A funny, light hearted read. Very well written. Raunchy scenes but nothing over the top. Looking forward to readings more by Kate Davies.

In at the Deep End wasn’t the raunchy comedy I was expecting from the cover and the pieces of marketing I have seen so far. It was a much more nuanced exploration into the nature of relationships and how we give ourselves up for them. I still enjoyed it a lot, and it was great to see people of genuinely diverse sexual identities represented in a piece of commercial fiction.

This starts off like chic lit with the standard Bridget Jones-alike voice: self-deprecating and a bit self-consciously quirky, but about halfway through it gets more serious as Julia is forced to confront the fact that the her loved-up relationship is toxic to the point of abusive. The sex is pervasive and racy without being porn-y, and there are lots of rah-rah girly friendship scenes. Entertaining and feel-good by the end.

Davies' novel is an honest, funny and treacherous odyssey through the perils and seductions we encounter on the Janus-faced, and more often absurd, path to love and self-awareness.

Meet Julia. After three years without sex, her sex life is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
I really loved this story of Julia’s life- her mundane job at the department of health, her relationship with her parents as she embarks on a lesbian relationship, her opinionated counsellor Nicky -but most of all her self-deprecating and laugh out loud humour. And I laughed out loud a good few times!
It also has its fair share of pathos as Julia starts to question whether her dream relationship is really an abusive one.
Yes, this novel is sexually explicit, but i didn’t find it salacious or even particularly sexy! It’s one element of Julia’s quest to get her life together and of the power dynamic in her increasingly toxic relationship.
It’s one of those books you wish would go on and on because the narrator feels like a friend.
Thoroughly recommended, but not for the prudish!