Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

 Ten Tiny Breaths.

Seize them.

Feel them.

Love them.

This book isn't a slow pace. It jumps straight to the point. It's a beautiful story with pain, loss and heartache. The author didn't disappoint on this book. It takes the reader through the 9 stages of grief and how a person must go through them to get over a tragic event to live again. It's all about a healing process and the road to recover isn't always an easy one. There's that saying you can run but you can't hide and in this book it proves to be right. You can always run from you past. Start over and make your life better than you thought it was before. But, eventually the past is going to come back and it's not going to be pretty when it catches you.

This book is about Kasey's journey as she goes through the healing process from a horrible accident in which she lost her parents, boyfriend and best friend to finding love from an unlikely person. After a drunk driving accident in which she is the sole survivor, she ends up living with her aunt and uncle. It has been four years since the accident but the pain Kasey is going through makes it seem like it happen yesterday. Before the accident, Kasey was a sweet girl with her whole life ahead of her, but now she is Ice Queen. She lives in a shell where nothing can hurt her again.

One night she sees her uncle sneaking into her younger sister Livie's room and decides they can't stay there anymore. Kasey takes her sister and hops on a bus to find a better life. They find a small apartment in Miami and decide to call it home. They slowly start to put their lives back together. Kasey gets a job and Livie is going to school, everything is going good. Except Kasey is still living in this numb state where she has all her emotions and feeling locked away. Then, in walks her next door neighbor, Trent. He isn't who he says he is but he is the first guy that can knock all Kasey's walls down and make her feel again. Trent has a secret that could destroy Kasey if she found out and tear them apart. He is sort of living a double life. But he makes it his mission to make Kasey feel and live again.  Kasey and Trent become inseparable. He somehow puts all the pieces to Kasey back together. Trent's secret comes out and nearly destroys Kasey. He was ultimately the one that took everyone away from her.  He ends up breaking her not once but twice. Kasey basically looses her mind and gets sent to the exact hospital that Trent went to after the accident. The hospital made him come to terms with what happen and now Trent wants Kasey to do the same. In the end Kasey learns to forgive herself and Trent.

I love Kasey's character. She is both damaged from her past but strong. She wants a better life for her sister than her aunt and uncle were providing. She took on the responsibility of being the guardian to her younger sister. Trent is dreamy, sexy, has tattoos and rides a motorcycle. What is there not to love about him? I read this book right after Wait For You and I was still in love with Cameron from that book and having Cameron withdrawals. Trent was like another Cameron to me that I fell in love with. I wished I was Kasey sometimes just so I could get me a piece of him. I enjoyed the writing, the characters and the story in general. I love the end of the book that Kasey and Trent were able to over come the past and forgive each other. The book doesn't have sex scenes and its not really that graphic. It just always fades to black but you get the idea of what happens. However, the lack of sex doesn't take away from the story, I think it makes for a better story.