Review: Great contemporary NA, with a focus on personal growth
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 13, 2013
I wasn't quite sure what to think when I started I Breathe You.  I confess that Rhane's character did not draw me in at first.  In fact, I didn't like much about her.  I don't like drama and hot-and-cold relationships, and her relationship was full of that.  So, I started the book not really liking Rhane...and then all of a sudden there was a huge plot twist which made me look at her differently.Rhane is involved in a car accident and suffers damage to her vocal cords.  For someone who was once a lead singer in a popular band, to not be able to speak above a whisper is a crippling loss.  She has a really hard time adjusting to the change (how could she not?) and I felt so badly for her.  That's when I started to see the softer side of her character, and started to identify with her.The love story was well-done, and built up slowly.  I like that.  There was a lot of chemistry between Rhane and Ian.  There were a couple of cliches in this book, but they weren't too obvious.There was an emphasis on working through your problems in therapy in I Breathe You, which was well-portrayed.  I appreciate it when authors mend their broken characters in healthy, realistic ways (instead of the dreaded "love cures all" plot trope).  Rhane goes through a lot of personal growth in this book and that was gratifying to read about.  Her inner dialogue was fun to read and one of my favorite aspects of this book.When I finished the book, it had such a concrete ending that I thought it was a stand-alone novel.  Now I see that it's the first in a series.  I'm hoping book two features someone else from the band.  Overall, I really enjoyed I Breathe You and would recommend it to fans of contemporary NA fiction.