Ten Tiny Breaths... Seize them. Feel them. Love them. #REVIEW it.

Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths #1) by K.A. Tucker squeezes your heart and shows you the meaning of hope.

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

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.

Breathe, I hear my mother’s voice say.
Ten tiny breaths.
It doesn’t help.
It never fucking helps, dammit!
I’m shaking all over as I sink further and further into the dark abyss where I go when people I care about die.
I can’t seem to get out of it.
I’m drowning under the weight of it.

REVIEW
The story is raw and emotional, from the beginning until the very end. With so much drama, the pacing in the beginning is slow but the details are necessary to set the stage. Torn between feeling sympathy for Kacey and being frustrated by her, the story is heart-wrenching and then shocking and then gut-wrenching and then finally hopeful. This is a beautifully written story about a young woman in the midst of overcoming the ultimate loss and betrayal.

It won't be for everyone because it's not sweet and cute and wrapped up with a little bow. It's real and raw and will most definitely leave you pondering it for days after you finish reading the final page.

RATING
4 Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries
This book was provided through NetGalley.