In Too Deep by Dani Collins

At her wit’s end with her twelve-year-old niece, Wren Snow takes the manager’s job at Blue Spruce Lodge so Sky can get to know her father, Trigg Johanssen—a tycoon snowboarder with a playboy reputation.

Gold-medalist Trigg Johanssen is furious she kept Sky a secret, but quits competition to focus on his newly discovered daughter only to have his chemistry with Wren complicate their attempts to co-parent.

When outside forces threaten the ski resort he’s rebuilding, a marriage of convenience seems like the answer. It would give his daughter the life she deserves, but is it too much for a heartbroken woman still nursing past hurts?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33259027-the-duchess-deal

Title: In Too Deep
Author: Dani Collins
Series: Blue Spruce Lodge
Pages: 315
Genre(s): Contemporary, US
Hot Buttons: Death, Abuse<-- highlight to reveal (may contain spoilers)

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This was a really difficult book for me to review, to be honest. From start to finish - it took me a looong time to get through to the end. While that would normally tell me all I need to know about a book - there were lots and lots of things that I really enjoyed about it.

For the first half of the book, I felt all I was doing was learning about who the characters were. Not learning about how they interacted with each other - well, except for Skylar and Wren - just about them and their outlook on life. We have our three main characters and a myriad of other players - and it was just so confusing at times, I found myself rereading passages just trying to figure out who was who - who was sleeping with who - and other confusions. After a while, I decided I didn’t care and just would continue on with the story.

I mention that there were three main characters - our hero - Trigg, our heroine - Wren, and Skylar - Trigg’s 12 year daughter/ Wren’s niece.

And that is one of the other reasons I disliked the first 50% of the book. Skylar had whole chapters dedicated to her thoughts and feelings. The thoughts and feelings of a bratty, entitled 12 year old girl. There are no words to tell you how much I do not care about these things. I understand she was an integral part of the story - but it really moved this book from a romance into the territory of a family drama/saga type story.

However, the book definitely picked up after the first 50%. The romance started (seriously, there was nothing before that) and things finally got interesting. At first I thought that it was because the book was better in the second half, but now I wonder if it was because I hadn’t read the first two books in this series, On the Edge and From the Top. If I’d read them, perhaps I would have been more interested in the scene setting and I wouldn’t have been so confused by the large cast of characters or how they were linked and related.

I liked both Wren and Trigg. Liked, rather than loved but that’s likely due to it taking so long before I saw some action of any kind whatsoever. Trigg is a funny, playboy type coming to grips with a daughter that’s just as much of a pain in the ass as he is. Wren was sweet and feisty and someone just trying to do the best for everyone. I did wish she would open up a bit more and be a bit more mature about her feelings - but then again she herself was only 23 (sigh - I’m so bloody old!) so I guess I should forgive her! But I won’t - because I’m old and bitter about all these young folk!

Despite all my complaints, the writing was excellent. Descriptive, fast paced and I could see the mountain resort of Blue Spruce Lodge as clear as if the author had painted the picture before me. The scenes with Wren’s sister’s diary absolutely killed me. I’m a cryer by nature but oooft - those passages hit me hard in the feels.

Having come to the end of the book, strangely enough, I really want to read more about these people. I’m off to get my hand on the first couple of books in the Blue Spruce Lodge series - and suggest that you do the same before reading this. While the love story in this book is a standalone - I don’t feel that the book itself is. Had I read the first couple of books first, I feel this would have been a solid 4 or even 5 star read. As I was coming in blind (and confused), I can only give this 3 stars.