BOOK REVIEW - TEN TINY BREATHS by K.A. TUCKER - TEN TINY BREATHS # 1 - 5 BROKEN STARS

By: K.A. Tucker

Published By: Papoti Books

Released : Available Now

Details: Digital , 258 Pages

RATING: 5 BROKEN STARS!

Blurb: 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.

**Warning - This is a Mature YA/New Adult book. Contains sex and violence**

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

Breathe, I hear my mother’s voice say.

Ten tiny breaths.

It doesn’t help.

It never fucking helps, dammit!

I’m shaking all over as I sink further and further into the dark abyss where I go when people I care about die.

I can’t seem to get out of it.

I’m drowning under the weight of it.

This book , the more you read, the more it will get to you, affect you.

Make you think differently.

The chapter titles are like a step program. 

Kacey ,20yrs old, fighter body, tough exterior, very broken, and her sweet sister 15yr old Livvie, escape their loser guardians, trying to make a life for themselves. Where Livvie is calm and sweet, Kacey is a ball breaker.

Their parents have died. Kacey has lost a lot.

Heard death claiming it's next victim.

Tanner is the resident landlord of the Melrose Place style 3 storey apartment complex in Miami, where the girls have found their temporary 6 month paid up front, safety nest. An assortment of character’s live there. Tanner and Pervie Pete being amongst them. Tanner will really grow on you, in an interesting way. Pervie Pete...not so much.

Enter Trent, all muscle and a bit of a mystery. He lives on one side of the girls.

Enter Storm, all Barbie and a whole lot of boobs and her 5 yr old daughter Mia, the sweet little princess has found a friend in Livvie. They live on the other side of the girls. Storm is a girl with heart. A girl that drew the short straw in life, but is making no excuses , she is looking after her daughter and working towards more in life. 

You will LOVE Storm.

Kacey needs to find a gym, not your prissie gym, the hardcore, darkly lit, ratio of women 1:50 men, kind.

The fighter kind. 

She is a kickboxer , a good one. The Breaking Point is where all the hardcore players work out. She is there to sweat, and work hard, release some of the demons she carries around with her.

She is there to fight her demons.

If that is possible.

The more you read, the more you see under the layers of Kacey. It is quite a ride for the reader.

I will forever think of a stripper, strip club, strip club owner, hired muscle, strip club bar tenders...differently. Not that I gave a lot of thought to this profession, but, K.A.Tucker will show you a group of characters who are loving, caring, understanding...a family of sorts. Everybody has a story of how they wound up working in the strip club.

Sometimes the journey in life takes a detour and you wind up working at a place like Penny’s Palace, with characters like, the owner Cain, the hired muscle Nate and Ben, and bartender Storm .

Some use it for the money, the stepping stone to a better life. They know why they are there. They have a planned out future that needs good cash to achieve it.

Penny’s Place comes with a group of people who look out for each other, genuinely care. Nate is a big teddy bear, Ben...well, he is a bit of a player, but deep down a nice guy, using the profession to make a life, a future.

Penny's Palace and its characters is the back drop to this story.

This is a story about characters that have been damaged, even broken, some almost beyond repair.

Almost.

You will meet Dr. Stayner. LOVE this guy. The words that spill from his lips... they brought back something that happened when I was in High School. The night before last day, silly day, of High School before exam squatting..... something terrible happened. Some of my fellow year 12 students went to a party, drove later to Macdonalds.

They didn’t make it.

They had a tragic accident.

They had been drinking.

They were only 16-17yrs old.

One drove, one died, one got pretty banged up. They were only kids. They made a bad decision to get in a car, because they were hungry, because others at the party were hungry. They had all been drinking.

I have never forgotten that accident. Listening to Dr Stayner in this book...well...we will all get something out of this book. I got to look at the tragedy that happened in ’85 and I got some closure for the boy who was driving that I knew from High School, who lived and had to live with what happened, because he was the one who chose to drive. It wasn’t his car. The 3 guys were going to simply get MacDonalds for everyone.

They never made it.

I could tell where Ten Tiny Breaths was going, I was not sure how it was going to get there, but I could see where I was being taken. But then I got that BAM! moment where I got all girlie and did a sookie la la. The latter half of the book really opens up into this emotional, heart breaking story.

We are used to seeing Kacey with this tough exterior, the fighter chick for most of the book, she has done it all to keep her demons at bay, never exorcising the demons, just keeping them hidden under the surface.

Contained.

Not a healthy existence.

Then the guy from 1D enters her life.

This is a story that will squeeze your heart and wring it out for all the people affected by drink driving and the tragedy that comes from innocence.

Good people make bad decisions too.

Decisions that kill.

I am a squeaky person, never had a traffic infringement or broken the law. When you are a young kid, generally you have never broken the law, but you can make a bad choice in the moment, that will have consequences that could not be fathomed.

Consequences that can affect many.

Sometimes bad choices are successful, nobody gets hurt, killed. But is it worth it to roll that dice?

I am looking forward to book # 2 - One Tiny Lie - Livvie's story - April 2013.

I highly recommend this read. It has a message through it, well a few messages. It will be an eye opener to how you think . It will twist your heart.

It may even save a life.

Michelle