Book Review : Depths Awakened by Persephone Autumn

Depths Awakened (Amazon Link)

Author : Persephone Autumn
Year Published : October 9, 2019
Genre / Tags : Romance, Contemporary
Formats : Paperback, eBook
# of Pages : 252 pages (Paperback)
Content Rating : Adult

Review

I’ve been reading one romance novel per month lately and this was my romance of the month, a little new release indie called Depths Awakened. The cover and short-yet-intriguing summary is what called out to me.

I feel that with romances it is so important to click with the main characters and know a good amount of info about them before jumping in, so I’ll just introduce the two main characters here.

Magdalena has avoided romance and keeps to herself and a small circle of friends. After tragically losing both of her parents at a young age, she has surrounded herself with those couple of friends, work, and charitable efforts. Overall, I liked her as a heroine. She doesn’t have a loudly noteworthy or flavorful voice but she’s a pretty well-balanced character and rarely (or really, never) irritated me which is saying a lot given the proliferation of TSTL or not-like-other-girls types I’ve come across in many sub-genres of romance. Magdalena seems like a good person. But she is overwhelmed by the attentions of Geoff, a guy who falls hard for her at first sight.

Geoffrey is the sole love interest. No love triangles here. He’s a widower who never expected to fall in love again and is startled to be so keenly drawn to Magdalena. He goes a bit overboard in pursuing her and sometimes comes off as almost cloying in his yearning to say/do agreeable and pleasing things. As someone who typically reads the more prickly types of alphas in romance I had a sort of whiplash reading about this guy, he’s just so nice. He can come off as pushy/needy but is attentive to Magdalena’s wishes.

About the widower aspect- something about the way Geoffrey compares the two loves of his life and at multiple points refers to Mags as being superior made me feel put off of him. It just didn’t seem necessary. He says he doesn’t want to compare the two yet absolutely does, and struggles with that. There are some interesting moments pertaining to this subject though, and it comes off as genuinely written.

There was one conflict the couple had toward the end that I was a bit befuddled by. It’s slightly spoiler-y to mention, so I won’t mention it here and will probably put it in my Goodreads review with appropriate spoiler tags of course.

Overall, Depths Awakened is a fast and relaxing read that has a feel-good quality. The main characters are on the same page and both on the road to healing from their past traumas.

There is little to no angst and a noticeable absence of cheap, if thrilling cliches. A good choice if you’re looking for a simple love story. If you’re in the mood for drama and intensity, this isn’t really aiming for that. I noticed an author’s note at the end of the book mentioned that the earliest draft of this novel was heavier and darker, but to a disjointed effect considering the sweet and positive overall storyline.

What’s interesting is that I left this book feeling that something missing, with the characters being blandly nice and missing a certain insight into their journey. Whatever happened in the earlier version sounds more potentially intriguing. That aside, if you’re very much a fan of a light and pleasant romance read, Depths Awakened is a good fit.

Overall Rating – 7.5/10

Why You Should Try It – A positive and mature romance about characters moving on in their lives and building a relationship. Fast-moving pace. Great if you’re in the mood for something cute and simply contemporary but not juvenile.

Why You Might Not Like It – If you’re not already a fan of relaxing and very down-to-earth contemporary romances, this may come off as too average and probably wouldn’t be a mind-changer.

Depths Awakened (Amazon Link)

---

Glad to get this review of Depths Awakened up, and as always I appreciate your likes and comments. Is Depths Awakened now on your radar? If you’re a fan of romance, what titles have your enjoyed recently? Thanks so much for checking out this review ~ Kitty