Words In Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Publication Date: June 6th, 2017
Publisher: Knopf Publishing

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Rating: ★★★★

“Love lives between the lines.

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can’t see her future.

Henry’s future isn’t looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.”

Review:

There were many things about this book that stood out to me, and one of them kept me from giving this book a 5 star rating. The characters were very well established, and the story was great. On the other hand, one major subject about this book, romance, should have been more prevalent. It seemed almost desperate, and sometimes I think that makes a book. In this case, I didn’t seem to like it as much.

As a library assistant, books about book stores or libraries always seem to get a five star rating from me. I think it’s a personal preference and a hope that a romance like that will happen to me one day. However, the romance in this book threw me for a loop. In this book, there are two main characters, Rachel and Henry. Rachel is in love with Henry. Henry is in love with a girl named Amy. When Rachel leaves, she leaves a note in a book for Henry to read. This is where it kind of shut off for me. Amy is a cold-hearted girl. I would see Henry being so in love with Amy if she was a nice girl, but the way the author wrote about her, I couldn’t like her. Because Henry was so in love with this girl that was terrible, I had a hard time liking Henry.

When Rachel comes back, the story picks up from there. She lost her brother while she was gone, and becomes this cold, distant girl who could use a friend. I sympathized with her and liked her character. The death of her brother had such an impact on her, however, she kept it a secret for a lot of the book. I feel like that should have been a massive part of the story, it kind of was, but keeping a secret until the end was hard as well.

The thing that kept this book at a higher star rating for me was the setting. The author did a phenomenal job with the setting. I felt like I was there with all of the details. Howling Books was the perfect bookstore and I would love to go there and see the books that were described!