ARC Review: Way Down Deep by Cara McKenna and Charlotte Stein

“I think that both authors work seamlessly enough that it flows very well.”
~ Under the Covers

WAY DOWN DEEP is a collaboration novel between Cara McKenna and Charlotte Stein. These two authors are among my favorite Erotic Romance authors so I was really looking forward to this book. The premise of this book is very interesting. It’s written in an epistolary fashion, but instead of letters, it’s through texts/emails. The heroine accidentally sends a message to a stranger but instead of turning her away, the hero actually continues to chat with her. There’s a nice emotional aspect to this novel since the heroine is suffering from depression. I feel like this was a good way of creating that connection immediately between the two main characters. After all, how could someone turn another away after receiving a warning like that?

I think the blurb of this book will intrigue a lot of readers but I feel like I should warn readers that this book is quite slow. Because we don’t have any set up in the beginning that tells us who these characters are, you really have to rely on your patience to read through it all to get to know them. There are some scenes that I felt would normally get cut out if it was written in a more traditional way with third person POV and descriptions. For example, they share their favorite songs and movies, etc. While I can see how this helps with characterization, these aren’t details that I think should be presented so early on.

There were a lot of slow parts in this book as the two characters got to know each other. The book is basically a series of monologues about their inner thoughts and feelings. This is great for emotions. I thought some messages almost sounded like poems; the writing is so beautiful. But at the same time, it does take some of the realistic aspect out of it because I don’t know how believable all this really is.

For me, it was really easy to distinguish who wrote what but that’s because I’ve been reading both authors for a very long time and I feel like I know their voices very well now. But I think that both authors work seamlessly enough that it flows very well.

So, really, I think this will honestly be a hit or miss for readers. The writing is beautiful and it has a lot of emotion, but do make sure you have a lot of patience before picking this book up.

[about-author author=”Charlotte Stein”]

[about-author author=”Cara McKenna”]

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