Review: In Too Deep by Amanda Grace

I never meant for anyone to get hurt. All I wanted to do that night was make a play for Carter Wellesley. His heartless rejection was mortifying, but people got the wrong idea when they saw me leaving his bedroom, crying. That's how rumors of rape started. Now girls at school are pouring out their sympathy to me. Guys too. But not everyone's on my side. The school has become a war zone and the threats are getting scary. What began as poetic justice has morphed into something bigger--forcing me to make a terrible choice. 

Goodreads: In Too Deep




Samantha is in love with her best friend. She would do anything to get his attention and finally once and for all figure out if he really loves her as more than just his friend. Anything means trying to get the most popular player in school to pay attention to her just to make Nick jealous. Except things don't exactly end up that way. Sam gets humiliated and by Monday everyone at school thinks Carter raped her. But he didn't.

I went into this book with high hopes. I loved Amanda Grace's other book, But I Love Him, and thought it was a wonderful, touching story. While it touched a difficult topic, it was very well executed. Unfortunately, I didn't end up feeling the same about this one. Most of the time I just didn't connect with the main character. She made some very questionable decisions. I enjoyed it at first but after a while I just became frustrated with Samantha. Why couldn't she just come clean about everything and tell the truth? I understand that the rumor was a tough one but in my opinion that would have just made me want to put an end to it sooner rather than later. Sam just kept beating around the bush and putting it off until the next day and the next, until she put herself into a situation that she couldn't come out of with any dignity.

By mid book I actually found myself feeling bad for Carter, the guy who supposedly raped Sam. He did nothing to deserve the rumor. Yeah, he was an ass to some of the girls at the school (typical bad boy, player type) but he never raped anyone. There was a particular moment where he sounded so broken and I just wanted to shake Sam and tell her to do the right thing.

What I did enjoy was Sam and Nick's friendship. I thought it was very sweet and it was amazing seeing how much Nick cared for her. How he believed her so quickly and took her side no questions asked.

Near the end I did find myself more interested in the story. It picked up and didn't stop until the very last page. Even though I didn't particularly like the build up I thought the ending was very fitting. Everything that happened was for a reason and it was believable. All in all I did not enjoy this one as much as I wanted to but I do believe it is a topic that should be discussed.

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