I actually read this book three years ago and liked it a lot; then it was part of a series called 1NightStand. As far as I can remember about what I read before, the story is the same with some editing to make it fit the Destiny Ink brand.

I felt like there was a true connection between Beau and Mike. Mike, who has always considered himself straight, was dumbstruck when he first meets Beau at the swimming pool of the gym they both use. He begins to question his sexuality because he can’t stop thinking of Beau and he’s pretty sure that he really does want to be more than just friends.

Their relationship develops over a period of months as they first become friends and then something more. Mike has anxiety issues and Beau seems to be a calming influence. Beau realizes that Mike is inexperienced when it comes to being with a man and he is willing to take things as slow as Mike needs.

Once Mike and Beau get to the good stuff the sexy time is really hot but it’s also really tender. Mike has a secret that he eventually tells Beau about. Once he does, he feels calmer and less anxious. What Mike doesn’t know is that Beau also has a secret that he doesn’t reveal to Mike.

I had an inkling of what was coming when the book reached it pivotal point but I didn’t guess it all. I liked the cast of supporting characters, too. Mike has a twin brother, Danny, and he also has a female best friend; both characters add to the story.

Braving the Deep End was a very satisfying story with a wonderful epilogue.

Mini rant from this reviewer that did not affect my rating: the blurb on Amazon makes no mention that this story was published previously. This is a pet peeve of mine and I think authors do their readers a disservice when they don’t disclose this information.

Reviews for Deanna Wadsworth

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“You have a nice day and drive safe,” Trooper Mike Martin said. With a tip of his regulation Stetson, he stepped away from the minivan, but not before the woman grumbled about her speeding ticket “helping your quota.”

She was lucky, had she been going three miles an hour faster she’d be facing a mandatory court appearance and the very real possibility of having her license yanked for at least a month.

And troopers didn’t have quotas, regardless of what errant drivers liked to think.

In his patrol car, Mike waited until the minivan pulled away before he merged into traffic. The stretch of highway through Birch County, Ohio, was wide open, and if somebody drove five or six miles over the speed limit, he let them go. Not one of those troopers who got a thrill out of giving people speeding tickets, he always pulled over the fifteen-plus crowd. That woman shouldn’t have been driving nearly ninety miles an hour especially with children in the backseat.

If speeders came upon a scene where they had to scrape a ten-year-old off the pavement, they might tuck their cell phones away and stop putting on lipstick while they drove.

A terrible shudder went down his spine as images of the accident struck him—the amber glow of the streetlights in the snow, the screams of anguish from the father, blood spreading across the snow like raspberry syrup on a snow cone.

No! He pushed the images away before they could take hold again.

He took a deep breath, filling his diaphragm then exhaling slowly, repeating the move until his heart rate calmed, and visions of the crash faded away. The images were never really gone, always lingering in the corners of his mind, waiting for inopportune moments to surface and affect his hard-fought-for peace and calm.

Checking his rearview mirrors, he pulled into the median crossover and put his cruiser in park, trying to ignore his shaking hands.

After a few more cleansing breaths, he felt more in control.

He hated feeling like this, anxious and off-kilter. He’d suffered from bouts of anxiety after Mom died when he was fourteen, but as a man, he thought he’d conquered it, left it in his youth. Since that horrific accident, it had become difficult to predict when an unexpected wave of anxiety would sweep over him. Long hard swims helped, but his boss had called him in early this morning, and he hadn’t made it to the pool.

His personal cell phone buzzed on the passenger seat, and he picked it up. The moment the image of a smiling dark-haired man appeared on his screen, all the darkness melted away like snow on a warm spring day.

Beau Abernathy.

Destiny Ink Series

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