Reviewer: Holly Into the Deep by Samantha Young
Series: Into the Deep #1
Pages: 236
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Series Rating:
Live young. Live hard. Love deep.
Charley Redford was just an ordinary girl until Jake Caplin moved to her small town in Indiana and convinced her she was extraordinary. Almost from day one Jake pulled Charley into the deep and promised he was right there with her. But when a tragic incident darkened Jake’s life he waded out into the shallows and left Charley behind.
Almost four years later Charley thinks she’s moved on. That is until she takes a study year abroad in Edinburgh and bumps into none other than Jake Caplin at a party with his new girlfriend. The bad-boy-turned-good attempts to convince Charley to forgive him, and as her best friend starts spending time with Jake’s, Charley calls a truce, only to find herself tumbling back into a friendship with him.
As they grow closer, the spark between them flares and begins playing havoc with their lives and relationships. When jealousy and longing rear their destructive heads, Charley and Jake struggle to come to grips with what they mean to one another.
And even if they work it out, there is no guarantee Charley will ever trust Jake to lead her back into the deep…
I wish I’d known going in it ended on a to be continued…I would have waited to read it. The characters are younger in this book than in the others of Young’s I’ve read. I didn’t enjoy this story as much. The main reason I don’t read YA is because I don’t care to read high school romances. With the bouncing back and forth from the past to the present, that’s what I felt like I was reading.
Charley and Jake were in love in high school, until it shattered one painful night. 2 years later Charley is doing a study-abroad program in Edinburgh when she runs into Jake..who is also doing a study program with his girlfriend. As much as she wants to completely avoid him, she can’t. She ends up becoming friends with his friends, which means their groups are always together. She wants to be indifferent to him, but she’s anything but. Seeing him with his new girlfriend nearly kills her. She tries to keep her distance, but Jake wants to spend time with her and pushes for them to workout and study together.
Charley can’t move on while Jake is constantly in her life, but her plans to completely avoid him so she can get over him don’t work either. The confusion and heartache his presence causes her are immense. She knows something has to give..but when things come to a head she isn’t sure she can walk away.
As I said, this read as a high school romance. Every other chapter we flash back to high school which is how we learn their backstory. I would have preferred if it was told in the course of the current story, rather than in flashback form. It made for disjointed reading. I also think this book would have benefited from having large parts of it removed. It was 100 (or 150) pages too long. Had the story been condensed a bit, I would have enjoyed it more.
The angst between Charley and Jake was real and made sense given their past. I liked that Charley did her best to keep her distance, but wasn’t able to. I admit to having some pretty strong negative feelings toward Jake for the way he flaunted his girlfriend in Charley’s face. Not that he purposely did so, but he selfishly wanted both of them in his life. For a smart guy who was supposedly deep into Charley, he couldn’t read her very well. I suppose it was a small favor to her that he couldn’t tell her heart broke every time she saw him and his girlfriend together.
I really liked the secondary characters. Jake’s crew and Charley’s best friend were welcome editions to the story.
I did enjoy the book, but not as much as her Dublin Street series. I do plan to read the next book.
3 out of 5
This book is self-published. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
