REVIEW: DROWNING IN YOU by REBECCA BERTO

Category/Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: 4/12/13
Format: eARC
Pages: 314
Source: Received from author for review

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.

Disclaimer: Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content and crude language.

 

 

The basis of Drowning in You makes for a great story. A girl and a guy, who've always had crushes on one another, but never acted on it. The girl's parents are in a tragic accident, one in which the boy was partially responsible, but not really. Of course this causes a lot of strong emotions between the two, but doesn't stop their attraction. How do you get past tragedy like that?

 

But, despite my liking of the premise, Drowning in You is a story I had a bit of a struggle connecting with. I think most of my lack of enthusiasm can be attributed to confusion. Since the story begins after the accident, I didn't feel Charlee and Dexter's long-term attraction. I was told they've always felt it, but I had no reason to be strongly rooting for them. It felt like there was a lot of struggling, just for the sake of it.

 

I also didn't get why everyone in town hated Dexter. It's made clear right away that he had no responsibility in the accident. So why did everyone in the town hate him. Charlee didn't hate him. Her brother didn't hate him. He was officially cleared. I mean, I know how unfair people can be, but it just didn't ring true to me that Dexter could be so reviled for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

However, there are some really sweet and intense moments between Charlee and Dex. I actually liked both of them, a lot. Dex was a really sweet, sexy guy who just wants to do the right thing. Charlee was a fabulous sister, and was so brave. (But I didn't like her tendency to fall to the floor every time she got upset, personal peeve of mine.)

 

Like I said before, Drowning in You is an interesting story with a very dramatic premise. And though I didn't ever personally connect with, others may fall in love with Charlee and Dex.

 

 

Favorite Quote:

 

  Charlee May and Dexter Hollingworth can't be apart, so we might as well stop making living apart hell because that was never going to work.  ~eARC, 84%

 

 

Purchase Drowning in You at:

Amazon  |  Kobo  |  Smashwords

 

 

About the author:

Rebecca Berto is the author or the dark contemporary/literary novella, PRECISE and the new adult contemporary romance novel, DROWNING IN YOU. She is also a freelance editor.

She writes stories that are a bit sexy, and straddle the line between Literary and Tear Your Heart Out. She gets a thrill when her readers are emotional reading her stories, and gets even more of a kick when they tell her so. She’s strangely imaginative, spends too much time on her computer, and is certifiably crazy when she works on her fiction.

Rebecca Berto lives in Melbourne, Australia with her boyfriend and their doggy.

 

Connect with Rebecca at:

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