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**

Review - Elite - Rachel van Dyken

Title: Elite
Author: Rachel van Dyken
Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Release Date: July 9th, 2013
Series: Eagle Elite #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

For Tracey Rooks, life with her grandparents on a Wyoming farm has always been simple. But after her grandmother's death, Tracey is all her grandfather has. So when Eagle Elite University announces its annual scholarship lottery, Tracey jumps at the opportunity to secure their future and enters. She isn't expecting much-but then she wins. And life as she knows it will never be same . . .

The students at Eagle Elite are unlike any she's ever met . . . and they refuse to make things easy for her. There's Nixon, gorgeous, irresistible, and leader of a group that everyone fears: The Elect. Their rules are simple.

1. Do not touch The Elect.

2. Do not look at The Elect.

3. Do not speak to The Elect.

No matter how hard she tries to stay away, The Elect are always around her and it isn't long until she finds out the reason why they keep their friends close and their enemies even closer. She just didn't realize she was the enemy -- until it was too late.

My rating:

So I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I hated this book at chapter one. I hated it so much it almost ended up in my don't-ever-read pile. The protagonist, Trace, seemed spineless and naive--characteristics that are annoying in their own right but unbearable paired together. By the tenth time I'd rolled my eyes I thought I'd save myself the pain of reading it and move on.

And I am SO GLAD I convinced myself not to.

Seriously. 4.5 fantastic freaking stars to the fresh, original and dangerously intriguing first installment of Rachel van Dyken's (whom I now tip my invisible but stylishly feathered hat to) Elect Series.

So now that I got the bad news out of the way, the good news is that I loved this book. It may've had its faults and I'll get to those later, but I loved it.

It starts out with Tracey "Trace" Rooks coming to her new school and immediately being introduced to the rules by a very rude and astoundingly attractive group of boys. Now, initially I thought I was in for something paranormal. Mysterious school. Mysterious guys. Mysterious rules. Eventually, I learned that paranormalcy wasn't the case. Nope. It was just a small group of people called the "Elect" (which seemed to be synonymous with "pretentious, self-entitled, self-centered dickheads") that ruled the school. Or, to be specific, it was Nixon, their leader and Trace's love interest that ruled the school. And when I say "ruled the school", I mean it. He, an alleged student, got to control when and what people got to eat for crying out loud.

Remember how I called Trace spineless and naive? Yeah, not so much. She didn't take kindly to their rules and she suffered the consequences. This book took "hazing" to the next level. Aside from that, though, I really liked Trace. Well, after I got over my initial hatred. When she wasn't a crying mess from all the crap she took from the other students, she was intelligent and witty. I admired her for sticking through the hazing and for her determination to create a better life for herself and her grandfather.

And then we have Nixon, with whom I had mixed feelings about. I hated him in the beginning, too. Calling him an asshole would've been much, much too mild. He humiliated Trace constantly, and then claimed it was to protect her. (Which turned out to be true in the end, but when I didn't know that, I despised him.) He had this air of infallible arrogance about him. Maybe the arrogance was justified by his unquantifiable amount of wealth and power over EVERYTHING EVER but it was still aggravating. By the time he and Trace began their Romeo & Juliet-esque love affair, he'd redeemed himself a bit, but he was still a jerk.

Imagine my surprise when their romance ended up being my favorite part. Once Nixon stopped being a douche and we learn the real reason he was being a douche, it was easy to accept. With the end's "big reveal" also came the big reveal for Trace and Nixon. Their relationship was all kinds of endearing.

His breathing turned shallow. He closed his eyes and mumbled, "It was always supposed to be like this. Always."

They had swoon-worthy moments as well as steamy moments, and I soon found myself rooting for them. I'm a sucker for old, forbidden love, what can I say?

The thing is: I spent the majority of this book confused. If you don't like being confused, I don't recommend this book. Actually, I take that back because the big reveal is well worth it. Trace's world becomes utter chaos, and I loved the unraveling of her past and how Nixon and the Elect and her family tied into it.

The only problems I had with this book were the following:

1) They were supposed to be in college, but the atmosphere and the dynamic screamed high school. I had a hard time swallowing it.

2) The pacing was too fast. Things happened back to back to back and there wasn't a period where I could rest and think about all the things that were happening to Trace. I just wished R.v.D. had just slowed it down a bit.

3) The potential for a love triangle in the next book. I'm all for Team Nixon at this point, but I don't want there to be a love triangle at all. The sad part is, I'm 100% there will be one with the feelings (rapid feelings, at that) Trace developed for...someone who isn't Nixon.

Other than that, Elite provided just enough originality and arresting drama to keep me hastily turning the pages (or pressing the screen, since I read this on my Nook.) Bravo R.v.D. for turning this heavily sarcastic skeptic (that's me) into a fully-fledged fan and keeping me entertained when I was trying to escape from the heavy boredom of summer homework assignments.

 **ARC courtesy of Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**