Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: The Deep of the Sound 

SERIES: Bluewater Bay #8

AUTHOR: Amy Lane

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 309 pages

BLURB:

Cal McCorkle has lived in Bluewater Bay his whole life. He works two jobs to support a brother with a laundry list of psychiatric diagnoses and a great uncle with Alzheimer’s, and his personal life amounts to impersonal hookups with his boss. He’s got no time, no ambition, and no hope. All he has is family, and they’re killing him one responsibility at a time.

Avery Kennedy left Los Angeles, his family, and his sleazy boyfriend to attend a Wolf’s Landing convention, and he has no plans to return. But when he finds himself broke and car-less in Bluewater Bay, he’s worried he’ll have to slink home with his tail between his legs. Then Cal McCorkle rides to his rescue, and his urge to run away dies a quick death.

Avery may seem helpless at first, but he can charm Cal’s fractious brother, so Cal can pretty much forgive him anything. Even being adorkable. And giving him hope. But Cal can only promise Avery “until we can’t”—and the cost of changing that to “until forever” might be too high, however much they both want it.

REVIEW:

Wow. Cal has a lot of shit to deal with! His great uncle has Alzheimer’s, his brother has Aspergers, ADHD, OCD, and is possibly bipolar. His parents are dead. They are about to lose their falling down house, and Cal is right on the edge of losing his mind all of the time. He works at the local casino as a busboy, for a douchebag manager that fucks him in the locker room now and then. He uses his dads boat to catch enough fish to keep the family fed and medicated. His brother Keir, is occasionally violent, don’t ask what happened to the family dog. Nascha, their great uncle, kept the family together for years, but is slowly losing his mind and is become the child. Cal is now the parent. To top it all of, Cal is attacked by a nasty fish slicing his leg open, and putting him out of work for weeks.

Avery has his own issues. His boyfriend is a user, sucking the money and life out of Avery. His parents are horrible, not accepting his sexuality, not accepting his job as a writer, just waiting for him to fail. The only thing good in his life is his Wolf’s Landing obsession and online relationships. He finally reaches his breaking point, dumps the douchebag, tells his parents to shove it, packs his stuff in a car and heads to Bluewater Bay for a convention and a life change. unfortunately life is not done fucking with him, and he runs out of gas, has a debit card issue, and eventually his car dies leaving him stuck on the side of the road. To be rescued by Cal and Keir.

Once the two get together there is even more drama. Avery has more money issues. Avery starts off good with Keir but it doesn’t stay that way. Cal has problems at work. Avery is attacked by a tray of hot coffees. Cal has money issues as well. Keir is out of control. Nascha is planning something…

Through this all, the two build a relationship. They flirt a little, the fight a little, then they have some really awesome sex. They bond. They grow. They fall in love. They trust. It all goes to shit. but this is a romance novel so….

We’ve actually seen Nascha before, he was in Amy’s contribution to the Valentine’s Day Bluewater Bay anthology. I liked his story, I wasn’t sure where it was going and how it related to the series, now I get it. We saw Nascha as a young man, then at the end of that story we just a little bit of his side of things in this book. That was cool. Very cool. Although it was hard to see Nascha so old in this one.

I find myself saying again that Amy Lane is an amazing writer. Every type of book she writes, contemporary, fantasy, dark and angsty, light and happy, I think is the best I’ve ever read. Then I read her next book! This one has exceptional characters, not just Cal and Avery, but Nascha and Keir. Avery’s ex-boyfriend is the perfect ex-boyfriend. Gi-Gi, Avery’s online friend is just what he needs, and fills the role of mother/best friend. The town of Bluewater Bay is a character. It all just works so well. Even the fucking fish has its place!

I’ve read all of the Bluewater Bay books, they are a mix. I’ve loved a couple and liked the rest. I saw two reviews on Goodreads mention that they didn’t know this was part of a series. It is, but they can be read individually. There are a couple of characters that make appearances in this story, but not knowing them will not ruin this one. They are set in the same location but have separate stories. This one is by far the deepest and darkest of the Bluewater Bay books, and maybe my favorite. If you haven’t read the others, I would read them, but you don’t have to do it before this one.

I’ve read all but one of Amy’s books, this is right up there with her best. The characters are perfectly flawed, the romance is at times sweet, at times difficult. The bond between Cal and Avery is strong. The sex is hot but also emotional. Keir was a difficult character to like, but his issues are not his fault. Same with Nascha. Even Cal, he’s a jerk at times, but you can see why. What a fucked up life. Amy wrote it all just right. This is a dark book, it didn’t make me cry like some of hers have, but I was certainly emotionally involved. It’s just so good. What else is there to say?

Buy it. Read it. Love it!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

ARe