Deeper by Robin York

Book #1, Caroline & West
Published by Bantam on January 28, 2014

370 pages

Synopsis

In Robin York’s sizzling debut, a college student is attacked online and must restore her name—and stay clear of a guy who’s wrong for her, but feels so right.

When Caroline Piasecki’s ex-boyfriend posts their sex pictures on the Internet, it destroys her reputation as a nice college girl. Suddenly her once-promising future doesn’t look so bright. Caroline tries to make the pictures disappear, hoping time will bury her shame. Then a guy she barely knows rises to her defense and punches her ex to the ground.

West Leavitt is the last person Caroline needs in her life. Everyone knows he’s shady. Still, Caroline is drawn to his confidence and swagger—even after promising her dad she’ll keep her distance. On late, sleepless nights, Caroline starts wandering into the bakery where West works.

They hang out, they talk, they listen. Though Caroline and West tell each other they’re “just friends,” their feelings intensify until it becomes impossible to pretend. The more complicated her relationship with West gets, the harder Caroline has to struggle to discover what she wants for herself—and the easier it becomes to find the courage she needs to fight back against the people who would judge her.

When all seems lost, sometimes the only place to go is deeper.

HOLY WOW. Robin York impressed me so much with Deeper.

About a girl who’s a victim of ‘revenge porn’, Deeper narrates Caroline’s distress for the shameful pictures of her on the internet posted by her hateful ex. After an incident where West, the guy she has been attracted to since the day they met, punches her bitter ex-boyfriend, Caroline finds herself falling deeper for West. But things are never easy for both Caroline and West.

What if you go after the love of your life and it ruins you? What if you don’t, and you figure out you’re already ruined?

From the very start, I already loved Caroline’s voice. Her attitude too. After the mortifying ordeal that happened to her, Caroline tries to stay strong, determined that she won’t let the awful circumstance she’s been dealt with break her. She tries to be sensible, systematically finding ways to remove her compromising photographs online and she decides to lay low for a while. However, encounters with West Leavitt, with his hot looks and his effective broody charisma, make her lose all her senses. Caught up and drawn towards him, I easily identified with the magnetism that Caroline felt for West.

The kiss goes deep, deeper, until we reach the place where there’s no boundary between us. The place where I’ve given him a piece of my heart, my soul, a prayer flag with soft, fraying edges that flaps in the wind, claims hims as my own, forever.

Deeper is told in dual POV and I loved that we got to see into West’s mind. I don’t think I would’ve understood him as much as I did if I wasn’t able to read his perspective. West’s history is a heartbreaking one and it’s why he’s such a complicated love interest. His responsibilities back at home hold him down and while I admired how dead set he was to provide his family comfort and safety, I still found him a selfish jerk sometimes. I loved that Caroline called him out on it though. West realizes it too and admits to it. I especially loved the Valentine’s scene, where he tries to redeem himself.

I want you right now, and you can barely stand me. I can barely stand me, so I don’t know why you put up with my shit, but even right now, when I hate myself and you’re pissed at me, I still want to push you down on the bed and take off your shirt and get inside you. Get deep inside you, and then deeper, until I’m so deep I don’t even know what’s me anymore and what’s you.

Caroline and West’s relationship is as hot as summer. Maybe even hotter. There’s some serious sexual tension and chemistry here and if you love that kind of thing, you’ll devour it in Deeper. The sexy scenes are sizzling- you have to put down the book for a while to breathe out and let go of all the sexual frustration. The romance is passionate and all-consuming and you can’t help but fall just as deep as Caroline and West did. What I loved most about the two though is that they didn’t fix each other, they helped fix one another but they had to stand up all on their own. I loved the growth of their relationship, and of their individual selves.

You look around, sift through the rubble, make your choices. You arm yourself with love, friends, knowledge. You figure out who you are. What you want. You figure it out, and you go after it with everything you’ve got. And that means sometimes you have to let yourself be scared.

York’s story is extremely powerful and the writing is terrific. I teared up during the last parts because it was so good! I found myself really caring for West and really admiring Caroline’s strength. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book, Harder! Gorgeously gripping and sexy, Deeper is a book New Adult fans wouldn’t want to miss!

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