Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
Genre: Romance/Women’s Fiction
Heat Level: 🔥🔥
Release Date: April 7, 2026
Publisher: Ballantine Books
*I received a complimentary audiobook copy of this book from PRHAudio.
I started Into the Blue on a whim, without knowing too much about this book. I’ll be honest – I am not the biggest fan of celebrity romance and so initially I wrote of this book. But when friends wouldn’t stop raving about it, I decided I had to pick it up. I started with the audiobook – which is fantastic by the way – and then alternated between the ebook and audiobook. I couldn’t read Into the Blue fast enough, and honestly it might be one of my favorite books of the year. It was swoony, romantic and heartbreaking. It gave me the feeling of buoyancy that you get with a first love, yet also dealt with the heavy truths about the harsh reality of becoming a caregiver.
All this to say, I’ve been looking for a book like this for a very long time. So glad I decided to pick up Into the Blue by Emma Brodie…maybe you will enjoy it too?
SYNOPSIS
From the award-winning author of Songs in Ursa Major comes an epic, decade-spanning love story that blazes through the worlds of acting and comedy, and charts a connection so powerful it might just break space and time itself.
In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for SNL; instead, she’s stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her Massachusetts small town and large family. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond first as friends, then as acting partners—until one day, Noah disappears without a word.
Seven years later in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years ago—and the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together.
Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry, and devastating emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any other—one that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?
REVIEW
What you can expect in Into the Blue:
-friends to lovers
-story told over the span of years starting in early 2000’s
-slow burn
-so much angst and longing
-star crossed lovers
-Hollywood-esqu romance
-pulled on my heartstrings…hard
AJ Graves meets Noah Drew while working at the local video rental store. She’s young and has dreams of writing for SNL when she graduates high school and eventually college. She never expects to have Noah Drew be her co-worker for the summer. THE Noah Drew of Drew acting dynasty whose aunt is one of AJ’s favorite actresses on one of her favorite shows. Over the summer they form a bond that has them connecting while both sharing their love of acting. When unforeseen circumstances have Noah abruptly leaving town, AJ is bereft. Her acting partner, her best friend of the summer and someone who she recently started developing feelings for is all of a sudden gone. Without a trace or a word to her. AJ decides then and there to move on…and not look back.
I won’t say much more about Into the Blue without giving away the plot but gah how I loved this book so much 😭. Told over the span of years, Into the Blue is a love story how how AJ and Noah try to stay away from one another, but the universe keeps bringing them back into each others orbit. If you are a fan of these tropes: fated mates, star crossed lovers, right person wrong time…yeah this is definitely the book for you 🥹.
I haven’t read a book like this in so long. A book where you can’t stop reading and at the same time wish that the story would never end. I loved literally everything about this book. From the “hair dryer” scenes to the scenes with all of the various different side characters especially Noah’s finicky aunt Eudora. I have scene after scene highlighted and had tears streaming down my face on more than one occasion.
Emma Brodie writes with so much emotion and I loved connecting with Noah and AJ. From the very first scene their chemistry was palpable. And every time they met one another over the years that bond that they shared never severed and I kept feeling that tug deep in my stomach…telling them please please please you’re it for one another 🥲. I felt AJ’s anger, love, trust and Noah’s despair, love and fear. The prose in Into the Blue was so hauntingly beautiful.
I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook which was narrated by Julia Whelan and I loved it so much. Julia Whelan always does a fantastic job and she did such a great job brining AJ and Noah to life with this performance. I felt their joy, love and fear in every single scene. I can’t wait to go back and re-listen to this audiobook.
If you are a fan of Emily Henry, I think you would really love Emma Brodie’s writing and especially Into the Blue. As the title states, it’s definitely a love story. I cannot wait to read whatever Emma Brodie writes next.
A few of my favorite quotes:
“It’s a terrible thing to stand in the wings, haunted by the specter of your younger self.”
“Grief could be a nebulous abyss or a hand through a glass door.”
“The truth is, there’s no such thing as a normal life. There’s just the time you get and how you spend it.”
“The way his hands touched her skin made AJ feel lacy and love-worn and dear, like a passage he knew by heart but would endlessly revisit in search of new meaning.”
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