Review: Breathe Into Me is Beautiful and Inspirational
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 11, 2014
Lacey has an abusive boyfriend, no friends, an alcoholic mother, a verbally, physically, and mentally abusive grandmother, and the town she lives in hates her. She’s broke with not even a high school diploma and nowhere to go. All she wants is to be free of the suffocating town and for her brother to be safe. When life hits an all-time low for Lacey as luck would have it she bumps into Everett. Everett is everything she could ever want wrapped up in a tempting yummy buff package. He’s sweet and wants nothing from her but to be her friend. Helping her study for the GRE and occasionally giving her a place to stay there is absolutely no denying the attraction between the two of them.Everett’s character is yummy. I mean he is perfect book boyfriend material. Definitely the boy you want to take home to Mama. From the very start he only has eyes for Lacey and he does everything he can to help her get out of her bad situation. I felt like I didn’t really get a complete inside into who Everett really was until later in the book. Once all of Everett’s secrets are out on the table and I mean ALL of his secrets I still loved him and while he blamed himself for what happened I hold a different opinion.Breathe Into Me centers a lot around bullying and the different effects different types of bullying and neglect have on the characters in the book. Lacey from the day she moved into the trailer park with her grandmother after her stepfather died is bullied and neglected. As readers we come in basically after all that bullying and neglect has finally peaked and we see what kind of person Lacey has turned into because of that. Everett has also seen his share of bullying after being neglected by his parents he loses everything close to him because of one mistake. Going off that I really love how Breathe Into Me focused on bullying and its effects on the characters but it wasn’t screaming “THING BOOK IS ABOUT BULLYING.” The message was more subtle than that which I thought was great.While most of Breathe Into Me is in Lacey’s point of view there are a few chapters that are in Everett’s and I did a little happy dance because I loved Everett’s inner voice. Those chapters really showed how strongly her felt about Lacey. Lacey’s inner voice despite how craptastic her situation was she was never winey which made me love her all the more.So basically we have two extremely messed up characters who fall for each other despite their monumental differences and I liked that. I tend to fall for the abused characters more times than not and Lacey takes the cake. Although even after being abused Lacey is still a strong female character and that is just phenomenal to me. I honestly truly relate and look up to characters who can beat their situation and rise up.Oh oh another aspect about this book I loved, the banter and dialogue between all the characters. Everything just flowed. Everett and Lacey’s conversations were never awkward of stilted and instead real conversations with hints of humor and easy banter.The writing for Breathe Into Me is just fantastic which I really enjoyed. Everything in this book flowed so amazingly from the characters to the entire story. Ms. Fawkes is an amazing writer and I have no doubt I will be reading more by her in the future.The steam factor in this factor wasn’t outrageous or anything like that. I felt it fit the book perfectly since it seemed so innocent and sweet rather than hot and sweaty.Overall, I would label Breathe Into Me as sweet and adorable with vulnerable characters and an amazing message. I honestly would recommend this book to people who are enjoying the New Adult Genre and have enjoyed Wait for Me by J.Lynn.Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Ms. Sara Fawkes, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book!Teaser:"Well, maybe you can borrow from the people who live here. There's a girl's room just down the hall, her clothes will fit you.""You've gone through the drawers?" I quipped, and flushed at the shrewd look he gave me.