Book Talk: Left Drowning

I was browsing a used bookstore recently when this novel grabbed me. I can’t explain it, but sometimes I’m just drawn to books without knowing what they’re really about. Like Left Drowning by Jessica Park.

I was intrigued, but I wasn’t sold. I showed it to the friend who was shopping with me and she agreed that it looked good, but neither of us wanted to commit. Ultimately, I ended up taking it home, along with another couple of books I’m hoping to get to soon. I started Left Drowning the next day. It was...definitely a surprise. I wasn’t aware (based on the jacket description) of how intense the book would be - shouldn't there be some kind of indication/warning about sexually explicit content? I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. It feels like the sister of Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster, which has the same kind of angst and heat (which I also began without knowing that it was explicit). Now that I'm done grumbling about how I feel a little tricked by these books, we can move on to how I felt about other elements of the novel.

While there was certainly a large group of characters central to the story, none of them ever felt static or unrealistic. I fell in love with each member of the Shepherd clan, and they each felt essential to Blythe’s story, which I think is a testament to the writer’s ability to juggle several characters at once. The characters feel well developed without taking away from the heart of the story, which revolves around Blythe’s and Chris’ struggles to maintain relationships while overcoming immense personal trauma. The characters also have their own lives, for lack of a better word, which contribute to the feeling of a whole world existing within the pages of this book. So while I definitely didn’t get what I initially thought I would from this book, it wasn’t a disappointment so much as an unexpected surprise.

Have YOU ever felt tricked by a book? If so, tell me about it, 'cause I wanna know!