Literaria: Deep and unforgettable Skye Warren + giveaway

Today is the day, book buddies :o) DEEP, by Skye Warren is here, and I love him! I mean, it, the book...

Deep
Skye Warren
(Chicago Underground, #7)
Publication date: February 23rd 2016
Genres: Adult, Romance

Dark. Powerful. Dangerous.
Philip Mason has all of Chicago under his thumb. Except me.
We met in a perfect storm of violence and lust. He saved me and then disappeared from my life. Now I pretend I never knew that kind of darkness. I focus on midterms and campus parties, as if they can wipe the slate clean.
Then he turns up outside my dorm room—wounded and barely conscious. He’s the head of a crime syndicate, a powerful man, but he needs me now. There are traitors in his midst.
I can help him, but I can’t fall for him.
Not again.

Goodreads / Amazon

MY OPINION

Skye Warren's books always have me teetering on the edge between shock and bliss. This time, the edge has a name.

Philip.

Dark, toxic, overpoweringly sensual Philip.

The author's writing style is melancholic and knowledgeable in the flaws of life. Incendiary when it comes to carnal descriptions that never fail to grab you by the emotions.

The story of Philip and Ella was started in a different book, so this one retraces those first steps from Ella's perspective to rekindle the memories and the feelings. Now I understand Ella even better, her need to please, to be loved, to be worthy. I could also feel the inextricable threads that link her to the intense man whom she hasn't been able to forget and now lands at her feet again in a rush of danger, secrets and dark lust.

A pact with the devil, that's what Deep means. Ella's character is drawn to a criminal in two ways. She needs him to battle the demons in her life, but also in a deeper level, intimate and shameful. How is it that we crave the things that hurt us the most? I don't know really, yet this author rises those questions in her characters.

Ella and Philip share that forbidden, impossible connection. Every time they speak, every time they touch, it's like a circle getting tighter around them. He exudes dark power and she fears it, yearns for it too. I loved that duality of destruction and inherent hope.

With criminals and cops hovering around them, they fight to survive every danger at the same time they deepen their wounded bond. I felt every escalating scene of intimacy with collapsing force.

If you're looking for a dark romance where the heroine is strong-minded yet at the mercy of a tainted love, you've found your perfect read. This man is the king of a ruthless criminal empire set in Chicago. He's impossible to love and impossible to resist. Wait till you hear his dirty words, his harsh deeds, and his twisted sense of protection.

Deep is also a story about choices, the lack of them and the fight to win them back. A story of roots and identity, of where love can be found, even in the most undeserved of places. An amazing, hotter-than-ever finale to an extremely satisfying series.

Favourite Quotes:

We were all human-sized continents separated by oceans of doubt. And Philip, he was a volcano. He would scorch the earth and then rebuild it anew.

I'd defied my fate - and destiny required that I return to the same place until I succumbed.

I am the bars and you are inside me, trapped there.

ENJOY THE EXCERPT!

It was dark outside, grown late, and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Somewhere out there, Philip was probably dining with crystal and expensive wine. Meanwhile I’d probably order a pizza with one of those coupons by the door.

A low sound raised the hair on my neck.

Oh God, I’m not alone.

My gaze swept over the small dorm room. From here I could see the tiny bedroom area and the kitchenette. I could see almost the entire space. Empty.

Maybe it was just one of my neighbors getting busy and—

The sound came again, louder. A shiver ran through me. It was coming from outside the room, but not from either side. It was coming from the door.

I crept over and looked out the peephole. An empty hallway bulged in the distorted lens.

Now I was doubting myself. Had I actually heard something? Maybe it had come from the dorm room across the hall. When I first moved here, it had been shortly after my “ordeal,” as my adoptive mother called it. I had jumped at every sound, both real and imagined, more traumatized by my brush with danger than I’d wanted to admit.

My gaze snapped to my phone.

I could call my adoptive mother right now, but I knew she wouldn’t want to be bothered. I could call the building management, but I knew what would happen. The same thing that had happened last time I called them. They’d send my floor advisor to check on me. If there was anything scary in this hallway, she’d have to face it first.

And if there wasn’t anything scary, if it was my imagination again, the PTSD I didn’t want to acknowledge, well then everyone would know how fucked up I was inside.

No, I had to be overreacting. This was nothing. There was no one in the hallway. And even if there was, it would be some drunk guy, passed out on the wrong floor.

I’m a normal college student, I reminded myself. I’m not afraid of anything.

Both of those things were lies, I was neither normal nor brave, but at least I could send a drunk frat boy on his way.

I opened the door a crack. Nothing.

Relief filled me, and I opened the door wider.

A body slid inside, slumped over without the door to support him. A short scream escaped me before I caught myself.

He was wearing a three-piece suit stained with blood, his expression slack, eyes glassy with pain and delirium. Philip.

Oh God, he was hurt. Really badly hurt if he couldn’t stand up. Horribly hurt if he’d ever have come to me of all people. I didn’t have time to process the shock of it, of seeing him again. I had to get him out of sight. If he’d been injured like this, someone was after him. Someone would want to finish the job.