Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths #1) Review

Ten Tiny Breaths by KA Tucker

Book description…

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.

“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass”

~George Herbert

In my eyes that is a quote that is quite powerful!  Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were determined not to forgive someone for something they may or may not have done to you?  Maybe it was intentional?  Maybe it wasn’t even them who actually did it – but you assumed they did?  Maybe it was one very stupid mistake and they are paying the consequences of that mistake for the rest of their lives?  They say that Forgiveness is Divine… is that something you believe?  I know I do and I have many personal reasons on why I feel that way.

I have a friend, a very close friend, who lost her family – Her Husband, Her 7 year old daughter, Her 4 year old son, Her 18 month old son, and her father – in a drunk driving accident just over two years ago.  After months of therapy, she found the strength to reach out to the man who was behind the wheel and forgive him for making the choice to get behind the wheel while intoxicated.  When she learned to cope with her anger, bitterness, sadness, rage, and hatred… she wanted to know why.  Why did he make that choice and even though it was a very stupid mistake for him to make he had quite a heartbreaking reason for it.  It took a few more months and when she realized that she had lost just as much as he had she told me that she realized that he had even more pain to deal with then she did… because he not only lost quite a bit that night too, but he also now has to live with the consequences of his choices and actions now for the rest of his life.  I’ve told her time and time again that I admire her for that – because to be honest I don’t know that I would have the courage to forgive if I were in her shoes.  Her response to me –

“Lori, forgiveness really is divine.  Just because you forgive doesn’t mean you ever forget.  But holding onto the bitterness and the anger did nothing but bring me down even more.  I forgave him for myself, I forgave him so that I can heal, so that I can move on and cherish the good memories I have of my beautiful family.”

This book is downright beautiful!  Sure it’s so hard to read what Kacey is experiencing but to watch her heal from what happened and learn to forgive and then see how she was not only able to forgive but she was able to love again was touching… it was beautiful!

I had highlighted so many quotes that over half the words are yellow when I read it… lol… but there was just so much there.  There was so much love in the words that were said, in the things that Trent said to Kacey, in the way that Trent made Kacey feel, in the way that Storm, Ben, Cain, Nate, Dan, and most especially Livie made Kacey feel that it was hard not to see all the love. 

I know this isn’t a conventional review of Ten Tiny Breaths and I’m sorry that I didn’t actually “review” the book per say… but when I sat down, and I had to sit down literally after hanging up the phone with my friend once I had finished the book, I knew what I wanted to talk about.  I knew what I had to talk about because forgiveness really is something special whether it's something you do for yourself or you do for both yourself and someone else!   

As far as recommending Ten Tiny Breaths I have to say that this book should be a MUST READ on everyone’s 2013 list!!!  And I’m definitely looking forward to reading not only Livie’s story next, but also more of KA Tucker’s work!

Happy Reading!