This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Introduction
Ten Tiny Breaths is the 1st book in the "Ten Tiny Breaths" series. This is a book that I have been meaning to get to and I went into this one not knowing what I was getting into. I had no clue what this one was even about, it was more a blind reading of it. I just knew the author and that so many fellow readers really enjoyed this one. This story is NOT what I expected. I don't know if its the covers or what, but I actually thought this was romantic suspense, and yeah thats not this. But its still dang good. Its definitely just contemporary/new adult. The new adult aspects are lighter, other than the ages of the characters, thats the only new adult aspect. They aren't in a college setting or anything and the way in which is written is much more mature.

Summary
Kacey, when she was a teenager, was in a car accident where she lost her parents and her boyfriend at the time. Now its been four years later, she has physically recovered, but emotionally and mentally she is barely keeping the anger and unresolved PTSD issues at bay. When her sister ends up being at risk by a family member, Kacey takes her sister and heads to Florida for a fresh start. Kacey meets her neightbors, and starts a new job but what she doesn't expect is to find herself wanting to open herself up to a neighbor in her building, who has such a presence about him that allows her to want to free herself of the burdens she has. But they both have dark pasts and secrets and when everything comes to light....will they be strong enough to get through it and find their way to their HEA...

My Outlook
Ten Tiny Breaths was such a superb read and honestly its been a long time since I had such an emotional intense reaction to. This book literally had me crying buckets of tears. Now that isn't a negative aspect at all. I really do love a story that will make me 'ugly cry' because especially when I least expect it, its so cathartic at times too. I really want to be careful in what I share in this review because I also don't want to spoil some aspects of the story that was so intense. But what really worked for me is the romance between the characters. There is such a strong presence of a deep connection between them. The hero is such a mix and I think I would best categorize him as a alphamellow or alpha cinnamon roll. He isn't a straight out alpha male, because he has such a soft center for the heroine and I just adore the way he is with her. He is so patient and he just gets her in a way that most people don't. This heroine is PRICKLY! She does have good reason to be so prickly though, you really see the realities of PTSD and my heart just ached for these characters and what they both go through. I am not sure if I want to read the novella (if you have read the series, let me know what the novella is like).

Overall View
Ten Tiny Breaths is an incredibly crafted romance that just delivers on the deep emotion and riveting writing that strikes to the heart of the reader! ( )

Lol, nothing in real life works the way it does in this book. NOTHING.

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This is my first book by this author.
Reading the story line, i felt that it had the potential to be fantastic.
Reading the story i really couldn't connect.
We have two shattered souls Kacey and Trent. Both have had different experiences that shaped them.
Both deal with their angst in different ways.
Kacey chooses kickboxing, a little bit of violence. Initially it was with alcohol/drugs/sex.
Trent tries helping/fixing.
Kacey's story though sad was told in such a way that i couldn't really connect, couldn't really tear up.
Trent's story comes out more towards the end.
The chemistry, the build-up of the romance, it just didn't do it.
Really wish it had been better.
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So conflicted on how to rate this. I go back and forth between a 3 and 4. There were definitely issues I had with the book, but then again, there was a strong lesson to be learned from it. I think I'll give it a few days before making a more in depth review. ( )

I normally love a good romance with a twist. But without the secondary characters this book would have been put on a back shelf and not picked up again for a bit.

Kacey and Trent, the two main characters were just not realistic enough for me. Kacey suffered a traumatic experience and while I get that it is hard to let go of something like that, she seemed to easily let it all slip away with Trent. From the moment he said that he would fix her I just KNEW something was up, that he had a connection to her past somehow.

Livie, Storm, and Mia are what made this book for me. I would have loved to seen more development with those characters and not just the cute little wrap up at the end.


This book provided from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )