stanford University and mainly around the swimming pool and its training facilities. Sometimes, the characters visit other places such as each other’s houses, but this was not too important for the worldbuilding. Neither for the smut. This one was hot, but it adds up to the actual story because of the sexual preferences of our main characters.

Themes

Hazelwood discusses several themes in this novel such as:

• Trust – Scarlett has some trust issues because of past trauma. She has to learn to trust her teammates more, since she keeps them at a huge distance. Furthermore, she has to learn to trust her body again after a serius sports injury. And last but not least, she has to trust Lukas.
• Friendship – At the start of this novel, Scarlett doesn’t have many friends. This is mainly because of her own attitude towards life and her teammates. When the story progresses, she learns to trust people and open up more to them. At the end, she made some meaningful connections and friendships.
• Trauma – As stated before, both Scarlett and Lukas endured plenty of traumatic events in their young life which still impacts them in one way or another. Their time spent together slowly makes them heal from this trauma. They can’t forget it, but they can learn to navigate life with it.
• Love – This is very important to both characters. Will they end up loving each other outside of their sexual escapades?

All these themes are handled in such a careful way. It’s clear that, especially the love part, is different from what Hazelwood has written before. She literally wrote all kind sof love: open-door, closed-door, fade to black… This novel contains BDSM, but with consent. So please be aware of this when you decide whether to pick up this book.

Final thoughts

Even though I was a bit hesitant to pick up Deep End by Ali Hazelwood as I wasn’t really sure whether this book would be for me, I’m glad I gave it a chance. I think this is more character driven than the other novels I’ve read by this author (except for Check & Mate), and I’m a sucker for that type of books. The characters have their flaws, but they grow significantly throughout the story. The writing is fine, as its the plot. I was intrigued, especially when I switched from the English version to the Dutch version. This helped me to really get into the book. The smut is something else, heavier than I’m used to. However, it worked fine here. Are you looking for a sports romance that centers around character growth and some serious themes? Than this book might be for you.