ARC Review: Breathe Into Me by Sara Fawkes

General information:
Title: Breathe Into Me
Author: Sara Fawkes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press 
Genre: New Adult
Series?: Stand alone
Ending: HEA
Pages: 288

Blurb: How did my life get so broken?  It’s a question Lacey St. James asks herself every day.  Stuck raising her little brother in a trailer park while she works a dead end job at a grocery store, she has a stalker exboyfriend, a bad reputation, and no way out.
And then, she meets Everett, who changes her entire existence.

Everett is an outsider who’s housesitting his family’s mansion off the coast, and for reasons Lacey can’t understand, he’s completely transfixed by her. He seems determined to show her that life can offer more than she’d ever hoped for, if only she believes in herself.  She desperately yearns to trust him, but what happens when she finds out that everything he’s told her is a lie?







I feel like I must warn you. I don't mean to sound like the Lemony Snicket books - but this book is most definitely not a feel good book. It's ugly and difficult and pretty much highlights everyone's greatest character flaws. Does that make it a bad book? No.

"“You seem eager to get rid of me.” “Maybe.” There was no conviction in the word. It had been a long time since I’d just talked to a boy like this, and it was nicer than I cared to admit. Most were after only one thing, which made the game old and depressing. Everett had come to my rescue in the bar, however, something that deserved more than the cold shoulder. Unfortunately, old habits die hard.
“Why?” He lifted one arm and took a dramatic sniff. “Do I smell?”"

Lacey hasn't had the most easiest life. After her father died she, her mother and 4 year old brother moved into her grandmothers trailer at a trailer park. She has a horrible relationship with her grandmother and her mother is nothing but a useless drunk. A slew of horrible and even more terrible guys have come and gone in the last couple of years and when we first meet Lacey in chapter 1, she is with the worst of them all; Macon.

The first two chapters are very troubling and didn't make me feel very good. Honestly, I wanted to smack Lacey with all the rotten salmon in the world. Why in the world would you even want to be with a guy like that? During one of the outbursts from Macon, she meets Everett.

Everett is an interesting character. He seems decent, but I was suspicious of him and thought he may not be all who he seems to be. You'll have to read it yourself to find out if I was right. Overall, I liked Everett, but I do think that Sara Fawkes wants to have the exremely horrible and abusive a-holes in one corner and the perfect can do no wrong love interest in the other corner. A lot of the guys in this book are massive jerks and Everett just seems to be a little too perfect during most of the book. Understandebly, Lacey has trust issues and has a hard time trusting that Everett is not out to use and hurt her. I think the idea is that we as readers MUST understand that he really is trustworthy and that's why it's all a little too much of the goodness. It makes Everett appear less than human and that was one of the things that bothered me.

"“you’re a tough nut to crack.” I gave him a bemused stare. Pot, meet kettle."

Lacey herself was an interesting main character. I struggled with her sometimes - as the beginning is not the only time I'd liked to have slapped her silly. She doesn't really make the best choices in life. But she does have a very hard day to day life - having to do it all on her own. She also has some issues from her past that she hasn't really worked through. She seemes a bit overly dramatic at times and I just found that I sometimes had a hard time connecting to Lacey. It was nice to see her take steps to try and better her life.

This book has some nice secondary characters. Horrible people like Macon and former friend Ashley and nice people like Clare, Trent, Cherise and Andrew.

The writing style of the book is perfectly fine, and for the most part I liked reading it. It got better as the story moved along, but I never reached a level of loving it. I'm not entirely sure if it's due to the characters, the setting of the story itself. I don't mind some struggles or darkness in my books, but this book really is chock-full of them and sometimes it felt like the story was drowning a bit in all the misery.

Overall, I liked reading this book and I think that readers who love new adult books and don't mind a bit - well.. a lot - of darkness to their story will love this book.

“Never be ashamed to go your own path. Sure as hell ain’t easy. I’ll tell you that, but it makes life worth living.”