Book Review: Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker
Category: New Adult, Contemporary
Publication: December 11, 2012
Book Pages: 262
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon
[book rating=5.0/5.0]
Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.
Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.
But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.
Review
Ten Tiny Breaths is exactly what I needed to do after finishing this emotionally harrowing New Adult release. First let me say that I have been a glutton for New Adult releases of late. I’ve been reading so many that a pattern has emerged and that is that many of them are all about the sexy and not about the story. Well let me tell you this book has the sexy but it also has the heart, the story, and the well drawn characters to make it resonate with you well after the final page is closed. I was so taken with this book that I started gushing about it immediately, if this book was a politician, I’d be its campaign manager.
Kacey Cleary is one hell of complicated heroine, a red-headed kick-boxer with a sassy mouth, she’s loaded with scars both physical and mental. Enter Trent her sexy new neighbor in 1D. From the minute these two meet (in a hilarious but also kind of hot way) in a dingy laundry room of all places you just know something special is about to go down. Every step of their budding relationship had me glued to the pages. Trent was determined, kind, stubborn, and ok HOT. I loved every minute of the chemistry these two oozed across the pages. But it wasn’t just the romantic relationship between Kacey and Trent, it was reading about Kacey’s journey from the tragedy that befell her family, to her relationship with her sister, to the slow discovery of her affinity and affection for her lovable stripper neighbor and her young daughter.
Kacey’s emotional journey, culminating with the shocking reveal towards the end of the book, were like a sucker-punch to the heartstrings. Nothing was rushed in this book, not the romance, Kacey’s emotional journey or recovery, the friendships, nothing. I really appreciated the authors ability to just let the story unfold. Too often I read books and there is a rush to speed up relationships, to the detriment of the story, and it just wasn’t the case here.
As I came upon the close of the book, I was left bereft because I had become attached to this world, which is why I was ecstatic to find out the story continues, in One Tiny Lie, which follows the story of Kacey’s younger sister Livvie. High Fives all around.
Casting
Trent= Brant Daughrty
Kacey=Rachel Hurd-Wood
