A Deeper Blue

Hanel (Love Another Day) has written a bland and uninspiring slog with a plot built out of twee public service announcements. Alexandra Rey is a former animal behaviorist turned jet ski rental shop owner in steamy Lee County, Fla. She suffers from a clich%C3%A9d and uninteresting case of survivor's guilt after a childhood boating accident killed her mother and brother. Kailyn Montgomery is a comic strip artist and daughter of a wealthy banking family. When research for a new strip leads her to Alexandra's rental shop, the unrelenting power of the formulaic story forces them to exchange wooden dialogue and question their understanding of themselves. Each would-be lover is beset by several individual challenges that aren't particularly believable, tension raising, or challenging to overcome. The charmless characters lack romantic chemistry and are unlikely to hold the reader's interest. (Nov.)