The Deep End (Honey, #1)

by Kristen Ashley

[Eve1972]

This cover is OK. It is certainly better than some of her other covers that's for sure. It's a good representation of the story within. Good composition. Ok typography (why is the title in lower case??) It's bright and eye-catching as well.


If you know me, then you know that KA and I haven't been the best of friends lately. Apart from the Daisy novella, her last eight or nine books have been total misses for me. In fact, I had pretty much given up on her ever getting back to the greatness that was the ROCK CHICKS or SWEET DREAMS or MOTORCYCLE MAN or KNIGHT...well you get the picture. That said my curiosity got the better of me for this one and I requested an ARC. Since her same-same wasn't working for me then MAYBE something entirely different from her would. What can I say, I am an optimist...

Well, I ended up liking this one. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it with the passion of a thousand white-hot suns like some of her other recent ones. I didn't find myself overly engaged in it either. I found it dull and long winded (I know I know it's KA she is ALWAYS long winded) in places. Both Amèlie and Olivier were prone to go off on pages and pages of inner dialogue that after awhile had me skimming. Pretty much anything outside of Amèlie and Olivier interacting had me losing interest.

I didn't connect with Amèlie and Olivier as a couple either. Mostly because I just didn't like Amèlie. It wasn't that she was a Domme. It wasn't that she was older than Olivier (a year). It was that she just came off so cold and hard and frigging PRETENTIOUS. With her annoying little French endearments and her total disregard for Olivier's requests. OMG, she annoyed me!



How she was top Domme at this place boggles the mind. Olivier's and her first scene he tells her he doesn't like humiliation, doesn't like being watched and isn't really into "ass play" What does she do? She ties him down, spreads his ass open and opens the blinds for everyone to watch. In real life, this chick would have been out on her ass and banned from ANY respectable club. Her whole "You are in my room, so you do what I want" crap was appalling. That pretty much ruined her character from the start. That said as the book went on she I did start to warm up to her a bit but I never came to like her completely.

Olivier, on the other hand, I really liked. I've read books with males subs before, so this wasn't a new thing for me. I liked how he submitted, but he had an edge. He was an alpha male struggling with his need to let go in the bedroom. It felt real to me, and it worked. I like when he stood up to Amèlie and called her out on her behavior. I wish we would have seen more of him (both of them) outside the club.

There is a TON of sex in this one. In fact, for the first 70%, it is ALL these two do. Scene after scene in the club. To be honest (and I can't believe I am saying this) there were too many sex scenes that went on WAY too long. I started to skim them because they got repetitive with Amèlie doing the same things to Olivier every time. They never did ANYTHING outside the club but talk on the phone for three-quarters of the book. It made it hard to connect with them as a couple on a deeper level. Not to mention some of the sex scenes made me laugh. I mean seriously calling the base of his dick "the seat of his meat"? I laughed for ten minutes straight.

Wrapping this up because I feel like I have already written a book-length review on this one. I enjoyed this enough that I will read the next book mostly because Branch intrigued me in this one. In fact, there were quite a few interesting side characters in this book that I am curious in hearing more about (Barclay, Stellan, Aryas.) Like I said, I am an optimist, so hopefully, the next one will be better. I'm not writing this series off yet.