Ten Tiny Breathes by K.A. Tucker

 

"Just Breath, Kacey. Ten Tiny breaths. Seize them. Feel them. Love them."

Holy freaking hell. This book blew me away. I finished it last night, and my head is still spinning this morning. It was amazing. Everything you expect from Atria, and this wonderful new genre that is New Adult.

 K.A. Tucker just became one of my new favorite authors. She's now in my hall of fame with authors like Jamie McGuire, S.C. Stephens and Abbi Glines. These authors write characters we fall in love with, and can't seem to shake. We think about them days after, their lives branded to brains, twisting their ways to our hearts. We find ourselves returning to their books time after time, just to be close to the characters again, to hear them "speak" and to feel the connection they share with each other. It's why we, as readers, read. To feel emotion, and connections. And when an author is able to capture both of those so perfectly, we are helpless but to fall captive.

Ten Tiny Breathes is a roller coaster of emotions, dealing with two sisters, Kacey and Livey, who move to Miami, FL to start over. Kacey, 20, is a broken shell of her former self, after recovering from a horrific accident that left her and Livie alone in the world. Her only goal in life is to make a better one for Livie. Until she meets Trent, a new neighbor who skates the line so perfectly between bad boy and savior, Kacey can't tell which side to trust.

"He stops what he's doing to glance over his shoulder, blazing eyes leveling me with a look that makes me want to do things to him  for him, with him.  His attention drags down the length of my body, unashamed.  This guy is a contradiction   One second sweet, the next second brazen.  A mind-blowing hot contradiction."

 I loved every character in this book.  Each one of them was expertly crafted and had a specific role and duty in the story-line.  Seeing life through Kacey's heartbroken eyes was difficult at times.  You wanted to cry for her, bleed for her and sometimes, knock her upside the head and say "Really?"  It seemed like every time she took a step forward, she took two back, no matter who was there trying to guide her.

"What?  What did you think?  You don't know the first thing about what I've gone through and you...what, think you can swoop in, give me an orgasm, and follow it up with a survivor's group full of fucking cyborgs who talk about their supposed loved ones like everything's all right?"  

But Trent...he's my favorite.  I think he's my new book boyfriend.  He's some kind of hot.  I love how K.A. Tucker describes him as the perfect balance of bad boy and Good Samaritan because isn't that what woman love about romance novels?  The bad boy who will only soften for the right woman?  It's why we pay for book after book, and spend hours reading.  It's that perfect balance between the boy next door and the guy who's gonna slam up against a wall and take whatever he wants.

"When the gaze lifts back to my face...whoa...it it has just the right mixture of anger, frustration, and smoldering heat to make me bite my bottom lip.  And that's all it takes to push him over the brink.
'God, Kacey' he growls and takes two quick steps in tho slam against my body, his hands seizing my biceps as his mouth claims mine.  Dipping my head back, he forces his tongue into my mouth, demolishing me with a depth of need I've never experienced before.  This is the real Trent.
Unleashed."  

Seriously, if that quote doesn't make you go out and buy this book, then I've got nothing.  There's obviously something wrong with you.  ;-)
This book is raw, emotional and just plain...wow.

It's about two people experiencing more trauma and emotions at a young age than most people experience in an entire lifetime.  It shows how a single event can shred you, and shatter your entire life.  How do you recover?  Can you?  And what do you do with the pieces that are left?

I don't give ratings on my blog.  Authors are worth more than numbers or gold stars.  All I can say is this book is stellar.  Probably the best book I've read all year.  Read it.

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Reckless by S.C. Stephens

Holy Shit.  Best Damn Book Ever.  Yep, that about sums it up.

