Another freebie/win that I can’t find confirmation for in my email after all the years. :( I WILL keep better track of these things if I win anything again.

I heard great things about Ten Tiny Breathes and decided to check it out. I haven't read Beautiful Disaster so I can't say much about the "female Travis Maddox" problem. But now, I'm really nervous about ever reading that book.



Characters are typical, plain, and flat. The perfect sister. the perfect little girl. the single mom stripper. prince charming. the bad girl. the bad boy. Everyone else is creepy pervs/sluts or hearts of gold perfection. There is no in between or characterization.

It's over-the-top cheesy and melodramatic. Romance is flat lust and there's no reason to cheer their relationship. It makes a stalker a romance interest that gets the girl. Kasey's quick to slut shame and POC are sexy stereotypes for laughs and ridicule.

I was worried about the romance being the fix it solution and sadly, after a brief period of hope, that's exactly what happened. While having a support system certainly helps, love doesn't heal all wounds. Making it about a man kills any depth or meaning it was supposed to have. It'd be much better if it Kacey's healing revolved around herself, Storm and Livie.

The Trent's big, secret twist? Saw it coming. *yawn*

The romance itself is based on lust and they didn't talk much. Trent stalks Kacey (though we don't find out how badly til later) and their fucking chemistry gets the ball rolling. That's all folks.

But really one of the biggest problems I had letting go, was the PTSD and therapy portrayal. While it's different for everyone, I have a hard time believing Kasey's theatrical antics.

Plus there's so little of her actual progress. It's mostly Broken Kasey, and Lusting Kasey. It's very rushed and...off. Some of the ridiculous sexy sessions (cumming by looking at him??) and checking each other out should've been cut to make room for more growth.

I still don't get the ten tiny breaths...at all. She's all "I get it now!" and then starts using it the next page without explanation.

Well, I fucking don't. And I sure as hell don't know what it means to Kasey? After all that time it clicks on for her but leaves us in the dark. That's some bullshit.

"Oh, it's up to the reader." Oh a giant part of characterization is up to me now? Fine, it means breath shallowly until you pass out and/or die. YAY!



Kacey

She’s not a pleasant person and I was okay with that up to a point. Being a judgmental asshole made sense since she’s trying to keep everyone out and it is often a defense mechanism. However, it isn't resolved, just left to fester.

I was not okay with her slut-shaming every woman around Trent. She didn’t show any remorse or second thoughts about it, just lamented being driven “crazy” by Trent.

She eventually shapes up towards Storm but Storm’s practically perfect and that has nothing to do with reforming. Kacey claims to love the strip club when leaving, but no strippers are more than background sluts with awful POC stereotypes.

At first, I was really happy about Kacey’s reaction to Trent’s secret and how she was getting help. But of course that couldn’t last. I understand it’s a romance novel but that doesn’t fucking mean it has to be happily ever after.



Kacey has major fucking issues and she’s “cured” quick *cough*bullshit*cough* but that’s not enough. She’s still empty without Trent and of course they have to make it work.

**sigh**

Trent:

Besides being a creepy stalker, he's also manipulative and they're toxic together. Withholding sex to make your partner cave? Creepy and wrong, no matter what gender. Either break it off or get real. Fuck off with patronizing bullshit. She can make her own decisions.



And despite all this bullshit, it was easily readable and I flew through it. Can't say I enjoyed it but I didn't struggle to finish it.



But there's no way in hell I'm continuing the series.

This review was originally posted on Bookish Things & More

Review

Kacey is a character you either love or dislike.  She’s very snarky, and uses that to protect herself from everyone. She can come off as a bitch a lot of the time, but she does have a sweet side.  Even though she rarely shows it.

 

While this book is a romance, and let me tell you that is a big freaking bumpy ride, it’s also about family and friendships.  I love Kacey’s devotion to her sister, and doing whatever she has to in order to provide for her.  They have a tight bond, and I love that! They get into their little fights, but you know how much they love each other.  Kacey makes some pretty great friends along the way, too.  She isn’t looking for them, they just sort of happened.  Sometimes the people you need in your life are placed there in the most unexplainable ways.

 

The story kept me hooked.  I may have figured some things out along the way, but for the most part, I was kept on my toes.  Kacey makes huge strides in who she is as a person, and overcoming all the hate and anger she has in her heart.
If you like angsty stories, and girls who kick ass, as well as show complete loyalty, this is a book you need to read.

The Bad: It was quite annoying in the beginning.
The Good: It gets better towards the ending.

Finished it a few days ago.
the series is really great. It just keeps getting better and better with each book. I'm sad that it's over :(

I've had Ten Tiny Breaths in my TBR pile for a while now. It's gotten great reviews, and I've been looking forward to finally finding the time to read it. Unfortunately, I didn't love it as much as I had hoped I would.

 

As a whole, it was OK for me. Kacey is the kind of character who is hard to like, but ultimately I did. She had been through something horrible, and there is no way to critique how she handled the situation. Everyone deals with tragedy and grief in different ways, so I can't say if the way Kacey handled it was realistic or not. I liked all the side characters in the story. Although the plot was predictable for me (even the big twist, which I had guessed from the very beginning), I was still engaged and wanted to see how the author would lay everything out.

 

The thing I struggled with the most in this book was the stalkerish behavior from Trent. I just hate that many NA books use this style for the development of the relationship and glamorize it. Sure I can understand why he did it, and of course it all works out in the end (I don't feel this is a spoiler - given the genre of the book I feel that's a given). But the thing is, if someone shows up at your work EVERY DAY just to watch you, shows up at your gym (I mean, it's Miami so I don't think 'coincidence' can be the reasoning)... that's kind of creepy. In real life, this type of behavior more often than not is not romantic - it's obsessive and controlling and not healthy. Many of the NA books I've read over the years have this element, and it kind of makes me sad.