For years, Kristen Ashley has been hailed as the queen of alpha romances. She's also often been described as somewhat of a formulaic writer, her stories, while all captivating in their own way, following a pattern of sorts that is distinctly Kristen Ashley. <i>Enter The Deep End</i> The blurb alone sent up giant red flags that this would not be like anything else this author has written before. And it's not. At all. THIS is KA taking her formula and kicking the crap out of it. With a riding crop. In a sex club.

Full disclosure: I had serious reservations about where this story would go. There's nothing in this life that I crave more than Kristen Ashley's all-male, take control, toss their women around in a sexy caveman way, crime-fighting alpha sex gods. So telling me that Kristen Ashley is going to hand me a story about a dominatrix and an alpha-sub? I couldn't wrap my head around it. In every single BDSM book I've ever read, the dominant is male. Every. Single. One. It's difficult for me to completely understand the BDSM lifestyle in general, but it's even more difficult to wrap my mind around a male submissive. Exponentially more difficult is wrapping my mind around a male submissive penned by Kristen Ashley. I know her men. I get them. I know what they like, how they act, how controlling and ridiculously alpha they are. Olivier is a character that struggles as much with giving over to his submissive side as I do with understanding it. Reading this story is a test. I just had to let go. Give in. Submit. I had to relinquish control to Kristen Ashley and trust that she knew what she was doing, that she could treat her readers with the care they need to fully succumb to this kind of story. It wasn't easy. I resisted. I repeatedly forgot the rules. But once you give in to it, it's pretty freaking addictive.

The Deep End is seriously hot, seriously kinky, seriously intense. It's also heartfelt and romantic and unpredictable from start to finish. But, more, it's eye opening. It sends a strong message about taking what you want out of life, out of love, out of sex... because why wouldn't you? Life is short. Get yours. It's also about acceptance, about not passing judgement on what other people are into. The Deep End forces you to step outside the box. It demanded that I take what I've come to know and expect of Kristen Ashley's books and check it at the door. It demanded that I stop putting characters in boxes, stop assuming that because they're X, they can't be Y or Z. Tastes and limits and kinks and attraction mean different things for different people and this story is a huge lesson in acceptance and in embracing whatever makes you truly satisfied in every way you can be.

The Deep End is straight up erotic romance. It's fresh, it's exciting, it's incredibly addictive and unpredictable. It's a love story at heart but it's cloaked in the taboo, the tawdry, in deceit, in humor, in a complex web of emotional turmoil, envy, and desire. It's messy. It pushes boundaries. The deep end is dark, disorienting, a bit terrifying if you're used to swimming in the shallows. It's a story where you don't know up from down, where you're not sure how these characters will find their way out or what will come of them once they do. In The Deep End exists a world so foreign to me, I read in a constant state of discomfort, fascination, and rebellion. My own internal war held me completely ensnared. If there's more stories like this in the deep end of Kristen Ashley's repertoire, I'm eager to dive in.

Don't go into this book thinking it'll be just another KA novel. It's not that. This book made me uncomfortable because that's what the unknown is. This book is a book I'll probably blush just from thinking about for a good long while. And I will think about it... because you can't read this book and not think about it. I don't know what you've read, I just know what I've read, and this book scandalized me more than anything I've ever read before... anything. Maybe I'm a lot more sheltered than I realized. Or maybe this just goes <i>there</i>, pushing limits that even I wasn't prepared for. You'll just have to read it and decide for yourself.

Kristen Ashley is a pure GENIUS! This novel exceeded all of my expectations and has quickly become a top favorite of 2017 - I can't see many books topping this one in the near future!