I hit a part in this book that made me actually feel ill and I just could not continue  CW!

the tipping point was her ability allowing her to feel the emotions of her r*pist

Olivie Blake remains one of my favorite auto-buy authors.

This is my second short story collection by her, and honestly she is just able to make you care immediately about characters in a way that the short story format does work for her! One of the stories (Chaos Theory) in here is almost novella length, but most are typical short story length.

I did audio + physical for this and can't recommend that enough because (as usual w Olivie's books) the audio narration is expertly done and really adds another level - honestly they were Acting. But some of the stories are complex (not in a bad way!) and therefore might be hard to follow doing audio only.

This is not my fav of Ali's books, but I did still enjoy it. Just didn't really blow me away *shrug*
We didn't get to see a lot of Scarlett and Lukas together outside of sexy times which makes sense logistically cause they're traveling, busy athletes, and also they are not actually dating. I personally think we could've gotten a bit more swoony romance, if they had entered into this sexual arrangement, but then they like: couldn't stop talking, even on trips, or did spend more time together. The moments they are together, Lukas is being Scarlett's pseudo-therapist, which like, we love a supportive man.  IDK I just wanted more!
Someone told me Deep End is to kink relationships as Bride is to omegaverse - and I think that sums it up perfectly.
For a sports romance there is a good amount of actual sports (diving, barely any swimming) as someone who knows nothing about that sport it seemed accurate, but a diver might have a different opinion?

Pen is actually the worst friend ever and she treats both Scarlett and Lukas horribly, and they forgive her for what reason? idk she needs to go to therapy herself.
Also like what did happen to those other divers who suddenly weren't able to compete? Was Pen's test a false positive like they said or was there funny business? I know that's not the point of this book, but it seemed funny to bring up all these like bullying girls and nefarious possibilities and in the end it was just all coincidence?

Anyway, of course Ali is good at writing men so Lukas was great and I really appreciated the storyline of Scarlett's mistrust of men in general (so real) and how that was handled so delicately from Lukas entering her life and this relationship. 

I did also realize that Swedish accents? not my thing

This was disappointing cause there were cool ideas (witches with earth magic!) but I found the execution and development sorely lacking. I fundamentally didn't understand like the lore/reasoning behind these creatures drinking witch blood. 
I've read my share of age-gap romances especially when it comes to romantasy, but something about this one irked me like he is her Headmaster, why is this acceptable? Also we have some of my least fav romance irks: 'only I can make you come' SIDE EYE this time done with some kind of curse. The spice was nothing special imo. Ultimately I just really didn't care.

The end of this book does go wild, and like

I guess she was f'ing the literal devil so... there's that

Really cool concepts that were not executed in a way that was able to hold my attention :'(

This is shaping up to be a very solid overall 4 star series.
Personally I found the beginning of this one super hard to get invested in. I was not intrigued at first by the villain (I find just supremely powerful villains kind of uninteresting idk) and it took honestly until about 40% in for me to feel the pacing pick up. From about that point forward though I was interested. There are a few chapters at the mid-way point that are bangers, and had me page-turning like crazy.
I do kind of have a bone to pick with the overall magic system in this series. I find that the way things are described there's not a lot of hard-set rules, and so a lot of the problems the characters face are overcome by them just finding some way to magic their way out of things. Because there aren't really any hard set rules, it seems like they just invent new ways to use the magic to solve their problems, which isn't super satisfying as a reader as we're not figuring things out along with them. Which is a bummer because the magic system itself is really cool, it just doesn't feel completely developed I guess. Anyway, this one def ended on more of a cliff-hanger so we shall see where the final book takes us...

I fear I am most invested in Gregor's character cause he really is getting the shit end of every deal :'(

I liked this, but it leans a tad too cozy for my personal taste. This is very slice-of-life, character study esque for science fiction, so if that's what you're looking for this might be up your alley. 
I also kinda felt like the moral of this book was that humans are unevolved, dumb and we suck. Which, ok, honestly fair points. However, a lot of the alien cultures we encounter in this book do have various aspects of human culture, but are often things that in our current society are considered up for debate: gender, sexuality, etc. I do think there are moments where a lot of people would see themselves in these characters and so that could be a comfort to them.
I think overall I would've enjoyed a bit more of a plot interwoven into these character dynamics.

Really my main complaint is that I wish there was more actual ice skating in this book! I was looking forward to reading a romance between pairs ice skaters literally to read about the physicality of the sport. I think we were told a lot 'we know each others bodies from practice' but I wanted to read more of that on page!!!!! just felt like a missed opportunity to not add more of this in.
Still though, this is a rivals(ish)/strong dislike/animosity to friends to lovers story in the classic slow burn MZ way [sorry I just refuse to call it enemies to lovers in this setting the stakes just are not that high!] Jasmine and Lukov have known each other a long time, she grew up best friends to his sister. But they were always teasing/at each other's throats mainly due to their prickly personalities. It's actually just grumpy x grumpy 
It did really feel like along the way they became friends which I liked, and not just straight to in love. Lukov is of course just a star of a man really advocating for Jasmine, looking out for her, & caring for her truly which is definitely clear. They keep this quippy banter the whole time which is fun. I did overall enjoy the storyline and where things ended! Just needed more skating!!!!!!!!

I read this with my book club and I was glad to have other's input as I went. Because I did this on audio I think that my experience reading this book was a little muddled. Not because of any issues with the narration itself, but just because of the book's structure. I think having a physical/ebook to read along would've helped me understand the separation between characters, the footnotes etc. It's just a book whose storytelling is not always linear and therefore I found it a tad hard to track everything well exclusively on audiobook. I also think that being able to clearly distinguish the footnotes for the book from the story would've made some parts hit harder because as I understand it they are based in the reality of the American prison/criminal 'justice' system. 

There's a lot of super important information in this book and I think because so many people know so little about the industrialized prison complex in America this book had to do a TON of educating along the way. That's not the author's fault, cause the information is super relevant to this story. It just is quite the mountain to climb for a novel. 
While I did appreciate the variety of povs included from a world-building perspective, perhaps there were a few too many? Switching between pov tenses was a bit jarring at parts. Including so many povs did mess with the plot pacing a bit, until towards the end when things hit a better stride. I also would've preferred to spend more time with the central characters, so I didn't feel so far removed from them. For a book that discusses dehumanization so thoroughly, I would've expected really in depth character development. But I do think this comes back to the mountain this book had to climb from a factual standpoint.
Overall though I did appreciate the message of this book and think it's worth the read (just read a physical copy at least in tandem with the audio!)

RAHHHH!!!! This was SO GOOD! Added to my short list of historical romances I will never shut up about.

Minerva and Colin fake their engagement and leave Spindle Cove in order to get Minerva to Scotland for a geology symposium because she has discovered proof of 'dragons' (probably dinosaurs) and wants to present her findings. Along the way Colin continually makes up outlandish stories about who they are to anyone they meet, all to varying degrees of success, and thus shenanigans ensue. 

This is a must read for any historical romance fan, and even if you just want a silly fun romance - I highly recommend it!