Buddy Review: Out of the Shallows by Samantha Young

So Wena and I chose Out of the Shallows to read for our April buddy review. Things didn't go quite as planned...

Oh and spoilers!

Out of the Shallows by Samantha Young
self-published April 2014

Somehow, after everything they’ve been through, Jake Caplin and Charley Redford made their way back to one another. But finding each other and staying together are two completely different things.

When Charley’s world is flipped upside down, she begins to question the choices and decisions she’s made since her arrival in Edinburgh, and in an effort to grip onto what she holds most dear she believes she must sacrifice her love for Jake.

Returning to the States for her senior year, Charley struggles to find peace and happiness. While everyone else seems to be finding themselves in college, Charley is terrified that, along with almost everything else that’s important to her, she’s lost herself.

While friends and family deal with their own tumultuous lives, there is one person resolved to uncover the reason behind Charley’s sudden defection and unhappiness. Refusing to give up without a fight, Jake believes he is the only one who can truly understand what Charley is going through, and this time he’s determined to prove he’s there for her no matter what obstacles are thrown in their way.

However, as Charley strives to make it through the biggest personal journey of her life thus far, there is no guarantee that the woman she is becoming will still need Jake as much as the girl she once was did...

Genre: New Adult
Series: Into the Deep #2

Ames: Even though I wasn't over the moon for Into the Deep, I was letting some excitement build for the sequel to Jake and Charley's story. Big mistake. Out of the Shallows was not the book I was expecting. What about you?

Rowena: I felt like this book was a big let down. There was a lot that got on my nerves with Into the Deep (Jake was a big one) but I was still invested in what these characters were going through. So at first, I wanted to read Out of the Shallows but then you started reading it and I started losing interest. But I had to read it for this review so I dug my heels in and holy crap did I ever understand what you meant every single time you emailed about your progress through this book. It's like Charley took every single nerve in my body and set them on fire. I wanted to punch her in the face so many different times. So much so that I need to gather myself before my blood pressure shoots through the roof, again. :)

Ames: At first when I started, I had some real anxiety going on! Like, what happened to Charley's sister? Was she dead? And then all the jumping around got on my nerves. And then stuff with Charley just kept getting worse. I'm sorry I emailed you but I had to vent as I was reading. And then you did the same so we're all good. LOL

And I agree with what you say about Charley and your nerves. I found her so incredibly selfish in this book. I was annoyed with Jake in book 1 but Charley honestly took the cake in book 2. She took the cake and smashed it into our faces and laughed gleefully about it. Ugh.

Rowena: Ha! And to think that we thought Melissa would be the one to bring the drama in this book. Oh how wrong we were.

This was the book that was supposed to be about Jake and Charley working through all of the drama that wasn't resolved in Book 1 but instead, we get a whole lot of stupid Charley, her family being incredibly selfish and stupid then anxiety thinking someone is dead...and THEY'RE NOT. WTF? And all of the woe is me shit going on with Jake? Ugh, just ugh.

Hell, even Beck and Claudia got on my nerves in this book. And all of the jumping around, six months ago, last night, two weeks ago, that pissed me off too. Stay in one place and time, this isn't a freaking time travel story.

Ames: I really wanted Melissa to pop up and cause more drama. But nope.

I felt bad for Claudia. She really got the shaft from all the adults in her life. I did like how things progressed between her and Beck and I honestly wished we got more. There was a lot of times when Charley did not want to discuss how things were going with her best friend and Beck and there's yet another example of her being selfish. However, I would like a Beck and Claudia book. If he becomes a rock star and how they deal with that. I think that would be nice. And give her some damn resolution with her bio dad! That was one plot point that was kind of left dangling and them made me wonder why even bother if that's how you're going to leave it?

But through all this, the worst part of Out of the Shallows was Charley. She breaks up with Jake for the dumbest reason in the world and then doesn't talk about it with anyone. Why did she have to be such a fucking martyr? UGH

Rowena: Amen!

Beck's back and forth crap with Claudia got on my nerves because with everything that was going on in her life and the way that she was treated by her parents, she didn't need his indecision. He knew what she was going through and yet he kept right on hooking up with girls left and right. I will say that when he finally jumps all in with Claudia, I came to love him. I would definitely want more of their story, instead of getting their story told through Charley's dumb ass POV.

