15990969Title: Ten Tiny Breaths

Author: K.A. Tucker

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: December 2012

Genre: Adult Fiction/New Adult

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book One

Synopsis can be found here.
I received a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Review:

Kasey is running. She’s running from her past and her family. She grabs her sister, the victim of some unwanted attention by their legal guardian, and flees for Florida. There, they set up a home as she tries to provide for her sister and keep herself sane. And there, she meets Trent, their neighbor who may be the only one who can bring back the old Kasey. The Kasey before the accident. The Kasey that is hiding somewhere under it all.

I wanted to love this book. I was really looking forward to reading it. But it fell a little flat for me.

I don’t think I’ve read too much New Adult. I’ve only read a handful. But maybe this kind of story summary- broken girl meets broken boy, fall in love- has been really popular over the last year in particular in YA and New Adult. So I’ve read it a bunch of times, and sometimes I am all in and sometimes, I am not.

Sadly, I don’t think I was fully invested in the story or the characters for this one.

Kasey is a great lead character. She’s strong, with definite issues and an abrasive personality. I didn’t like her, I didn’t love her. But I respected her and liked her character. But once Trent enters into the picture, she becomes this liquid jelly of love goo. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened to me too, but for a girl who has a very clear idea on what she needs to get done and where she needs to go, and what she needs to stay away from, it doesn’t take her too long to be a head-over-heels lust buddy to Mr. Trent. Call me crazy, but the beginning of the book made Kasey look like the Queen of mixed signals, and not in a fun way.

Now Trent is delicious. He’s smokey, beautiful and a good guy with a secret past. But his secret is too big, too much and when it’s finally revealed… I wasn’t shocked and it did make everything more interesting. In fact, after this secret is revealed, the whole book goes from walking through the motions to full on drag race.

The last part of the book was my favorite. It moved quickly, furiously and even broke my heart a little by the end.  I tore through those last pages. But the beginning leading up to that was a little too predictable and I almost put it down.

I’m glad I didn’t.

Rating 6  Good