Blog Tour: Drowning In You by Rebecca Berto: Review and Giveaway

I'm happy to be a part of the Drowning in You blog tour today. I have a review of this New Adult Contemporary for you as well as information about the book and a giveaway!

Drowning in You (Finding Forever In Us #1) by Rebecca Berto

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Level: New Adult
Publication Date: April 12, 2013
Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary: Secretly crushing

Crushed by a tragedy

Charlee May’s been crushing on Dexter Hollingworth since she was fifteen. Five years later, a horrific skiing disaster at Mason’s Ski Lift Resort leaves her millionaire dad critically injured and her mom dead at the hands of Dexter operating the lifts. Charlee is suddenly the sole caretaker for her little brother while their world falls apart.

Dexter couldn’t be more different from Charlee. He’s tattooed, avoids exclusive relationships and his Dad has a fair share of illegal dealings. With Dexter’s reputation, almost everyone believes he planned the Mason’s skiing disaster.

And after all these years he’s still crushing on Charlee May, the girl who’s too good for him.

When this cruel twist of fate ties Charlee’s family and Dexter’s reputation together, Charlee and Dexter wonder if their feelings are reciprocated, while Dexter discovers his dad is trying to steal the May’s millionaire fortune.

But like an addiction, one look, one touch, one taste—they’re hooked no matter the consequences.

That summary is something, isn't it? I love it. Tragedy. Attraction. Romance. Pain. Mystery. All in one book. And it is all in this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't done quite as well as I had hoped. But still, this book is enjoyable and I always like reading about characters in the New Adult age range.

When Drowning in You starts, the accident involving Charlee's parents at the ski resort has already taken place, so we're dumped right into the middle of it all. Charlee's mom is dead, her dad is struggling to survive in the hospital with extensive injuries, and Charlee has become the full-time caregiver for her ten year old brother. I love being dropped right into the thick of a story, especially when it comes without the awful info dump. The only problem this time was that the beginning ended up being a little bit confusing. The writing needed some smoothing out. It was too choppy and pretty hard to follow in the beginning.

By far the best parts of this story were the family moments. The times Charlee has with her dad and the emotions she goes through trying to care for Darcy are the most moving. Those are the times when I felt the strong emotions and the times that broke my heart. Even the times that Dexter has with his dad are surprising. The family connection was easily the strongest part of the story and the easiest part for me to connect with.

The biggest letdown in this book for me, unfortunately, was the romance between Charlee and Dexter. I had a hard time seeing the long-time attraction they each held for each other. It felt more like they'd just randomly known each other from the past rather than crushing on each other for years. They were cute together and they definitely had their moments, especially after moving past the awkwardness of their first few meetings in the book, I just didn't understand why they liked each other in the beginning.

Overall this book held both positives and negatives for me. I was surprised by the twist in regards to Dexter's dad, I loved the moments between Charlee and her family, I liked that Charlee and Dexter were a couple that seemed better together than they were apart, I liked the addition of Eliot and the way his story-line played out, but I really wish the writing had been stronger. I think a good editor could make this book something really special. I gave Drowning in You 3 stars.

Giveaway

This is a tour wide giveaway for 5 ebook copies of Drowning in You. The giveaway is open Internationally and provided by the tour.

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