“Deep End (fka Whet)”, Ali Hazelwood
Formerly known as “Whet” • Published February 4, 2025
A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance.
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...
“If you decide to go for it, I think it should be me.”
After I read the signed paperback, I proceeded to read the ebook, and then listened to the audiobook because I simply had to know what a Swedish Lukas Blomqvist sounded like. This book is a 2025 masterpiece, so in advance I will let you know that it has dominated the first half of my 2025 reading bracket. Good luck to whatever I read between July and December, because Whet is a tough contender.
This book centers around two leads who have kinks, but to be honest, this book is actually less smutty than Ali’s previous hit, Not in Love. Despite Mr xo’s belief that I am a slut for smut, I actually enjoy Ali’s books for the healthy depiction of sexual and romantic relationships, and in my opinion, Whet does it well. The way Ali handles kink is respectful, nuanced, and refreshingly healthy. Scarlett and Lukas have a dynamic that’s grounded in trust and consent, and watching them learn each other’s emotional and physical needs felt more intimate than any explicit scene could ever deliver.
For a book about kink exploration, Ali still manages to deliver slow burn with emotional depth and thoughtful conversations about power, safety, and vulnerability. This book balances heat and heart, and honestly if Ali’s next release (Mate) has the same kind of emotional intelligence and spice, the second half of my bracket may as well pack it up now.
Another thing to admire about Ali’s writing is how she treats female characters and friendships as something sacred—even the complicated and messy ones. She never reduces women to one-dimensional villains. In this book, Pen had all the makings of the classic Mean Girl antagonist: cunning, sneaky, intimidatingly successful, fake. But Ali doesn’t leave her there. Instead, she peels back the layers so we understand why Pen is the way she is. Whether a woman is hurt, ambitious, jealous, misunderstood, or just making terrible choices, Ali gives her the space to evolve. Pen’s arc is a reminder that women in fiction—just like in real life—are rarely as simple as they seem.
NOTE: On July 15, 2025, Julie Soto confirmed during the Sacramento leg of her Rose in Chains book tour (featuring Stephanie Garber) that DEI-hating turncoat Target is the reason why this book is Deep End and not Whet. Fuck you very much, Target.
Content Warnings
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of content and trigger warnings.
graphic sexual content • sports injury • toxic friendships
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Owned: signed & personalized paperback from Black Pearl Books