Drowning Erin was my first book by Elizabeth O’Roark. It was a fast read that definitely brought out all the emotions I expect in a romance novel. In Drowning Erin, we meet a young woman who seems to have everything she could possibly ever ask (or want) for. But sometimes appearances are deceiving. When her fiancé leaves on a work assignment, Erin is left dealing with their ‘temporary’ roommate Brendan. As her fiancé’s best friend, Brendan should be totally off-limits but Erin and Brendan also have a history that exists between them and sometimes temptation leads to circumstances one never expects to happen.

There was no shortage of angst in this book and for that alone, I felt like she deserves five stars. Angst is often hard to write because it can make a book too tragic… Yet this author managed to layer the moments of angst with lighter, less emotional moments beautifully. Also, in Drowning Erin, readers could actually relate with Erin’s character on multiple fronts, Erin could easily be your sister or your best friend. We could understand the situation she found herself in at home and at work. We could literally feel her anger as her workplace situation became more and more volatile and her frustrations in the stale and unhealthy relationship she has with Rob. In writing Drowning Erin, Elizabeth made me hate Brendan’s manwhore ways and sympathize with Erin all while rooting for Erin to actually get involved with Brendan in the first place (and I never root for cheating on any level!) It was hard not to find sympathy with Erin since in a stroke of pure genesis Elizabeth O’Roark layered the storyline by only giving readers brief glimpses into Brendan’s feelings (until the very end of the book). By making the vast majority of this book told strictly by Erin’s perspective, readers didn’t know where Brendan stood with the changes in their relationship and we couldn’t relate to him as easily…he was truly a diamond in the rough for most of the book. This single aspect left me completely unable to put the book down because it allowed for a sense of mystery and painted Branden as an enigma. I was wholly invested in seeing what rabbit hole Elizabeth O’Roark was leading me down. I loved how I didn’t feel like this story had been told before and can not wait to read more work by Elizabeth O’Roark because Drowning Erin certainly introduced me to a new author to add to my list of favorites.