Deep End

very well written love story but the spice was… not my thing personally LOL !

I loved this way more than I thought I would. The duel narration worked perfectly and the guy who was voicing Lucas... Literal perfection.

As far as the actual story goes: as someone who doesn't enjoy sports and knows next to nothing about competitive swimming or diving, it was explained just enough to understand without being bogged down. The pacing was good and there were plenty of characters that I enjoyed. It was funny, sweet, and really hot at the same time. I enjoyed seeing Scarlett's healing process and it was all just very satisfying.

First, Ms Hazelwood really writes the same book over and over again because how is this not 80% "Check & Mate" with then some relatively kinky sex? Which is actually fine because that is my favourite of hers that I have read. It helped that the erotic scenes did nothing to me, I maybe found them a little goofy, because I could just breeze through them. (Also, I swear to God, this was marketed as borderline tabboo breaking when... it is not? I think I have read more hardcore things on random Wednesdays because SOMEONE did not tag their fanfic properly).

Also, OK, I maybe biased since Scarlett is an August Virgo but I do not think we need to be breaking out our literally critic skills for this novel, you know?

Also, there are typos in the book. Do better.

Is it hot in here or???

It’s Ali. No notes. Perfection perusal. The narrator was chefs kiss.

𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝓮𝓷𝓭

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

listen!! this is by far ali’s best book yet! i adored the love hypothesis, and have enjoyed some of her other books but this is definitely my fave and will likely end up in my 2025 faves - i said what i said!

i buddy read this with one of my irl besties (it was her third read hehe) and i loved getting to experience reading it with her 🫶🏼 i sent her live updates as i was reading and we’re both on the hunt for our own luk’s 😈

i loved scar’s character growth and watching her overcome her own personal challenges. the tension between her and luk was palpable, and i am a fool for a ‘he falls first trope’ so i was a goner from the start 😂

their individual histories were created so well by ali, and i enjoyed that there were periods in the story where they were separated in different countries doing their own thing. i also loved the diving element in this, ali did an incredible job of exploring this and i’m definitely here for more swimming/diving romances!

my least fave element was pen - she was a horrible friend when she had her blow up at scar (iykyk) and i wouldn’t push that aside to keep a friendship.

3.75/5⭐️ • 2.5/5🌶️

Now this isn’t my favorite book by Ali but it’s also not my least favorite either. It’s kind of in the middle. There were parts of this book I liked but there were others I didn’t. I was prepared of the OWD that was in here and while I was expecting way worse than what I got. It definitely could have been a shitshow of epic proportions but it stayed pretty tame. I think this whole book was pretty tame especially when we say this is incredibly “spicy” too. Now for a traditionally published book, yeah maybe. But everyone’s spice level is different and it is one of Ali’s spiciest but it wasn’t kink-filled like I kept seeing it advertised as. So yeah I have mixed feelings about this one.

bad

Interesting premise. not my favorite plot but cute overall the ending wrapped up nicely. lukas blomqvist is a top tier book boyfriend tho

This book was so good. I love Scarlett and Lukas. But my favorite character by far was Jan. I loved these flawed characters they were too good and they kinda remind me of my fav person and how well he knows me ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Characters:3.5🌟

Character Growth:4🌟

Setting:4🌟

Pace:3.5🌟

Spice:2🌶️

Romance:3.75💘

Personal Enjoyment:4.75🌟

Total Rounded Average:5🌟

This book was not something I thought I would ever like in a million and one years but here we are with a five star rating. Now to say this book was perfect would be a flat out lie. There were many problems that I found but for me were easy to look over. Such as the therapy sessions doing nothing to help Scarlett but Lukas fixing everything. Or the fact that Penelope is being brought up so much that I'm rolling my eyes at the mention of her name when she isn't even in the actual area Scarlett is. Not just that but mentioning Penelope right after doing the nasty was not my most favorite thing in the world. Like out of the times to be thinking about someone now's the time? But with all that being said I overlooked it just because I had such a good time with Scarlett when she was figuring out her life and the things that she liked. Discovery is done in so many ways in this book and it was gratifying to watch how everything came to be. As far as when it comes to Lukas I feel like he was pretty well developed but could still have been given more depth to his character. But by golly if I found a Lukas in real life I would be stealing him away as fast as I could. I am overall very happy to have finally found an Ali Hazelwood book I like!!

Typical Ali Hazelwood in that it had a strong woman in STEM lead. However, I’m not used to her take on BDSM! Not overly raunchy, but definitely some spicier parts. Cute romance. HEA.

Soo good, loved it. Hazelwood never disappoints. Good, healthy communication between the characters.

I really liked this book, eventhough it was a busy week I flew through the story. The characters were nice (especially Lukav, loved his patience) en their journey together is amazing. I was also very much into the collage setting and the balance between the romance and the sports they both played was great! I had expected a little more spice since that was what everyone was talking about, but it wasn’t as much as I thought it would be. The characters talked about it more than actually doing it.

This book tickled my brain 🧠🫶🏼

Ali, we are not worthy of the stories you write.

The messiness of the secret relationship, the pining, “the list”, NCAA athletes trying to get into the Olympics, STEM, the Olive and Adam cameos - this book had me SWOONINGGGGG!!!!!!

As someone who played high level sports, watching these two try and balance their sports, their school and their relationship was so relatable.

This will be a hands down recommend for anyone - I hope they get WHET

As soon as this landed on my doorstep, I needed to drop everything and pick this one up, it’s something I just have to do with Ali Hazelwood’s books that I must consume them the second they arrive. Deep End was no different to this. It’s a Sports romance and just what I needed!

Scarlett Vandermeer, a junior at Stanford on the diving team, and Lukas Blomqvist, a senior at Stanford on the swim team (he's also an Olympian and has won countless medals at several national and global championships). They've semi-stayed in each other's orbit, mainly because of the closeness of the swimming and diving teams, but otherwise Scarlett doesn't really know much about Lukas. Until a well-guarded secret about the two of them is leaked by a mutual friend. The two start a mutual friends-with-benefits type situation, that of course develops into something more.

I really enjoyed the sports romance side to this one, I loved reading about the various competitions, practices, trials etc that Scarlett and her teammates. Having always had a love of the Olympics I enjoyed the references to this throughout the book. As I have come to love with Ali’s writing that the characters just felt genuine and had struggles that they needed to work through.

However, there was an aspect of this one that I didn’t enjoy as much, as it’s a spoiler I won’t say more than that – But it became something that kept coming up in this one that just left a bad feeling and taste.

As always, I look forward to what Ali publishes next!

Remember when I said not in love was too formulaic??? Well she heard me

Lukas and Vandy. Ali Hazelwood has done it again. This book is an absolute masterpiece. Swimmers and divers, lots of Swedish, and of course kinky sex. I loved this so much. Wow

I liked those love story, and i think FMC was fun to read but as great Lukas was, I feel like you don’t really learn too much about him, I want to learn more than the bullet points. But Lukas is mine, it’s official, my first book boyfriend. Also Pen is a huge bitch and kind of ruined the ending a bit for me. I think there would have been better ways to end it but at least they got their grand finale, also i couldn’t help but think of pewdiepie the whole time as embarrassing as that sounds