Review - Ten Tiny Breaths - K.A. Tucker

Title: Ten Tiny Breaths
Author: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: December 9th, 2012
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #1
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Synopsis via 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.

My rating:

4.5 Stars

Someone please slap me silly for putting this book on the backburner for so long. For real. How did I manage to skip over this book in favor of all the lesser ones that made me want to cry murderous tears? (You ever get that feeling? Where you hate a character so much—who isn’t the villain—that you wish you could just strangle them?)

Ten Tiny Breaths gives the phrase “beautifully broken” a whole new meaning for me. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a good tortured heroine book in a long time. But that’s exactly what this was, and it was all so perfectly executed. Not once did I wish for the protagonist, Kacey, to get hit by a car and have the story *cough*mercifully*cough* end. And man am I making myself sound like a crazy for willing sudden death upon fictional characters, but it’s been a bad week in terms of finding half-decent books for me, all right?

I think it’s been a year since I’ve found a character that I love this much. Kacey Cleary is one sarcastic, hilarious, all around badass chick. The catch, then? She's got some issues. Some emotionally repressive issiues. When she was 16, she was involved in a car accident. An accident that killed her parents, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Not to mention two of the three drunken guys that caused the accident. Her sister, Livie, is all that she has left. And that accident caused more devastation than anyone thought. It left her numb.

Broke and in a new city, Kacey and Livie find a home in this dingy apartment complex and simply try to survive. There they meet their neighbors. A single mom and her daughter. And a super hot guy who goes by the name of Trent.

Trent and Kacey’s attraction happens fast. Like, really fast. By their second time meeting, before I even really get a sense of who Trent was beyond the fact that he was sexy, had dimples, and blue eyes, he was already up close and personal with Kacey. Despite that, though, it was easy to like him. He played the savior role flawlessly, even though Kacey didn’t really need it. Have I mentioned that she's badass?

One of the best parts about Kacey was how she carried herself. Confident, even though a lot of it was bravado. On the inside, she’d be anxious, and you’d never know it by the strange and amusing things that came out of her mouth. You could tell that she had issues, but the way she dealt with them was all apart of her charm. (Not that I’m saying it was particularly healthy.) She effortlessly pulled off the snarky, tough-chick vibe without being annoying at all.

I came to love the rest of the side characters as much as I did the main ones. There’s little more than half a dozen. Livie. Storm. Mia. Dan. Ben. Tanner. Cain. Nate. If you haven’t read the book, then they’re just names. But if you have, then you know that each character has their own voice and serve as more than plot devices. And damn if I didn’t enjoy the fact that none of them seemed to embrace the stereotypes surrounding them. Storm was smarter and more talented than anyone gave her credit for. Cain wasn’t as sleazy as I—and Kacey—thought he’d be with the type of business he was in. Each of them was unique and interesting, and they all became vital parts of Kacey’s life as she learned to heal from her past.

Another vital part of Kacey’s healing process was her actual romantic relationship with Trent. Or, well, it was more like the catalyst. She fought tooth and nail to not fall for him. Which, I guess, it was pretty hard to do since that man made it his life’s mission to make her happy. To make her laugh and smile. Sounds pretty sappy, but when you learn the real reason behind why…wow. I literally put my Nook down and said into the empty air: “I cannot believe this shit!” Shout out to K.A. Tucker for delivering the best spinning-kick-plot-twist I’ve read in a while.

Their HEA happened so close to the end, I never thought it’d happen. But when it did, there were tears in my eyes. And I learned a very, very valuable lesson: For the love of chocolate sauce and steaming hot coffee, the next time I put a book this good off for more than a week, someone reach through their computer screen and give me a good shaking!

Or just send me an email recommending it. That works, too. ;)

**ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**