This RITA® Reader Challenge 2013 review was written by Erica. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Long Contemporary Series Romance category.

The summary:     

She isn't going down that road again Kyndal Rawlings thought she'd learned her lesson when Chance Brennan left her to pursue his Ivy League dreams.

Yet here she is, in Kentucky, falling for him all over again. Maybe it's being stranded in a cave with him…the same place they first became lovers.

Or maybe there's still something between them. Not that anything will change-even after four tense days of depending on each other for their very survival.

Chance needs a certain kind of woman to help him with his career. And Kyndal will never be that kind. But something has changed. Something that will force them to decide what they really want.

And here is Erica's review:

Out of the Depths was… interesting. It was mostly a good interesting, as I found myself really surprised by some of the twists it took, and I was surprised by where the story ultimately went.

I loooooove the lovers reunited trope. It's my favorite.

Kyndal and Chance were high school lovers. They broke up.

No big deal, right? I mean, this happens all the time, right? Nope.

Kyndal comes from the wrong side of the tracks. Her parents were either completely absent or completely useless, but Kyndal had the drive to make something of herself, and has become a very talented photographer. She worked briefly for an environmental site, but something (I don’t think I ever really understood what) happened, which has ruined her professional reputation. She now takes pictures at a “Walmart wannabe” to make ends meet, and keeps hoping for another chance to prove herself.

Chance's dad is an extremely powerful lawyer, with political connections. After Chance’s brother’s death, the dad focuses all of his attention and ambition on making Chance into another powerful lawyer, eventual judge, and completely runs Chance’s life from there on out.

These two have never gotten over each other. Chance feels guilty, and somewhat relieved, to have dumped Kyndal nine years ago. And Kyndal is still heartbroken, although now it’s desperation to Become Someone to show Chance and his asshole dad that she’s worthy and can overcome her crappy upbringing.

Well, Kyndal has come to town to photograph a cave that she and Chance used to frequent in order to get a new job that could save her reputation. Chance now owns the cave, has trouble with trespassers, and Kyndal gets arrested, and, once the situation is explained to Chance, he offers to go to the cave with her.

They get trapped down there for four days (I think), without supplies. It is intense. They are dehydrated, and hurt, and it’s freaking insane. I was SO worried about them down there. But, being in the cave winds up being good for them. They fight, they address their past, there are some confessions and sexytimes (which actually annoyed me — I was yelling SAVE YOUR FLUIDS, which amused my husband to no end).

And I guess I didn’t pay attention to the story blurb, because I totally thought this would be the whole story. That everything that happened in the cave would be the core of the story, and then they’d get out and have their HEA. So imagine my surprise when they were rescued and there was still 50% of the story left.

And there's an explosion of drama that I really wanna talk about, but I won’t because I have been informed that it’s spoilery. So consider yourselves unspoiled.

So anyway, DRAMA. Because they each love the other one. But they’re dumb, because they’re not totally sure about whether the other loves them back, etc. Chance is hesitant because he's been brainwashed by his asshole dad to think that he has to be a certain kind of person (read: extreme snob) and that Kyndal would never fit into his world. But he does try to show her that he's going to be there for her, that he's going to stick. But Kyndal, who's never had ANYONE stay, is aware that she doesn't meet Chance's dad's expectations and is terrified of opening herself to the possibility of Chance leaving her again.

At some point, I grew really, really irritated with them. I wanted to scream at them that if they would just be HONEST with each other and freakin' TALK to each other, they could be together and be happy and life would be great. But NO.

Ugh.

That being said, Chance did need to grow up and stand up to his dad. Kyndal needed to be brave and realize that she's awesome and good enough for any world. That takes some time. But it was really annoying watching these two smart, hardworking, good people act like absolute idiots. I get it, there's a history there, which makes it harder to be open and vulnerable, but UGH. I was so annoyed.

I was annoyed because I liked them. Chance said some seriously mean stuff sometimes (but he gets vomited on, so that's good), but he's parroting his asshole dad, and I could tell he was actually really compassionate and awesome. And Kyndal was so… I mean, that girl had the short end of the stick her whole freaking life and she kept going for the good stuff. She was so badass and inspiring. I wanted them to be together. They had amazing chemistry. I had all kinds of tummy butterflies.

And they just KEPT BEING DUMB.

Well, finally, all sorts of good things happen, and it’s lovely and happily-ever-after feelings abound. But I felt like they had spent a lot of time being dumb, so I was vaguely dissatisfied. I think I kept growling, “You could have had this WEEKS AGO, you dork!”

There was also a really moving subplot about Kyndal's best friend Jaci and her husband and her struggles with getting pregnant, wondering if she's meant to be a mother, and so on. I loved that story and I thought it was handled with amazing delicacy and humor and honesty. I loved that.

So, all in all, I did like it. I liked the characters, I liked the stories they lived through. It was good stuff. But I felt like the main characters took too long to reach their happy ending, which annoyed the crap out of me.

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