Review ~ Breathe into Me ~ Sara Fawkes #BloggerShame #COYER #ShelfLove

Breathe into Me by Sara Fawkes
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via Netgalley
Rating: 3 Bookworms
Challenges: #BloggerShame, #BookishResolutions, #COYER, #ShelfLove
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Synopsis
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, whose presence changes her entire existence.

Everett is an outsider to her small community, in town for the summer housesitting one of the grand mansions off the Mississippi coast. When he saves her in a bar one night, she's grateful but wary of his intentions. Lacey doesn't trust most men in her life, but for reasons Lacey can't understand, Everett is completely captivated by her. He's determined to show her that life can offer more than she'd ever hoped for, if only she believes in herself. As she works with him to free herself, Lacey desperately yearns to trust him, to move on and perhaps start fresh.

But what happens when she finds out that everything he's told her about himself was a lie?

Breathe into Me is a story of a broken girls in need of a fresh start meeting a boy who makes all the difference until she realizes he's broken, too. Can they move beyond their pasts and make a future together?

Lacey is that girl. You know the one? The one everyone whispers about, spreads rumors about because of where she lives and what they think they know about her. But no one takes the time to get to know her. She's not the girl everyone thinks she is. She's loyal, hard-working, smart... She's looking to make a fresh start but it's hard when you live in a small town. And she feels like she can't leave her little brother because her mom is a drunk and her grandmother is abusive. Then she meets Everett. A boy more than willing to lend a helping hand with whatever she needs whether it's study help or rebuilding an engine. But can she trust his intentions? Everett seems like sweet guy and his intentions are above-board. He's smart and kind but he's a city boy only in town for the summer.

Breathe into Me had a lot of potential but didn't deliver on all of it, in my opinion. I think the writing could have been tighter - more focused - because the story meandered at times. Also there were some consistency issues - which may have been corrected in final edits - that bothered me. For instance, it's Sunday and Lacey and Everett are studying. He asks about her plans for later and she says she has to pick up her little brother from daycare. Um, it's Sunday. I also got frustrated with Lacey at times because although she wasn't necessarily one to whine about her situation, she made questionable decisions - ones that didn't help her situation. Of course, I do give her a little leeway because of her age, but still. One last gripe is that I didn't like one of the plot devices used to create extra angst. I didn't feel it was necessary with everything else these two had going on.

All that makes it sound like I didn't like the book but I did. Fawkes created characters I rooted for, wanted the best for. Lacey and Everett were surrounded by a realistic cast, both good and bad. And the overall story was good. I felt for both Lacey and Everett, understood what they were going through. I liked watching them become friends and the becoming more. It just felt like too many plot threads though and I think fewer would have made a tighter story.