Deeper

NA or New Adult is the hot genre right now in romance. This is not a genre that really appeals to me. I read YA for a living, and the kids in NA, are still kids to me so it is often hard for me to immerse myself in their love stories, despite the fact that I fell in love at 18 and was married by 21! Despite this I decided to read Deeper because Robin York is also Ruthie Knox, one of my favorite contemporary romance novelists. Ruthie has earned my trust over this year, so I am willing to try new things for her. Last fall I read her novel Truly as she serialized it on WattPad and this winter I let myself be sucked into Caro and West's lives.

Deeper is the first half of Caroline and West's story. Caro is college student in a smallish liberal arts university in Iowa. The youngest of three daughters of a widowed attorney, Caro is planning on doing big things. She has ambitions. She also had boyfriend she brought with her from high school. When she breaks up with him in what she thinks is amicable way he retaliates by posting intimate pictures of her online. Caro's is completely side-swiped by this. She is ashamed, angry, isolated and frustrated. She has stopped sleeping, hasn't told her father what happened, is tracking and trying to stomp out the images online while is trying to brazen it out the comments, stares and snickers in person. She has good friends who are trying to help her survive this, but the person she ends up turning to is West.

West is bad news. Everyone knows this, he knows this. He is troubled trailer park trash, partly financing his way through school selling pot. He is also the person that finally smashed a fist through Caro's old boyfriend's face. Every night when Caro can't sleep she drives circles around campus, and one night ends up at the bakery West works at. For a while she just parks in the parking lot and doesn't come in. But when she does he teaches her how to bake bread, they talk sometimes, but mostly they are just working side by side.

West is conflicted, he tried to scare Caro away the first day he met her, he doesn't need the distractions. He has secrets he won't share, topics he won't elaborate. Caroline is everything West would want if he let himself reach for her, but West is determined to get through school, so he can rescue his sister from his mom's self-sabotaging ways. His sister is counting on him, He can't let himself be dragged into someone drama, he can't let himself forget that he has another life, and is from another place. But also can't stay away from Caro.

First impressions :

@anacoqui: @RuthieKnox @AudraNorth oh Ruthie! I read the first two chapters...those poor kids! So much doom, I am having sympathy panic attacks!

What I thought:

I actually had to read Deeper in small doses, because of the how Caro and West story affected me, going so far as to jump to the last chapter and work my way back due to the amount of sympathetic anxiety I developed for them. Both Caro and West were very well drawn, and I understood them even when they didn't quite understand themselves. I love where Caroline is emotionally at the end of the book, standing up, determined, planning again. No longer defining herself by what happend to her. I can't wait to see where Caro and West can go from here in Harder.