-Blog Tour Stop, Review + Giveaway- In Too Deep by Michelle Kemper Brownlow

Welcome BookPicERS to my stop on the IN TOO DEEP blog tour!

Be sure to check out the rest of the stops HERE and enter the amazing giveaway!

Now for my stop, I've got a spotlight, review and giveaway to share.

Let us begin :)

Hope you enjoy and trust me when I say, you have GOT to get this book!

(recommended for 16+ readers)

In Too Deep by Michelle Kemper Brownlow
Publication date: June 6th 2013
by Sapphire Star Publishing
Genre: New Adult Romance

Synopsis: 

*** Long- Gracie has just finished her freshman year of college in Memphis when she takes a job at a local pizza joint in her home town of McKenzie, Tennessee. She is the epitome of innocence when she meets Noah. Noah is unabashedly handsome, intriguingly reckless and just cocky enough to be sexy. Gracie’s instincts tell her to stay far away from him and based on the stories she hears from her co-workers he leaves broken hearts in his wake. But still, she can’t explain her fascination with him.

Noah puts aside his bad boy ways when what he thought was a summer crush has him unexpectedly falling in love. But soon after Gracie transfers to UT Knoxville to be with Noah, their unexpected love becomes riddled with anger, deceit and humiliation.

Jake, Noah’s former roommate and Gracie’s best friend, can no longer be a bystander. Gracie’s world falls out from beneath her and when she breaks she turns to Jake for strength. As Jake talks her through a decision she’s not yet strong enough to make, together they uncover a truth so ugly neither of them is prepared for its fallout. Will Jake pull her to the surface or is Gracie Jordan finally In Too Deep? ***

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******

My Thoughts

There is just so much a heart can take, a girl can fight, a smile can falter.

There is just so much that a boy can hurt, a glare can cower, a word can break.

An extremely beautifully crafted novel, a talented author, and a heart-wrenching story. I loved every single word in it!

Gracie, oh Gracie, how I suffered for and with you. How I hated and loved you, how I sometimes wanted to hug you while others I just really wanted to shake you.

Gracie's character can't even be called a character. I thought of her as a person, as a living person, one who was close to me throughout the whole read of the book. I thought of her as a friend that needed me and yet didn't have me because as much as I wanted to get inside the story, inside the book, inside of all the character's lives... I couldn't.

- ...the love and affection I craved from Noah was being dangled in front of me. It gave me hope that the Noah I fell in love with was clawing to get out. I couldn't give up on him now. - 

Gracie's sweet, innocent, funny, smiley, if a bit shy. But she's a good girl, not boring, not anything that would scream at you "get away I'm a loner" nope. Though she tended to be a bit naive, I could have not liked her more. She's an incredible person with a huge heart and even a bigger mind. 

The one tiny little problem?

She loves the person that doesn't want or maybe doesn't let other people love him.

Though, Noah DOES love her, in his terms and his way but from what I could read and gather he did love her and maybe still does... 

But I think he didn't know how to love her afterwards... When life happened, when school happened, when the distance happened, when one thing and the other came and Gracie's place in Noah's life started to drop in ranking...
He didn't know how to lover her and he knew even less how to let her go.

And that's when everything fell apart and the story really begins...

And you know where does that happen???

In the VERY BEGINNING OF THE BOOK!

- "... I don't deserve you. I guess in a twisted sort of way, I push you away to save you." -

We get flashes of the past in between what happens in the present and there... Among those...

We meet Jake, whom I loved from the start.

Jake who so carefully and lovingly picked up the pieces when Noah went too far; Jake, who could with just one touch calm Gracie's thoughts, breath and heartbeat; Jake, who with every single word started teaching Gracie her value.

Jake, who was simply perfect.

I didn't know, I didn't understand why some girls stay in decaying and self-destructive, abusive relationships. But after reading this, I got a glimpse inside a head of one.

Sometimes we don't know we're near the waves, sometimes we don't know we've taken that step closer to them, sometimes we don't see that half our bodies have already been submerged in the water...

Sometimes it takes trying to take a breath to see that we're in too deep.

-My body landed softly, somewhere. I was finally in so deep that I reached the bottom. There's no air on the bottom. People suffer here.-

There's hope, there's love and there's trust for all of you who've been there or are still there. Inside, drowning, trying to scream for help...

Some will try to reason that they're fine, that the water burns their lungs but not too much and maybe it'll come a time when it'll be too late for them... But for now. For now you can all be saved. 

You have so much value, you are worth so much more. 

Pain isn't love, abuse isn't love, sadness isn't love, sobbing isn't love, bruises whether physical or emotional aren't love, lying isn't love.

Love is happiness, sacrifice, trust, smiles, laughter, happy tears, fighting together to destroy that which tears you apart.

Michelle Kemper's writing was astounding and fresh. Her book was all her, her voice was loud and clear and her description of every little thing perfect.

I couldn't have asked for a better debut novel.

Everyone should watch out for this author who'll have you with a broken heart in a minute and a mended and glowing heart the next.

- When I looked in the mirror, I no longer saw the girl I used to be. I let [...] pull me this way and that way, then finally let him pull me apart, and he left behind only a fraction of who I once was. -

We're worth infinite happiness. All of us. Never settle :)

My weaknesses?
BOTH were put right there on display. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and goes perfectly well with the story and the tittle? Insane and right to the heart of the book. It was IN it as much as it was ON it.

A heartbreaking-eye opener debut novel that grabs your heart and mind since the very first page without you noticing until you're in too deep to let go. Raw, happy, gritty, sad, and oh so very real. Michelle Kemper is one author to watch out for.

Recommended to fans of Michelle D. Argyle (The Breakaway) & Jamie McGuire (Beautiful Disaster) ^_^

"Two people walking in the same direction."

I give this book,

5= Clouds In The Heavens READ IT!

***

Meet the author!

Michelle Kemper Brownlow has been a storyteller her entire life. Her debut was on the high school cheerleading bus granting requests to re-tell her most embarrassing moments for a gaggle of hysterical squadmates.

Earning her Bachelor’s degree from Penn State University in Art Education and then marrying her very own “Jake,” she moved to Binghamton, NY where she taught high school. After having two children she quit work and finished her Master’s degree in Elementary Education at Binghamton University.

The Brownlow family of four moved to Michelle’s hometown of Morgantown, PA while the children were still quite young. A few years after moving, her family grew by one when they welcomed a baby into their home through the gift of adoption. The family still resides in PA, just miles from where that high school cheer bus was parked.

Michelle has been an artist for as long as she can remember, always choosing pencils and crayons over toys and puzzles. As a freelance illustrator, her simple characters play the starring roles in numerous emergent reader books published by Reading Reading Books.

“Writing is my way of making sense of the world. When I give my characters life on the pages I write, it frees up space in my mind to welcome in new stories that are begging to be told,” says Brownlow.

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