Book Review: Deep Desire (Deep Book 1) by Z.A. Maxfield [Audiobook]

 
 
Adin is a professor with a special love of historical erotica, but the journal he's just gotten his hands on leads him to a mess of trouble when the man who wrote it, now a vampire, shows up to get it back. But it turns out there are others who want the journal too, and Adin's life is about to become a lot more dangerous now that he's mixed up with vampires.

Book Review: Deep Desire (Deep Book 1) by Z.A. Maxfield
Title: Deep Desire
Author:
Series:
Book Number: Book 1
Pages: 242
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon
 

Review:

I’m not really sure how I feel about this book. I didn’t think there was much necessarily wrong with it (if you don’t mind a bit of vampire romance tropey-ness), but I kind of had a hard time focusing on it (although I suspect that might’ve had more to do with the audio than the story, and I wasn’t feeling great when I listened to this).

I admit I might’ve noticed or been more bothered by certain things had I been paying closer attention. Like some of Donte’s questionable behaviors and the sex scene right in the beginning, in which Donte slipped into the airplane bathroom with Adin and Adin just had sex with this complete stranger. But I just kind of felt like, “It’s vampires.” *shrug* And it’s not entirely unbelievable that someone who has had nameless sex with strangers before (Adin) would do that, especially if Donte did have some sort of vampiric glamour.

Anyway, I liked the idea behind the story—a professor who studies historic erotica getting his hands on an old journal that turns out to be Donte’s, which is what brings the two men into each others’ paths. And there was the past love story of Donte and Auselmo woven into the present day romance. The vampires had a couple unique abilities, like being able to make humans feel physical sensations that weren’t actually there. The biting was sexy. The characters could’ve been more developed, but I can accept that to a certain extent when it’s the first book in a series. I actually appreciated that the author didn’t make Donte too perfect of a love interest, that he had some longstanding values he held over the value of a human life. I don’t expect vampires to always act as a human would. And in regard to the journal, it was only right that he be the one to have it since it was literally his, so I couldn’t blame him for doing certain things to get it back. I’m not sure how much I really felt the romantic connection between the characters, but I wasn’t completely not feeling it either.

As for the audiobook, the narrator, Caleb Dickinson, wasn’t bad (other than not always being great at accents, but I think that was more of a problem in later books, which I’ve already read by the time I’m getting this posted). He sounded natural enough, and it was usually easy to tell characters apart. My issues though were that he had a super deep voice and slightly flat way of talking that caused me to kind of zone out sometimes, and his voice didn’t match how I would’ve imagined Adin, but that’s obviously subjective.

Overall, this book wasn’t bad, just not a stand-out either. But it held enough potential to make me willing to give the next book a try.

 

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Have you read Deep Desire by Z.A. Maxfield?
Do you ever kind of just let some things slide because "it's vampires"?

 
 
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12 thoughts on “Book Review: Deep Desire (Deep Book 1) by Z.A. Maxfield [Audiobook]

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  1. Greg

    ” I don’t expect vampires to always act as a human would.” This definitely. I think vampires should, a lot of times, be off or not just humans with powers. I mean, it depends on the story of course, but generally I feel that way too.

    One thing I do like is when vamps have morality struggles or have to adjust to being, you know, nonhuman! It seems like that would be HUGE. And I like that Donte here WROTE the journal, so that seems like it would up the stakes a bit in terms of him wanting to get it. Glad this was good. Even if the audio was a little iffy.

    1. Kristen Burns

      The journal idea was great because it made such a good reason why Donte would be so invested in it. And I do love when vampires aren’t quite human or just have different values and morals.

  2. Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity

    This sounds like a mixed one and it’s always so hard to judge with some of your reviews whether it is the book or the audiobook narrator which was the problem which must be so frustrating for you when you’re listening. I mean, the airplane sex sounds a bit dodgy but then, like you say, vampires. I kind of like when vampires don’t play within the rules we would expect them to, they live forever why would they care about human rules?

  3. Lola

    Too bad you had a hard time focusing on the story, but it sounds like a decent read with the original setup surrounding the journal. And that sounds interesting how the vampires had some unique abilities. I like it when character feel more realistic rather than perfect and it sounds like the author did that right here with Donte and made him feel a bit non-human.

    1. Kristen Burns

      It definitely wasn’t a bad read 🙂 It is nice when authors are able to make characters, esp supernaturals or immortals, more realistic and a bit inhuman.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah, when it doesn’t suit how I envision the character, it’s like my mind keeps being like, “Then they must not look like this? But they do ook like this?” and idk, it really throws me off throughout the whole book.

  4. Olivia Roach

    I think I have a higher opinion of vampires and they’ve usually been around for quite some time so they should have learned by now! I think that what you described in the first paragraph though is very believable so I would’ve done what you did – bring it up in the review in case it would bother someone, but also not really make too big a fuss of it as well.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah I felt like I had to bring it up because it was unusual, but eh, it did kinda seem believable lol. That’s interesting that you view vampires that way!