Review: The Deep End

 #ThrowbackThursday

The Deep End by Kristen Ashley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have always found Ms. Ashley's kinky stories to be awkward.  To me, it comes across as someone who doesn't get BDSM at all, but is doing their best with the research to write it.  This came across even more apparent in this series which I believe isn't going to be finished.  I think I remember reading something about it ending without a conclusion.  After reading this first book, I'm pretty sure I know why.  It isn't bad.  It just makes me cringe.

This was just okay for me.  Kind of meh.  I stuck with the story because it has femdom in it. And it wasn't a ball kicking femi-nazi one.  Plus, for some odd reason, the book seemed to be completely narrator in my head by Morgan Freeman when it was Amelle's perspective.  And when it was Olivier's point of view, it was Emma Thompson narrating.  How weird is that?  It was some serious 3rd person disassociation for me.  

From a character perspective, I couldn't get into either of these characters.  The dialogue alone drove me bananas.  Amelle is supposed to be this super domme.  At no point in the story did she demonstrate anything that would make me consider her an amazing dominant.  The story did state it enough many times in hopes of convincing me of her great abilities.  

The sex scenes themselves were odd.  I couldn't fully visualize the different sex romper rooms Amelle picked.  The scenes between Amelle and Olly were a light in kink.  Sadly, I didn't feel the connection between the two.  Specifically, the erotic power exchange was missing and it is key for me when this is a D/s type of dynamic.  When the kink moved into more BD, I did see incidences of topping from below.  But honestly, does it matter?  Because Amelle wanted the same thing that Olly wanted anyway.  So it all works out.

The club in itself came across as Glitterkink for me.  I liked Honey the club.  Is it a realistic portrayal of most clubs?  Probably not.  Then again, I only go to the common people ones, never the rich people ones so what do I know?  Overall this was a nice attempt at a BDSM erotic romance.  If I wasn't in the lifestyle, I'd probably love it.  I do love her MC series.  But I'm not in the MC world which is probably why I love those books.  Recommended for vanilla readers who like a little heat to their romance.