Blog Tour Review: Knee Deep by Jolene Perry

Title: Knee Deep
Author: Jolene Perry
Publisher: Tribute Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Contemporary Romance
Release date: May 1st, 2012
Pages: 176 (ebook)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Publisher
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Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He's her soul mate. He's more uptight every day, but it's not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she's adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he'll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long. 


Luke is her best friend, and the guy she hangs with to watch girlie movies in her large blanketopias. He's the guy she can confide in before she even goes to her girlfriends, and the guy who she's playing opposite in Romeo and Juliet. Now her chest flutters every time he gets too close. This is new. Is Ronnie falling for him? Or is Juliet? The lines are getting blurry, but leaving one guy for another is not something that a girl like Ronnie does. 


Shawn’s outbursts are starting to give her bruises, and Luke’s heart breaks as Ronnie remains torn. While her thoughts and feelings swirl around the lines between friendship and forever, she’s about to lose them both.

Ronnie is convinced that Shawn is the boy she's meant to spend the rest of her life with, even when he begins to prove himself unworthy of the role.  She convinces herself that he's the same boy she fell in love with when they were kids, even though their lives begin to travel down two separate paths.  Will Ronnie know when to walk away, or does she love him enough to put herself through anything?

When their relationship begins to move too fast for her comfort and Shawn begins to pressure her, Ronnie gets the hint that something isn't quite right.  It isn't until she experiences what his home life is like that she realizes why Shawn has been acting the way he has, possessive and controlling, drastic mood swings, starting fights over the fact that Ronnie is taller than him when she wears heels.  At least she has the drama club to take her mind off of it all for a while.  She even becomes Juliet's understudy in Romeo and Juliet and seems to get a lot closer to her friend, Luke, than she originally intended.

The characters were very realistic and I often felt Shawn's rage, Ronnie's fear and Luke's compassion.  Emotions were set high and there was nothing else I could do but to continue reading to find out how Ronnie would get herself out of this mess.  Like most women of abuse, Ronnie continuously told herself that it wasn't his fault, things at home had gotten bad, and eventually she even began to put the blame on herself.  Luke was there to remind her that love wasn't supposed to leave her feeling worthless, which I believe helped her in the long run.

I love this author's writing and the ease it takes to follow her stories.  I was completely captivated by the lives of these characters, the help Ronnie could have gotten from most people around her and what it finally took for her to say no.  While incredibly heart-wrenching, Knee Deep will end on a high note, leaving you with a grin that's hard to wipe off your face.