Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Summary from Goodreads:

Love lives between the lines.

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can’t see her future.

Henry’s future isn’t looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.

Review:

I’m hitting a reading jackpot lately! Seriously, I was in a bit of slump and nothing was appealing to me. And all of a sudden, wham, everything is unbelievable. I received an ARC of this book months ago, with no knowledge of what it was about. I also am only now noticing how cute the cover is. It’s a cover made up of books!

Basically, I just read it because I wanted a fluffy sounding paperback to take with me to the beach. I’m at the end of my much pined for week of vacation (that I always take at the end of the summer to recuperate from Summer Reading and spend time with my mom). I thought this sounded like a nice beach book.

It’s not quite as fluffy as I was hoping for. There is some serious sadness in this book. I shed a few tears at certain moments. It’s one thing to read about a YA main character who has lost a parent, but it’s quite another when she has lost a sibling. I felt so sad for Rachel on various levels. I of course felt bad about her brother. But, also I felt bad that her best friend/crush of many years never responded to her. Unrequited love is the worst.

That being said, it quickly became clear to me why Henry never got back to her. And it was slightly annoying that this thought never occurred to Rachel. I guess this speaks volumes for how kind and good she is. Also, I like that both Rachel and Henry got to be with other people and learn from past mistakes. I also love that there were side love stories too. I found George to be so interesting and l loved her letter-writing relationship.

Mostly, though, what stands out in this books is the books. The bookstore where the characters work, love, and live is magical. I want to go there. I want to fall asleep in the fiction section. I want to go to the book club and talk with all the regulars. I want to have dumplings once a week and talk about what I’m reading. This setting for growing up is a dream. I loved the scenes that took place at clubs and outside, but really, I kept counting my time until I could return to the bookstore.

This is another book for booklovers. It’s filled with fiction, poetry, nonfiction, classics, and more. There’s a place called the letter library, where characters are supposed to write in the margins of books that can never go out. They write letters to each other there too. What a romantic, beautiful concept.

I loved the characters though maybe Rachel was a little too good/naïve. I loved the audlts in the background. I also loved the friends who were going through their own dramas as compared to just being their for the main character’s play. Sometimes it’s hard for me to immerse myself in the language of Australian books because things can get said that are so out of context for me that I get taken out of the story and have to think too much. But, this was different. Everything flowed nicely. All in all I give it a 9/10.