Review: Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Author: K.A Tucker

Series: Ten Tiny Breaths

Pages: 262

Genre: New Adult

Publisher: Atria Books

Amazon: Ten Tiny Breaths

Synopsis: (Goodreads)

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: 4 ½ out of 5 stars

Ten tiny breaths … Seize them. Feel them. Love them

I absolutely love the New Adult genre at the moment and I’m pleased to be able to add another favourite onto my list. Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A Tucker is a book filled with angst and grief but it also showed that with the right amount of love, help and healing there was a chance to be at peace and find forgiveness.

Twenty year-old Kacey Cleary is full of rage and snark, her life changed four years ago when she was involved in a car crash caused by a drunk driver and as a result lost both of her parents, her best friend and boyfriend; a huge piece of her was lost that fateful day in the accident and her road to recovery hasn’t been an easy one.

Having spent the past few years finding an outlet to recover physically and to express her anger, usually with sex or drugs Kacey now focuses on honing her body through exercise and also raising her fifteen year-old sister, Livie so they make the decision to up and leave their religious aunt and pervie uncle to move with barely anything to their name to Miami, Florida; Kacey wasn’t the most loveable character, she was full of aggression, offensive and easily infuriated but despite this I really came to like and admire her, the comments she would make and her quick wit had me giggling and with the help of her new neighbours, Storm and smexy Trent she was beginning to ever so slowly trust and talk about her grief.

Mysterious {stalker} Trent was a sweetheart, he did seem to be everywhere which was a tad strange but we soon find out there was a reason for it; he was so caring, protective and determined to help with Kacey’s healing that I often wondered about his ulterior motives but he never asked or expected anything from her. I was blindsided by the huge twist, it left me gaping but it all played out really well.

I adored the way Tucker wrote each of the relationships; everyone interacted with Kacey in a way which was believable and enjoyable to read about, I loved the way both Storm and Trent weaved their way into Kacey’s life despite her reluctance, and Livie was so sweet and loveable, her caring nature and her exchanges with everyone were so light-hearted and real.

I loved Storm! She is an acrobatic/stripper/bar-tender and single mother to little Mia, her side-story was entertaining and although I thought it was tied up too conveniently she was a wonderful character to read about.

There is a lot of sorrow and suffering in this book, but there were also parts which showed a more carefree side of Kacey, especially the moments where she was with Trent and she let down her guard, he was quite determined to make her smile but it didn’t come easily with her stubbornness. Tucker touched on a lot of real life issues that were written in a way which made you empathise with the characters and their stories.

Overall, I became emotionally tangled in the story Tucker has written, I adored the writing, the sweet romance, the complicated characters and the unexpected plot developments; I was satisfied by the overall resolution in Ten Tiny Breaths and I am pleased to read we will also be getting innocent Livie’s story up next in One Tiny Lie.

“Hope. Hope that something beautiful may come from this tragic story.
Fear. Fear that it won’t.
Forgiveness … forgiveness.”

Thank-you kindly to Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review Ten Tiny Breaths.