Deeper by Megan Hart

SOME LOVERS NEVER LEAVE YOU Twenty years ago she had her whole life spread out before her. She was Bess Walsh, a fresh-scrubbed, middle-class student ready to conquer the...world. And she was taken. Absolutely and completely. But not by Andy, her well-groomed, intellectual boyfriend who had hinted more than once about a ring. No. During that hot summer....she met Nick, the moody, dark-haired, local bad boy. He was, to put it mildly, not someone she could take home to Daddy. Instead, Nick became her dirty little secret ~ a fervent sexual accomplice who knew how to ignite an all-consuming obsession she had no idea she carried deep within her. Bess had always wondered what happened to Nick after that summer, after their promise to meet again. And now, back at the beach house and taking a break from responsibility, from marriage, from life, she discovers his heartbreaking fate ~ and why he never came back for her. Suddenly Nick's name is on her lips; his hands on her thighs; dark hair and eyes called back from the swirling gray of purgatory's depths. Dead, alive, or something in between, they can't stop their hunger. She wouldn't dare. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~

I just finished this book and I'm finding it almost impossible to stop the tears flowing. For anyone that knows me, my crying over a book or movie is very much par for the course. When an author writes magic, as does Megan Hart... regularly, I become very emotionally involved with the characters and with their livesand Deeper is one of those stories that gets to my emotions, fast and deep.

Since I first *found* Megan Hart, via a review for Dirty written by one of my fellow eHarlequin bloggers, I've been completely taken by the richness of her story-telling. She imbues her characters with a uniqueness so that they become people rather than just two-dimensional characters. Even though we are on the outside looking in, it is a privilege to experience the portions of their lives that Megan Hart opens to us. For me I very often feel that not only am I on the periperhy of their experiences, but that what they feel ~ especially on an emotional level ~ is also mine to feel. Hence the tears.

Now I'm loathe to say anything that may give away what happens ~ even in part ~ in this story, so for those who haven't, but plan to, read Megan Hart's latest offering, you may want to skip over this next part.
But I cannot write a review of this story or even attempt to explain why it had the impact that it did, without going into a little more depth and detail.
You've been warned! *grin*

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Primarily I found that this is Bess's story and how, after 20 years of not knowing what happened to the man she loved, she was able to say good-bye. She was finally given answers as to what had happened to Nick all those years ago, why she'd been left waiting and wondering. But she was also given more of an insight to herself, to who she, Bess, was. And she reclaimed an old friendship that, once again, gave unexpected comfort and the promise of a new life... one of her own making and creation. A powerful, powerful story that is long going to live on in my memory and one to which I will return again and again.

There were times when the truth of Bess's and Nick's situation ~ past and present ~ were nigh onto overwhelming. Times that a deep sadness would well up and tears would flow; but there was always relief, never an unrelenting sorrow, the kind that takes the reader down to the depths of despair and leaves them there with no hope, no relief. Megan Hart's Deeper ends on a positive note with a promise of a much happier future for Bess.
It is a story of answers, good-byes and new beginnings... but, most of all, it's a story of self-discovery ~ and not just for the people with whom our lives intersect for such a brief time.

Deeper is a tale of magic, unexplained yet not needing any explanations. It is what it is... and that, my friends, is a story to treasure and in which to lose, and find, oneself time and again.