Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Title: Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths #1)

Author: K.A. Tucker

Publisher: Atria Books

Release Date: September 24, 2013

Source: ARC borrowed from fellow blogger

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

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 unforgivable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey's newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

If you saw my post over the weekend, you'll know that I'm really liking this whole New Adult phenomenon and the books it's bringing out. ONe of those books is K.A. Tucker's Ten Tiny Breaths, a book that took me completely by surprise and a book that I absolutely loved.

For the past four years, Kacey has struggled to keep it together. The only reason she's still standing is Livie, her fifteen-year-old younger sister. So when their uncle takes things too far, Kacey packs up their stuff and takes off for Miami with Livie. Surviving on their own is harder than Kacey thought, but with unexpected help from some neighbors, the Cleary sisters might stand a chance. But when Trent Emerson walks in to Kacey's life, everything threatens to fall apart, everything Kacey has worked so hard to keep in is on the verge of coming out. But Kacey isn't the only one keeping secrets, and Trent might be carrying a few darks ones himself.

I had no expectation whatsoever when I first started reading K.A. Tucker's Ten Tiny Breaths. All I really knew was what the synopsis said and that a friend thought it would be exactly my kind of book. So I figured, why not? And that friend wasn't the least bit wrong because I ended up absolutely loving Ten Tiny Breaths. I got completely sucked in to this story and I just wanted to find out more. This was as story that completely broke my heart. Everything the characters had gone through just didn't seem fair. But at the same time, through everything that happened, there was still alight at the end of it all. But what will stay with me are the characters who felt completely real.

I don't know what it says about me, but I love broken characters and that's exactly what I got with Ten Tiny Breaths. Kacey was so completely beyond broken, despite what she liked to think. And after everything, I so wanted for something good to happen to Kacey. So when Trent came into the picture, I thought he was the "something good." But that was before I realized that he was just as broken as Kacey. So the two of them together? Kind of disastrous in so many ways. But it wasn't all bad because I think Kacey and Trent both needed to go through this in order to get better. If only they had listed to the people around them, especially Livie. But talking about Livie is something I'll leave for a future review, because I have a lot to say about Livie.

I absolutely loved K.A. Tucker's Ten Tiny Breaths and I can't say enough good things about the book. If you are looking to give New Adult a try but aren't sure where to start, I would strongly recommend Ten Tiny Breaths.