The Deepest Blue

Roadmap to Your Heart, Book 3

By: Christina Lee

Narrated by: Tristan James, Iggy Toma

Rugged and conventional Callum Montgomery enjoys running Shady Pines hunting preserve, except for the secret that's eating him alive. When his sister brings a date for a family wedding, he can't stand the arrogant city slicker with the stick up his perfectly fine ass. He doesn't understand his draw to Dean, who pushes his buttons at every turn, but he'd never dream of betraying his sibling over some lust fueled fantasy.

Handsome and conscientious Dean Abbott is a research assistant in his university's biology lab. When his roommate, Cassie, begs him to be her pretend date in front of her meddling family, he begrudgingly agrees to help. He doesn't anticipate being enchanted by the countryside, the colorful cast of characters, or her sexy and brooding straight brother.

When contempt turns to passion and leads to stolen moments in a sugar cane field, Callum can't help longing for the kind of connection he believes he can never have. But not even the world's most heart-melting kiss can bridge the vast philosophical differences between the men.

Contains mature themes.

©2015 Christina Lee (P)2020 Tantor

I Love this book.

This entire series is one of my all time favorite s. I did not get the connection at first but then it was there. Dean and Callum's instant attraction is awesome. Dean just really fits with the entire family. I love how nothing got by Grammy. Wonderful narration.

Please hear me on this

I love Christina Lee. What a writer. So romantic And beautiful story but please who ever chooses the narration I beg of you.... please use just Iggy Toma. This Tristan James is really bad. He took a gorgeous story and ruined it. I’m so discouraged when his voice appeared. Iggy TOMS is one of those narrators than can totally carry a book alone. Tristan James is a bad narrator. He sounds like he’s reading the nutrition listing on a box of oatmeal. I’ve always said a good narrator will either make or ruin a story. Tristan always ruins it. Please hear me authors.... Iggy toma or Joel Leslie or Christian Fox... they can carry your book alone without ruining a beautiful story. I loved this book. Christina Lee has incredible talent. She just needs Iggy toma or Joel leslie. That’s it. Loved this book

Takes itself too seriously

The Deepest Blue opens with Dean (narrated by Iggy Toma) agreeing to accompany his platonic friend Cassie to her cousin's wedding in order to help her avoid the matchmaking antics of her rural family and community. Once there, he meets her family, including her very attractive brother Callum (whose POV chapters are narrated by Tristan James). Callum is hiding his own homosexuality from his friends and family, and feels an attraction for his sister's boyfriend. He thinks he's being inappropriate, and he's in the closet anyway so he can't act on his attraction, and Dean can't either because he's supposed to be Cassie's boyfriend. There's a large cast of mostly likable characters including Cassie and Callum's two other brothers, their grandmother, a service dog, the family's rivals, love interests for the other brothers, and a genuine love interest for Cassie.

I like Christina Lee, typically, and all of this sounds like it could lead to a lot of fun misunderstandings and sweet moments. I would say the premise is a bit too zany for anything too serious, and yet, somehow, that's what we get. In the beginning, Dean and Callum don't get along because of their very different views, and herein lies one problem I have with this novel. I feel like the author wants to have her cake and eat it too; Dean and Callum aren't supposed to like each other, but WE, as the reader, aren't supposed to dislike either of them, so they never really say anything too nasty to each other, and yet we're expected to believe that they can't stand each other. As a result we get a lot of lectures about the morality of hunting, vegetarianism, and so on, with Callum and Dean both bending over backwards to be likable to the reader even if we disagree with what they're saying.

There really isn't a lot of levity at all in the novel, to be honest. It's more deep conversations than comical misunderstandings, and while there's a place for that, I don't feel like a book about a growing attraction to your fake girlfriend's brother (or your sister's fake boyfriend) is really suited for it. In fact the fake relationship itself is really a very small part of the book; Dean holds Cassie's hand a bit and they endure a few questions but it's somehow never something I feel is in danger of being exposed, or rather if it is, that there is a danger of any serious consequences. In fact it's treated more like a minor nuisance than anything else.

The narration is good. I like both narrators from other things; however, neither one of them uses anything but their natural voice for their own characters. In this case it works better for Iggy, as the bookish Dean fits his voice better than Callum fits Tristan James. I don't know anything about James, but he seems a bit too mature sounding and gritty for Callum. His voice is perfectly suited to, say, a grizzled private investigator in the big city, not so much a sweet, conflicted twentysomething living in rural Florida. And he doesn't even attempt an accent even though Dean mentions that Callum has a Southern accent several times. Don't listen to the reviewer calling him a "bad" narrator though, it's simply not true.

Altogether not a bad book, but it certainly won't go on my list of favorites.