Into the Deep (Into the Deep #1) - Samantha Young

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 

Reading a Samantha Young novel is like being sucked through a portal from an Amy Bartol story.  I fell right through the compact and into Scotland.  This book gave me a little headache, a lot of heartache and my poor friend Cristin, a sore hand from having to hold mine all the way through… Samantha Young stole my heart, and I want it back!!! 

“Do you promise to take care of me for the rest of forever, Jacob Caplin?” His eyes were grave as he replied, “I promise.  For the rest of forever.”

Charley Reford is a tough girl.   She’s a smart-ass with a good heart and does what she wants to do, which is usually the right thing.  She not like a lot of girls, she doesn’t get involved in gossip and drama. 

Jake Caplin is the new kid in town.  He’s the smooth talking, reformed player, who gets Charley to open up and let him in – until he slams the door shut and breaks her heart. 

It’s been 3 ½ years since Jake broke his promise to Charley and left her broken and not quite the girl she was before he came into her life.  But Charley had set goals, and she was sticking to them.  She wanted  to go to college, do a study abroad year in Scotland and become a cop.  While the cop part is still be negotiated with the family that loves her, she is going to college and when Into the Deep starts, has just gotten to Scotland with her college roommate, Claudia.  She’s a world away from Indiana, and still trying to move on with her life.

After meeting an American hottie, Beck, with a party flyer, they decide to go out and try to make new friends before classes start.  It was almost instant, my connection to Charley.  I felt like I could feel what she was feeling almost right away, excitement about a new city and living out one of her dreams and getting to do it with her best friend by her side.  And then I felt the pang of heartache when Charley and Jake’s eyes meet across the party (especially since he was with his girlfriend).  I held my breath as she ran away from him, and the party, and I didn’t want her to turn around when he called after her.  I didn’t know what he did, but I knew he was going to break my heart – umm, her heart.   

This book takes us back and forth between the present in Scotland and the past in Indiana.  As we move through the story, we get to see what happened between Charley and Jake in the past, that has them reacting to each other the way they do in the present.  We could see and hear and feel the things only two people who knew each other inside out would know.  “Stop acting like you know me.” The muscle in his jaw ticked.  “A little hard to do…because I do know you.”  Thus commenced a death stare match.  We glared into one another’s eyes, neither refusing to give in, and then suddenly, memories of arguments ending in kisses flared behind my eyes.  I knew the moment Jake remembered too because the air between us wasn’t angry anymore…”  I felt like I was barely hanging on the entire time. 

Since they met Beck (Jake’s best friend), and were introduced to his group of friends (also Jake’s group of friends) the torture for Charley continued as she had to not only be around Jake, but around Jake with Melissa.  I’m telling you TORTURE! I felt like I was going through it too.  And while the guys seemed to love Charley, and Lowe was great, I just couldn’t let myself open up to the possibility that anyone could replace the kind of love that they had found, even though they were only 16 and even though Jake seemed to have found it with Melissa.  It was killing me.

But the description is right…once you’ve been broken so badly by someone, can you ever really truly forgive them and move on? Would it show him how much she moved on, if she could move on with one of his friends?

Samantha Young brings us the first piece of this incredible story, and I for one will be cursing her until we get book 2 in 2014.