Review: Deeper

Title: Deeper 
Series: Caroline & West #1 
Author: Robin York 
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult 
Publisher: Bantam 
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Source: Bought

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.

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This book is so complex and interesting and it deals with some hard topics.  It hit me hard at parts while reading and made me uncomfortable in a way that felt important, especially in the way it shed light on consent and sexual abuse.  This was obviously a hard topic to read about but it is so important.  The author handles this issue so well and I was given a different perspective on the motivations and results of this sort of abuse and manipulation.  

What I liked most about this book was Caroline. She's the main character and I found it inspiring to see the way she handled the situation she was put in.  Her ex boyfriend posted sexually explicit pictures of her online without her consent and she had to deal with the fallout.  It made me so angry seeing how much this effected Caroline and her life and how her ex had almost no change in his life.  I was furious that she was being punished, despite having done nothing wrong.  But she was so strong throughout all of this, and learned how to deal with the fallout and grow from it.  I especially loved the group of friends she surrounded herself with.  They were all so supportive and kind to her -- they lifted her up rather than pushing her down like the rest of the world was doing.  

The only part of this book that made me feel not so great (in a way the author didn't seem to intend, at least) was the romance.  West just . . . rubbed me the wrong way.  I get that he was supposed to be super sexy and irresistible and badass BUT the way he sometimes acted toward and thought about Caroline made me uneasy.  Like, he knew all too well what Caroline went through and that she was feeling pretty vulnerable and yet he still seemed to take advantage of that vulnerability.  Not all the time, only sometimes, but sometimes was too much.  I just didn't like him much at all.  

This definitely wasn't the end of Caroline and West's story, but I don't know if I'll be reading the next book.  I loved watching Caroline grow and gain confidence and strength throughout this book and I'm worried that if the story continues, she'll take steps backwards rather than forwards.  That was the most important part of this series for me and I'm not as interested in the romance aspect.  I don't know, I meant end up picking up the second book eventually.  

“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.”

Three Teapots