Title: Caught in the Undertow
Series: N/A
Author: Helena Maeve
Genre: New Adult Romance
Length: 241 pages
Publisher: Pride Publishing (29 March 2016)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥ 3 Hearts
Blurb: Poison blooms in ivy halls.
New to the hallowed halls of the prestigious, all-male Ledwich University, Ward fully intends to skate by on wealth and minimal effort all the way to graduation. He has no desire to make friends or revive his interest in rowing, but when luck hands him the deciding vote over another student’s admission to the club, Ward chooses discretion over decency and finds himself juggling both.
Angry, bellicose Dylan is nothing like Ward’s wealthy peers. One of a handful of scholarship students, Dylan appears to have little sense of self-preservation and a grudge against the crew captain to match. But despite ruining his chances, Ward can’t get him out of his head.
As Ledwich slowly reveals its darker side and myriad cruelties begin to play out around and because of Ward, his fascination with Dylan becomes too much to conceal. Ward and Dylan may well be the products of two different worlds, but their chemistry burns too hot to ignore. If having him means hiding, then so be it. Ward may not be certain of much anymore, but what he wants, he gets.
Reader Advisory: This book contains dubious consent and coersion and scenes of attempted sexual assault, mental and physical abuse. This book also contains D/S dynamics and poor BDSM etiquette.
Publisher’s Note: This book is best read in conjunction with Surface Tension serial published with Totally Bound Publishing.
ISBN: 978-1-78651-392-2
Product Link: https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/caught-in-the-undertow
Reviewer: Prime
Review: This rather interesting read by Helena Maeve is the type of book that you pick up when you got the time to just plow through a book in a few hours and you just want to get caught up in drama other than your own. Caught in the Undertow is the type of young adult book that would not have universal appeal. As in, some young adult books easily work for people of most tastes, but I found that this was strictly a young adult book. I feel like that I’m being particularly blunt in my writing, but that is exactly how I feel.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the novel. It was full of passion – both on the water with the rowing team, and between the students of the prestigious Ledwich University. But I just couldn’t get completely taken away by it.
The book follows Ward, the son of a rich guy who has been kicked out of Yale and plans on just coasting by until he finally graduates uni. As his father brides Ward’s way into Ledwich Uni, Ward finds the rowing team holding tryouts. He may be a slacker but the guy can row.
This is where we are exposed to a host of unlikable and a handful of characters who could find redemption. The rowing team and its entourage are held together by bullies. It is also with the rowers that he observes Dylan. Dylan is shunned by most of the wealthy body of Ledwich Uni because he is a scholarship holder – basically, he’s poor.
However, Dylan represents the source of Ward’s redemption as he becomes more a man. His situation and Ward’s entrance into Dylan’s life also presents a change in direction for the exclusivity that the rowing team prided themselves on with their captain leading the charge.
I suspect some of the reason is purely because of the country where I am from and how we experience university, which is totally different to the US – to me it just felt like the guys were in their senior year of high school and lacked the independence that comes with university.
To me that is a particularly important connection to make since I am a postgraduate researcher and regularly teach undergraduates. The book reminded me somewhat of the movies School Ties (the one with Brendan Fraser where he is a Jewish kid post WWII and going to a prestigious school after receiving a scholarship) and Cruel Intentions (the movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar). I loved both movies, so I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing.
I’m finding it difficult pin point my exact feelings but the main reasons why I could not get into this was the intensely unlikable and extremely unrelatable characters. But I did enjoy the unfolding drama and the glimpses of redemption that were seen throughout the book.
If you like your school melodrama slightly on the evil side, hence the Cruel Intentions reference, this is the book for you.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *