Single Sundays: Breathe into Me by Sara Fawkes

Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel. Here is this week’s offering:

Synopsis for Breathe into Me (from Goodreads):
How did my life get so broken? It’s a question Lacey St. James asks herself every day. Stuck raising her little brother in a trailer park while she works a dead end job at a grocery store, she has a stalker exboyfriend, a bad reputation, and no way out.

And then she meets Everett, whose presence changes her entire existence.

Everett is an outsider to her small community, in town for the summer housesitting one of the grand mansions off the Mississippi coast. When he saves her in a bar one night, she’s grateful but wary of his intentions. Lacey doesn’t trust most men in her life, but for reasons Lacey can’t understand, Everett is completely captivated by her. He’s determined to show her that life can offer more than she’d ever hoped for, if only she believes in herself. As she works with him to free herself, Lacey desperately yearns to trust him, to move on and perhaps start fresh.

But what happens when she finds out that everything he’s told her about himself was a lie?

Review:

I came across this book by surprise–I was browsing the Swagbucks reading section and I was able to read an excerpt of this book to collect “swagbucks”. I’m not a huge fan of reading excerpts because it doesn’t make me want to read a book after reading 10 pages BUT, the synopsis sold me so I immediately grabbed a copy from my local library.

I really loved this book! I was immediately sucked into it and had a hard time putting it down. It was a good blend of romance and drama though there were some minor “flaws” (which is too strong of a word for what I really mean) with everything.

One reason I loved it was because of Everett. He was completely swoon-worthy and just such a nice guy that it was super easy to fall in love with him. He wasn’t super possessive or over-the-top alpha male which is really refreshing in the genre; especially with books set in the South. While I didn’t love Lacey nor would I list her as my favourite heroine of all time, I appreciated her strength and ability to be independent. I liked that she didn’t become a love-struck shmuck who couldn’t live without a man. I know some people have a hard time connecting to her character and I am in the same boat, but I think overall she is a solid character. I expected her to be a little more emotional given some of the things that happened to her but it wasn’t really a deal breaker for me.

As for the plot, some parts were very predictable while others weren’t. There was a lot going on in Lacey and Everett’s lives (though most of the focus is on Lacey’s life as it is told from her POV) so it keeps things interesting as you read. Some parts felt a little rushed near the end but I still feel like they were resolved enough to satisfy me (though I am hoping for a spin-off book about a certain character we meet because I felt like her story was unresolved a bit). I do wish though that the epilogue was fuller though because I felt like it told me nothing about what happens after everything.

Conclusion:

Maybe it was just the mood I was in but this book was a solid New Adult/Coming of Age book. I really enjoyed reading it and never felt bored while doing so. It felt like a more mature, less over the top dramatic Abbi Glines New Adult novel to me focusing more on character growth than the drama. New Adult fans will want to pick this one up I think 🙂

Rating: 4.5/5
Would I Recommend this Book to a Friend: Yes

Shorthand Stats:
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Drama, Coming of Age, Abuse
Recommended for: 18+
Heat Rating: gets hotter later in the book
Point of View: First Person, Single
SERIESous’ Top Book Series: Favourite Standalone 2014
Similar Reads: Redesigned by Denise Grover Swank (Off the Subject Series #2); Fallen too Far by Abbi Glines (Rosemary Beach Series #1) and Trouble by Samantha Towle