Everything about Charley drove me batty in this book. Her reasons for pulling away from Jake, her reasons for letting her parents dictate what she did with her future and then the way she uses Lowe. Claudia wants a distraction from Beck so Charley's answer is for Claudia to start hanging out with Lowe. He's the perfect distraction. You can get drunk with him, you can cock tease the hell out of him but you don't have to have sex with him and don't worry about putting him in the middle of your relationship with HIS friends. Don't worry about any of that. She's so full of shit that I don't remember why I even liked her in the first place. All of that made me want to punch her in the face. The thing about all of it though, is Lowe let her get away with all of that and Jake just kind of lets her run all over him with absolutely NO explanation. Seriously, just UGH.

Ames: I hated how poor Lowe was treated in this book. He was such a good character and I rooted for him on one level to get Charley in the end. But not after this book. Charley needs to grow the hell up. The way she reacted to everything was extremely immature and I wondered at the end how could Jake even want her with the way she acting?

And I get why he let her walk all over him. He had to prove to her that he'd changed. He pulled the same crap on her and broke her heart. But Charley had him waiting for her for a whole freaking year. Seriously bro, he needed to move on. The back and forth was awful. And honestly, I hated the crap where they'd all hang out (like Claudia and Charley going to that birthday party) knowing how hard it would be to see each other. Especially if they were flirting with others.

Rowena: Was there anything that you did like about this book?

Ames: As much as I love Samantha Young's writing, I have to say no. I don't even like that Charley and Jake ended up together. He deserves better. LOL What about you?

Rowena: Yeah, I didn't like a hot damn thing about this book. But I still love me some Samantha Young. I give this a 1 out of 5. You? Anything else that you want to add?

Ames: Not really. Just that I really enjoy Samantha Young's writing and its such a shame this one didn't work for me. And I agree with the grade you gave, a 1 out of 5.

Okay, Wena and I haven't chosen a book yet for May but wish us luck that it won't be another dud!

Buddy Review: Into the Deep by Samantha Young

Rowena and I made a pact that we would buddy review at least once a month in 2014.  January was a bit of a dud because I picked a crappy book that Wena couldn't even finish. LOL So for February we decided on Into the Deep because a) we realized neither of us had reviewed it and b) we both wanted to re-read it. The sequel comes out in May and I know I wanted to refresh myself on this story.

Into the Deep by Samantha Young
Self-published August 2013

Live young. Live hard. Love deep.

Charley Redford was just an ordinary girl until Jake Caplin moved to her small town in Indiana and convinced her she was extraordinary. Almost from day one Jake pulled Charley into the deep and promised he was right there with her. But when a tragic incident darkened Jake’s life he waded out into the shallows and left Charley behind.

Almost four years later Charley thinks she’s moved on. That is until she takes a study year abroad in Edinburgh and bumps into none other than Jake Caplin at a party with his new girlfriend. The bad-boy-turned-good attempts to convince Charley to forgive him, and as her best friend starts spending time with Jake’s, Charley calls a truce, only to find herself tumbling back into a friendship with him.

As they grow closer, the spark between them flares and begins playing havoc with their lives and relationships. When jealousy and longing rear their destructive heads, Charley and Jake struggle to come to grips with what they mean to one another.

And even if they work it out, there is no guarantee Charley will ever trust Jake to lead her back into the deep...

Genre: New Adult
Series: Into the Deep #1

Ames: Ok, the first time I read Into The Deep I loved it. I didn't care that it ended on a cliffhanger. But re-reading it? Oh man! Jake got on my nerves then Charley got on my nerves. And yet in the end, I still love it. Go figure. haha

Rowena: Same here. When I first read this book last year (I read this book in October of last year so it wasn't even that long ago), I loved it. I thought it was the bomb and I loved both Jake and Charley (though Jake did get on my nerves from time to time) but this time around? Everyone got on my nerves, except for Charley's Dad and mostly Charley's whole family. I seriously wanted to throat punch Jake with a hammer throughout most of the book, but I also wanted to smack Claudia upside her head too.

If Claudia would have taken her head out of Beck's ass for a minute, she would have seen the truth of the matter where Jake was concerned, in Charley's eyes. As her best friend, it was her duty to put Charley's needs first. And she never did. And that pissed me off.

Ames: Oh yeah, Charley's dad is great. I can't wait to see his reaction in book 2 to recent developments!