This series has been a love/hate relationship for me.  I think I've mentioned before, but I seriously hated Thoughtless (the first book in the series) when I first read it.  I actually considered not finishing it.  Romance books, by definition, are emotional.  But I don't think I'd ever experienced a book quite like Thoughtless.  I knew it involved a love triangle, and I had read reviews so I understood there was cheating involved.  I guess I just didn't realize the extent to which the hurt and suffering went.  Thoughtless tore me to shreds and then slowly stitched me back up.  I remember telling my husband "This is the stupidest, most goddamn frustrating book EVER!" and then he asked "So, why are you still reading it?" and the answer was because I couldn't put it down.  Even though I wanted to delete the book from my e-reader and never think about it again, I couldn't.  I was completely hooked.  I had to know Kellan and Kiera would make it.  And, omg....I'm so glad I stayed.  The ride, though completely insane and a total mind fuck, was so worth it.  Reckless was the perfect, perfect ending to this series.  Seriously, S.C. Stephens outdid herself with this one.  I was glued to every page and didn't want it to end.  

 When your relationship begins from a place of lies and deceit, I think trust would be hard to develop. For me, Effortless was the book in which they developed that trust their relationship was missing.  They both were terrified of cheating, and realized that in the end, they could only rely on each other.  In Reckless, I felt like that trust was completely solid and when tested, it holds up over and over.  I also saw Reckless focusing on the two of them growing stronger as a couple and learning to face whatever life threw at them.  I think without everything the went through together, they wouldn't have been able to make it through the the next phase of their relationship as Kellan's fame grew.

"Our relationship hadn't always been the most honest one.  But we'd sworn that we were going to hold nothing back from each other anymore, and I trusted him."

As I've said before, I have a thing for redeemable men in books.  Kellan Kyle is one of my favorites.  I think its because he's transformation is so extreme, but yet it isn't.  In Thoughtless, he does appear to be a total womanizer, and granted, he is.  But there's a deeply emotional reason for it.  He's searching for something, and when it finds it, he completely changes his ways, but his personality remains the same.  Reckless shows Kellan's completed transformation, and I seriously wanted to highlight half the book and give it to my husband as a guide for romantic gestures.  S.C Stephens - you write one seriously hot man.

"Maybe seeing my nerves on my face, Kellan discreetly handed me something.  It was a pale pink rose petal. My mind instantly rewound to the red and white petal-strewn bed he'd laid out for me.  As I stroked the silky petal, I smiled at the words written with a fine-tipped Sharpie.  Wwll, not words exactly.  Very carefully  he'd drawn a picture of an eye, the symbol for a heart, and a drawing of an animal that I could only assume was a female sheep - I love you."

One character I absolutely feel in love with in this last book was Griffin.  I've always liked Griffin,, how can you not?  He's hilarious  He has absolutely no filter and seriously says whatever comes to mind.  He's also the biggest horn dog known to man.  He has so many one-liners in this book that made me laugh out loud.  I loved seeing Griffin become a father...it was very sweet.  But I loved that he still remained classic Griffin, just maybe an upgraded Griffin - Griffin 2.0.

""Please, you guys aren't married."  He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Kellan.  "No bachelor party, no marriage.  That's the law."  I matched Griffin's posture.  "That is not a law, Griffin."  He swung his head around and looked at me.  "Well it should be.  No T and A, no ball and chain."

The ending to this book.....sigh.  The ending is just gorgeous and brings the whole series to an amazing end.  I felt closure but I knew their journey wasn't over.  There were so many scenes that stole my heart.  I'm not going to list them, but I'll just say my favorite involves a secret Kiera tells Kellan at a very important moment.  Wow,omg and wow again.  You'll know it when you get there...it made me cry, it was so beautiful.  The whole book was beautiful.  Seriously, I really should have just stopped after the first line because it really was the best damn book ever.

"Passion, friendship, love, loyalty, trust...if you found the right person...you really could have it all."

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Reckless Release!

Reckless comes out in 4 days!!! 

If you haven't read the Thoughtless series by S.C. Stephens, you are seriously missing out.  Thoughtless was probably the most intense, emotionally draining book I've ever read.  I actually think I hated it for a bit because I was so exhausted.  But it is amazing.  It's one of those books you start and just can't stop.  It's like watching a train wreck and then seeing them put everything back together again.  It leaves you bare, the second book, Effortless is just as good.  Stephens has released the first two chapter of Reckless as teasers and I have been dying to see more.

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