Bewitching Book Tour Review: Shallow by Georgia Cates

Blurb:
Nick Hawke likes his car fast and his girls even faster. He blows through females quicker than his muscle car races down the drag strip in Collinsville and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Determined to avoid the devastation he has watched his father endure in the aftermath of his mother leaving, he believes there is no room in his life or his heart for a relationship lasting more than one night. He seeks happiness in things that won’t let him down... fast cars, parties and one night stands. To his absolute dismay, all of that changes when he unexpectedly runs into an old friend and is introduced to Payton Archer, the first girl he ever wanted for more than one night. There’s only one catch...she is completely immune to him and his smooth talking ways.

Payton Archer is looking for what Claire has with Jessie, but she has given up on finding it... at least until she leaves for college in the Fall because she is certain that is where she will find the perfect guy to fit into her perfect world. She plans on Summer being nothing but three uneventful months of fun, but it turns out to be anything but ordinary when Payton is introduced to Nick Hawke, one of Jessie’s old Collinsville friends. She is shocked by her immediate and intense attraction for “Hawke” because nothing about him is what Payton is looking for. Sure, he’s hot and sexy but he comes from Collinsville and that is definitely not on her list of prerequisites. Everything about him makes Payton’s heart speed because he is exciting and dangerous, but his fast car and the dangerous chances he takes isn’t what scares Payton the most...it’s the way Nick Hawke makes her feel every time he looks at her. Can Payton find that moment of total fearlessness and make the decision to leave the safe, shallow end of love to risk going under completely?



It's been a while since I read a contemporary YA, and SHALLOW is the second book in a series of which I had not read the first. So, unlike readers who had read GOING UNDER, the world, style of writing, and characters were wholly unfamiliar to me. Sometimes, this does not bother me at all. Most times this does not bother me at all. But, I found myself wishing that I hadn't started with book #2 of this series. The main character, Payton and her friends had a dialog style that was a little off-putting to me. There were references that even now, are dated and will definitely in the future, date the novel. I noticed these things.

However, the actual story was interesting. Payton and Nick live in a fast world, one where teenagers do all those things that teens do, but some adults seem to think they don't know about, and instead of educating them on these things, try to wrap them in cotton against them. (That was a little bit of a tangent there, eh?) Anyway, Georgia Cates has a straight-forward writing style that depicts events -good or bad- in her characters lives with a authenticity most adults lose by 26. Payton is smart and smart-talking, but not perfect. Nick is cocky and good-looking, which is disaster in a boy-turning-into-a-man's body. It works. Cates make it work very well.

Fast and fancy cars, teens exploring love and sexuality and frank dialog may make SHALLOW inappropriate for some younger YA readers, but it comes off as reality, even if it doesn't portray every teen, or even the "average" teen. SHALLOW takes a plunge (sorry for the pun) into the deep end and doesn't sink.

Book Rating:
10/15
3 star
B-

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About The Author:
Georgia resides in rural Mississippi with her wonderful husband, Jeff, and their two beautiful daughters. She spent fourteen years as a labor and delivery nurse before she decided to pursue her dream of becoming an author.

Blood of Anteros, Book One in The Vampire Agápe Series, was her first novel and it was released in September 2011. She decided to briefly step away from the paranormal genre to try her hand at a young adult contemporary romance when she wrote Going Under, but returned to the paranormal romance platform to complete the second book in The Vampire Agápe Series, Blood Jewel.

Her current works in progress are Shallow (A Going Under Novel) which will release on September 27th and Blood Doll (The Vampire Agápe Series #3), to be released in January 2013.
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This book was provided by Bewitching Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review only