Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

First book in the Between duo

5 stars

Violet White misses her grandmother, Freddie, terribly. Her parents are absent and she lives all alone with her twin brother in their sprawling mansion by the sea. They are struggling for money and River West shows up ready to rent the guest house. But terrible things begin happening in their small little town. Things that shouldn’t normally be happening. Children are claiming to see the devil, people are killing themselves, and everything seems to be pointing to River. Is River the Devil? The man Freddie always warned her about? Violet knows she should stay away from River, but kissing in cemeteries and sleeping in a boy’s bed has never been more tempting or fun. First book of 2014 complete! Whoohoo! It took me forever to finish this because I just seemed to always get distracted or never have time to read. This book was a lot darker than I had thought it would be. Most “dark” YA isn’t all that dark, but this was pretty gritty and spine chilling. BtDatDBS was a book that easily grabbed my attention and kept me guessing. For once we are introduced to something completely new. When I say completely new, I mean you literally won’t be able to guess about what paranormal things are lurking in this book no matter how many books or how familiar you are with all things creeptastic.


The main female character is Violet. Violet is probably one of my favorite YA heroines as of late. She is bookish, passionate, odd, and curious. She references old tales, poems, stories, and lore and it made the book so quirky and I loved hearing about the horrible things that Violet found fascinating no matter how morbid the story may be. A Rose for Emily for instance was one of my favorite stories Violet talked about along with the man who slit his lover’s throat who later turned out to be a lot closer to Violet’s family. It was so interesting how everything connected. While Violet really ticked me off towards the end because of her crappy judgment, I do still like her and she still remains to be awesome. I think the reason why I really like Violet is because she reminds me of myself.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 9.5

The main male character is River. I don’t know whether I want to swoon when it comes to River or scream. I’ve never been so conflicted about a male lead before. I love and adore River, but he is a horrible human being and a monster. He irked me quite a bit, but then he would also manage to sweep me off my feet with his sweet talk.



Basically, River pretty much had me an emotional wreck. And hey look it's my husband.^_^


Swoon Worthy Scale: 9.5

The Villain- I can’t ruin it. I can’t even discuss it, but I’ll leave you with this. There’s children missing, a devil sighting, a suicide in the middle of town, a ghost of a dead aunt, red heads being stoned and burned alive for being witches, people getting hit by trains, people attempting to kill each other, and my personal favorite, parents bludgeoning their kid with a baseball bat because they think they are a rat. If that doesn’t scare you then you are probably as crazy as the people in this book.


Villain Scale: 10

I really liked Violet’s brother, Luke, even if he was a bit of an ass. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Sunshine, but she did grow on me at some point. River brother, Neely, was an interesting throw into the mix and I like him quite a bit. Jack, a little kid who becomes a huge party of Violet’s life, is one of my favorites in this book.

Character Scale: 8.5

River and Violet’s romance is also something I want to be touched on more in the next book. It was there, but I wanted more a lot more. I was pretty blown away by this book to say the least and if all the horrible things I mentioned didn’t peak your interest then this book might not be for you. On the darker side of things, I can’t wait for the second book and I hope it’s as violent and nightmarishly gothic as the first!
You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…


Cover Thoughts: This is one of my favorite covers! It’s so pretty and just perfect. I love the colors and the darkness. It’s so gothic and perfect.