Review: excellent contemporary romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 2, 2013
Just Breathe  Janette PaulI received this via Netgalley in return for an honest review. I don't gush and give false praise - I don't believe that helps readers or authors so what you read is what I truly feel about a book.I have a weakness for good contemporary romance. When I say "good" I mean the sort that has a decent back story carrying the romance - in Just Breathe I wasn't disappointed. From the start I was pulled into the story meeting Ethan (yum!) and Dee immediately at a party. Dee is out of sight of the main party in a borrowed dress and impossible heels (always on the edge of financial penury she keeps raiding her sisters wardrobe), she throws the shoes over a balcony "instruments or torture " she cries, not knowing that  Ethan is hiding out also avoiding meeting his sisters yoga teacher he tells her. What he doesn't know and Dee doesn't tell him is that she's that person. He takes it in good part when he discovers this and the attraction between them begins. Its a gentle and touching romance where he's taking her out "not on a date" but as a companion, and she's 2not on a date" with him but meeting people he thinks will help her business. She's a funny but protective family, with a mum who's a steamroller in her life but only trying to help Dee get past the serious accident and its consequences and he's trying to get past the Playboy label the media have given him. They're total opposites, dee convinced living only in the presnet and not planning more than two weeks ahead is essential and Ethan being business focussed always on long term issues.  Yet there is a spark that draws them to each other and turns their ordered lives around.Its a well structured novel, characters that seem real and that the reader can like, plots that pull the main characters together slowly but without giving too much of the background of each away. What's in the past is important for both of them because it shapes much of their present behaviours and slowly little hints trick;le out and we get to understand them and their motives better. There's laughter aplenty here along with a smattering of tears and it all gels to make a superb novel. It looks to me to be a début one for Janette as I can't find more of her work and if so she's certainly talented and one to follow if you like a solid, diverting romance.The book itself is very well put together, properly edited and a good length at 304 pages on kindle. My only criticism is the price - 8.05 on amazon...and sadly although this book is excellent so are many many others in the 4-6 price range and I think that the price will affect sales, and readers will miss out on what is a great and compelling romance. For this reason I'm giving it 4 stars and not 5.