I agree about Claudia. She saw Charley's breakdown after she ran into Jake the first time. Why would she keep forcing her to hang out with Jake and his friends? Also, Charley should have grown a freaking pair and just stopped hanging out with them on her own. Like she's an American in a foreign country...so she's just going to hang out with other Americans and not get friendly with the locals?

I think the whole point of Charley continuing to hang out with Jake and co. was to show how even though she wanted to be over him, she really wasn't. And that was annoying. LOL I just wish she'd have made more of an effort to stay away.

Rowena: I think I would have liked this book more if Charley kept running into Jake around town, and not because her bestie was trying to bang his best friend, forcing her to hang out with the lot of them. I agree about Charley growing a pair. Take a stand and stop catering to your selfish bestie. STOP HANGING OUT WITH JAKE!

I think I stayed mad at Jake because he took so freaking long to break up with Melissa. Charley's first reaction to him wasn't at all good, so he had to have been an idiot to not know that she wasn't completely over him and it was cruel of him to bring A FREAKING GIRL ON CHARLEY'S TRIP! I can't get over that. I was really bothered by it and that he didn't break things off or not bring Melissa around Charley. I was mad at the whole lot of them. Everyone that wanted Charley to see things from Jake's perspective, give him a chance to explain.

FUCK HIM! She didn't owe him a damn thing and to hell with all of HER FRIENDS trying to tell her otherwise. This is why I was such a big fan of her family. Charley's Dad's reaction to seeing Jake at the airport? OMG, best part of the entire freaking book!

Ames: Ok, not to defend Jake, but he says he met Melissa at the meeting for kids who wanted to study abroad. So Melissa was planning on coming on the trip anyway.

Who know else was a true friend to Charley? LOWE. He took her side in all of this and thought Jake was a freaking idiot.

Jake put himself in an impossible position and it didn't help once he broke up with Melissa. Look at how quickly he ran back to her when she was upset. And then stayed with her until 2 in the morning. Honestly, I can see Melissa saying she's pregnant or something in the next book to create drama for them.

Rowena: Sure, I'll give him that...but that doesn't change the fact that by the time they got to Scotland for CHARLEY'S TRIP, Melissa was his girlfriend. The whole reason he was going to Scotland in the first place was in hopes of seeing Charley. And yeah, he thought that she might have moved on but that doesn't change the fact that after he found out that Charley was on the trip and he reaction to seeing him on the trip with his girlfriend, he stayed with her. He still wanted to be around Charley...it was a total dick move and Jake kept making it over and over again.

I completely agree with the whole Lowe thing. He was a really good friend to Charley and probably a shit friend to Jake, considering Jake was his friend first. Ha!

Jake was an asshole in this book. There's no getting around that. Regardless of his feelings or where his head was, he did put himself in an impossible situation and he kept making all the wrong choices. When he ran back to Melissa after they broke up and was with her until 2am, I was almost completely done with him. To be honest, I have no idea why I even liked this book...but I did. What's wrong with me? Haha.

Ames: OMG I was just thinking that! Why did I like this book? But I did. I don't doubt the love that Charley and Jake feel. They're both young and immature but once they cement their bond again, they'll be good. I don't doubt that. But I think they're going to have a few more curveballs thrown at them.

Also, our tolerance for bullshit is going down. And Jake is so full of crap his eyes are brown.

Rowena: LMAO! Oh man do I love you, Ames. You're right, Jake is full of crap.

I was thinking about the book and why, after all the stuff that I hated about Jake. What it was about him that completely wrecked me. The stuff that made me fall in love with him even though he made every dick move in the book. It was his speech after he punched Lowe out. It was, like you said, not doubting the depths of their feelings for each other. Jake's feelings for Charley and vice versa. They loved each other and they had a lot to work on but their love for one another wasn't it. That was rock solid and I know that things are going to be rocky in the next book but, I have every faith that they'll fix things. For them (and for me), it'll be worth it.

So now that all of that is out of the way...what grade are you going to give it this time around?

Ames: Exactly!! I don't doubt their love. Plus Jake as a high schooler, when he's wooing Charley to begin with? That's awesome. He's not douchey-Jake at that time. LOL

As much as everyone annoyed me, I still finished the book with an "awww shucks" and a big smile on my face. So a B+. haha You?

Rowena: Haha, same. We're a pair, huh?

Ames:  Yeah. LOL

Next up:

For March, Wena and I decided to read the Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram. Nath enjoyed it as well as Izzy, so we're intrigued. :P