Review: Exquisite and original... Beautifully written!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
Have you ever seen the show Deadliest Catch?  I freaking LOVE that show.  It’s dramatic and intense.  The fisherman’s lifestyle is dangerous and grueling.  Now imagine what the women and families left on shore go through.  How do they handle that lifestyle with their partner always leaving them?  How does it affect a child, who watched her father always leave her, in her adult relationships?  Combine the deadly life of being a fisherman in the Bering Sea with all of those things and you have the beautifully written Undertow.I can’t say enough about how exquisite and authentic Undertow is.  Everything about this book screamed originality. The cover is very artsy and beautifully done.  The setting of the icy Bering Sea and being on a crabbing boat was a genius.  It really set this book apart from other Contemporary Romances.  I felt like I was in a whole different world and I didn’t want to put this book down.Aesa returns home after an extreme absence to see if she can reconnect with her father.  9 years of distance and bitter words to overcome isn’t easy.  It’s obvious from the start that her father has deep regrets and wants to make things right.  Aesa is stubborn with her hurt, feeling abandoned her whole life.  Sometimes I felt like she was too stubborn, that her father was the one making all of the concessions to find their peace. But knowing everything Aesa has lost due to the lifestyle she lived as a child, can she really be blamed for harboring such resentment?  I’m not sure about that.  9 years is a long time to come to grips with your past…Aesa meets Decker on her father’s boat, and their connection grabbed me from the beginning.  There were so many little things that bonded them together that their connection didn’t feel contrived just for the story.  I believed they felt their deep connection.  Decker was almost perfect, until the end.  Did he really believe after everything, that Aesa would just be okay with his decisions?  And Aesa, still such a scared little girl, always chooses to leave, the exact same thing that she was so angry with her father for.  Aesa is lucky to have found a man like Decker, who doesn’t let her go so easily.Undertow is a captivating story about loss, love, forgiveness and finding peace with your life and your future.  There is virtually no smut in this book and I was perfectly okay with that.  It wasn’t necessary and I think it would have detracted from the story.  It allowed me to concentrate of the emotional aspect of Aesa’s relationships with her father and Decker.  I cried tears of heartache and happiness throughout this book.  I was mesmerized by it’s uniqueness.  I give Undertow 5 glowing stars.