Deep End

Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End is a work of contemporary romance. The novel also falls under the sports romance and college romance subgenres. Originally published in February 2025, the novel traces the friends-to-lovers romance between competitive diver Scarlett Vandermeer and star swimmer Lukas Blomqvist. Like all of Hazelwood’s novels, Deep End prioritizes the female protagonist’s storyline. Scarlett’s first-person point of view guides the narrative throughout and inspires the novel’s themes of Competitive Sports as a Metaphor for Personal Challenges, the Journey Toward Growth, Healing, and Self-Empowerment, and the Exploration of BDSM Within Consensual Relationships.

Hazelwood gained notoriety for her 2021 New York Times bestseller The Love Hypothesis, which established her name in the contemporary romance literary community. The novel sold over 750,000 copies and launched Hazelwood’s authorial career.

This guide references the 2025 Berkley Books paperback edition of Deep End.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of sexual content, cursing, bullying, death, and physical abuse.

Plot Summary

Twenty-one-year-old Scarlett Vandermeer feels nervous when she returns to Stanford University for her junior year. For years, Scarlett has defined herself as a star athlete and straight-A student. However, when she severely injured herself during the NCAA championships two years prior, she started questioning herself and her abilities.

To quell her unease, Scarlett starts spending time with her diving captain and new friend Penelope (Pen) Ross. She’s surprised when Pen admits that she and her longtime boyfriend, Swedish swimming champion Lukas Blomqvist, have an unsatisfying sex life. She’s even more shocked when Pen confesses that Lukas is into BDSM, and she isn’t. Scarlett opens up about her own BDSM curiosity and tries to help Pen navigate her complicated dynamic with Lukas. Later, Pen tells Scarlett that she broke up with Lukas because she wants something different. They’ve been together since they were teenagers, and Pen still feels attached to him, but she also needs time to explore and enjoy herself. Scarlett is supportive but feels uncomfortable when Pen pushes her and Lukas together at a party, drunkenly insisting that they should have sex because they have similar sexual preferences.

Over the following weeks, Scarlett starts to see Lukas everywhere around campus. She tries to ignore him and focus on diving, classes, and therapy instead. She’s struggling academically, having trouble improving her dives, and just starting therapy with a new counselor, Sam. She’s grateful for Sam but worries that the sessions are too hard for her. Meanwhile, her grades continue to slip, and she can’t balance her athletics with her new biology research project.

Lukas confronts Scarlett and suggests that they discuss the possibility of starting a sexual relationship. Scarlett hesitates but decides to take him up on the offer. They begin by exchanging BDSM checklists—lists of their preferences and fantasies. They share the lists and discuss them together, shocked and excited to discover that they’re interested in the same things. Lukas finds Scarlett in the science lab where they work on the research project together, and Lukas initiates oral sex for the first time. Scarlett willingly gives up control to Lukas and enjoys how free she feels. They go to Lukas’s house, where they have sex again.

Scarlett gets anxious when Lukas disappears after these sexual encounters. When they meet up again, she confronts him about ignoring her and failing to communicate. He apologizes and admits that he was scared to admit how much he wanted to be with her. They make amends and renew their sexual relationship, which becomes more exploratory, experimental, and exciting over time.

Meanwhile, Scarlett continues to attend diving practices, classes, research meetings, and therapy sessions. She feels more confident about some of the dives but still can’t manage an inward dive—the dive she did the day she injured herself. She keeps trying in her classes but still needs extra help. She continues seeing Sam but hesitates to open up about why she’s still experiencing a mental block in and outside the pool.

Scarlett runs into her high school coach before a diving meet. Terrified of letting him see her dive, she feigns illness and flees the aquatic center. Lukas finds her in her room to see if she’s okay. She bursts out crying and opens up about her past trauma. The day before the NCAA championship, her estranged abusive father broke his restraining order and contacted her. Then, on the day of the championship, her now ex-boyfriend Josh called to break up with her because he had met someone else. Upset, she got the twisties (a diving phenomenon where the diver becomes disoriented in the air) while doing the inward dive and hurt herself. Ever since, she tells Lukas, she’s been afraid of being a failure. Lukas comforts and reassures her, sharing his own trauma and letting her cry in his arms.

In the middle of the night, Scarlett asks Lukas to accompany her to the pool. She performs an inward dive for the first time in two years. Over the following days, she regains her confidence and positivity. She has a breakthrough in therapy, her grades improve, and she grows closer to Pen and Lukas.

When the NCAA championships come around later that year, Scarlett tries to maintain her positive energy. She doesn’t put pressure on herself and ends up placing first. Afterward, she and Lukas share a passionate kiss in the locker room. Pen finds them together and accuses Scarlett of stealing her medal and boyfriend. Hurt, Scarlett flees the scene. The next day, she flies home to see her stepmom Barb and spends the first weeks of the summer recentering. Pen arrives unexpectedly in town and apologizes to Scarlett in person. After they make amends, Scarlett impulsively buys a ticket to Sweden to see Lukas. They profess their love and agree to build a life together. In the epilogue, the two maintain their relationship while pursuing medical degrees at different universities.