Narrated by Andi Arndt
Deep is book four in Kylie Scott’s Stage Dive series. (Funny story: I won a competition to name a character in the first book, Lick, and that’s why it contains a slutty groupie called Kaetrin. She’s gorgeous.)
Stage Dive’s bass player, Ben Nicholson, is the lucky last band member to get his HEA. In Play, the second book of the series, we met Anne Rollins, who ended up with drummer Mal Ericson. Anne has a younger sister, Lizzie and it is she who is the heroine of Deep.
Unsurprisingly, this sets up an immediate conflict because Mal and Anne are very protective of not-quite-21 year old Lizzie. 28-year-old Ben is known to be a player. He doesn’t do relationships and he doesn’t date. But when the book starts, the listener finds out immediately that clearly Lizzie and Ben have done something together – because Lizzie is pregnant.
After the big reveal, the story then backtracks to the first time Ben and Lizzie meet and, eventually, hook up for one night which goes wonderfully right and then horribly wrong.
I’m going to give away a mild spoiler about the baby here: Lizzie gives birth to a healthy baby at the end of the book. (I’m a reader/listener who avoids pregnancy loss storylines wherever I can. I was worried through most of the book as to whether this is what would happen to Lizzie.) (Highlight the text to read if you choose.)
Lizzie is a psychology student who was basically raised by her older sister. Their mother kind of checked out on them both and left the girls to their own devices. Lizzie initially went a little off the rails and dabbled in drugs and easy sex as a young teen but after a scare which she saw had a major effect on Anne, she straightened herself out. Lizzie initially doesn’t believe in love or HEAs because of her experience with her own parents but when she meets Ben, she desperately wants to believe.
Ben is warned by Mal to keep his hands (and his penis) to himself when it comes to Lizzie. However, she gets his phone number and they start texting each other regularly. Text messages in audiobooks can be a bit hit or miss. I liked the conversations they had – it was these that really showed the developing relationship between the pair, but the constant repetition of “Ben:” and “Lizzie:” was a bit wearing. It’s the sort of thing a reader takes in by osmosis in print but on audio it stands out.
Ben finds himself more and more attracted. We only find this out later though, because the story is all told from Lizzie’s first person perspective and she doesn’t know this at first either. As far as Lizzie is concerned, Ben is giving her mixed messages and she finds it very painful. She doesn’t want to be just friends with Ben and the longer they interact, the harder she falls for him.
At Mal’s and Anne’s wedding, the pair meet up again and it is there they have their fateful hookup which leads to baby Rollins-Nicholson.
Ben had never pictured himself as a father or husband. He lives for his music and he, more than any other band member, has a very nomadic lifestyle. The other guys bought mansions and fancy cars but not Ben. He stays in hotels and still has an old truck his grandfather gave him. When the band isn’t playing music, he flits around jamming with other musicians or helping them out in sessions or guest starring on tours. So a ready-made family is pretty scary for him.
He doesn’t react well at first. I didn’t hold it against him because I could understand he needed time to come to grips with things. I thought Lizzie tended to have expectations of Ben which were unfairly high, particularly given they had never made any promises to one another. Ben may or may not want to be in a relationship with her but he never intends to do anything other than step up when it comes to the baby.
Stage Dive is just about to go on tour. Lizzie is invited along so she can be close to Anne (who is travelling with Mal) and Lina (Jimmy’s lady, who, as it happens, is also pregnant). Ben and Lizzie will hopefully have a chance during the tour to talk and figure out the future. Lizzie has missed a lot of school due to morning sickness anyway; dropping out for the rest of the year makes sense to her.
Ben and Lizzie eventually try to make a go of a relationship but once again, Lizzie’s unrealistic expectations get in the way. After only two weeks, she is already imagining a fairy tale ending. When Ben isn’t immediately on board with that, she goes off the deep end. This happens late in the book so of course Ben needs to fix things, stat, to give listeners the HEA we crave. I still thought Lizzie was being unfair. I’d have been more sympathetic to Lizzie’s way of thinking if she and Ben had been together for six months but two weeks? I couldn’t help thinking that Lizzie was showing her immaturity and needed to chill.
Ben’s thoughts were often opaque throughout the book. I’d have liked more of how he changed from being a no strings guy to wanting the whole shebang with Lizzie.
I enjoyed Andi Arndt’s narration very much. There are however, two caveats.
One, a lot of the time, when Mal was mentioned, the way Ms. Arndt pronounced his name, it sounded like “Mel” and that threw me a little.
Two, the members of Stage Dive sound very much the same. Because a lot of the story takes place when the band are on tour, there is a fair bit of each of the other guys talking and it was difficult to tell them apart. Mal was a little easier, but it was a function of his out-there character rather than the voice he was given by Ms. Arndt.
Otherwise however, I was impressed with the narration. Ms. Arndt delivered Mal’s comedy and all the other emotions and tension of the story very well and I’d certainly be happy to listen to more of her work.
Deep wasn’t as much fun for me as Lick or Play but it was nonetheless an entertaining listen and well worth my time.
Kaetrin
Narration: B
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence Rating: Fighting
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Deep was provided to AudioGals by Macmillan Audio for a review.
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