Name: A Reason to Breathe
ISBN: 9781495261992

C. P. Smith

Love at first sight was never so dangerous. Jack Gunnison has a problem, well, two actually, one is 5'5" and the other is a Killer. Jennifer Stewart needs a change after losing her husband, and sending her daughter off to College. Moving to the high country of Colorado to restart her life, and follow her dreams, Jenn gets more than she bargained for, when she attracts the eye of a killer. Together, Jack and Jenn must figure out his identity, before he strikes again. Mature content due to language and sex.

A Reason to Breathe

C.P. Smith

WARNING: Author believes in soul mates and insta-love. Proceed with caution if you're not a romantic at heart. Love at first sight was never so dangerous. Sheriff Jack Gunnison has a problem, well, two, actually. One stands 5'5" and the other? . . . A killer. Jennifer Stewart needs a change after losing her husband and sending her daughter off to College. Jenn moves to the high country of Colorado to start her life over and follow her dreams. Unfortunately, she gets more than she bargained for when she attracts the eye of a killer. Together, Jack and Jenn must figure out his identity before he strikes again.Mature content 18+

Reason Series, #1

Samantha Emery

Oh, I had high hopes for this, but it did not deliver at all.

The writing, is not really that great, there was some phrases and sentences that quite frankly made little sense sometimes. 

Well to start, we have Jennifer Stewart, 39, and a widow who has moved across the country to fulfil a childhood dream of living near the mountains and communing with the bears or something.


   As a journalist, I could work anywhere, and since my childhood dream was to live high in the mountains of Colorado with deer and bears for my neighbours, I looked west. I looked for any job in journalism that would get me close to those mountains. I didn't care where, the job wasn't as important as the location


Ok, let us remember this, the job is not important, any job would do. Ok...

So, somewhere, in the 4 months between her moving, and the story starting again after the first page, she clearly decided that job is important, and she is going to become some sort of super investigative journalist, and help solve murders.

She meets Jack Gunnison, our sheriff, when she is trying to get some details on the second murder. He pretty sharply clears her away form the crime scene, then later in the day, they spend possibly another ten minutes in each others company, which is interrupted when one of Jack's 37 exe's makes an appearance.

So who is she crying for later that night when she is broken into....Jack 
   "Please call Jack, please please please" 


And bam, into a relationship they go! Now, I have read many books, with instant attraction/love/lust but quite frankly, it did not work here, it was so forced, as if the writer just needed to get them together as soon as possible, with little to no build up or evidence of sexual chemistry!

And this is the issue with this book.

We are told, that any woman would love to be with Jack - but why? He is man whore, who apparently has failed at every relationship as 
  "the reason no has ever lasted was because they tried to change me? Tried to tame me?...I'm a lawman who does whatever it takes to get the job done, and that means working all hours and missing shit or being late
 

Yes ok Jack, not that anyone should try and change a person, but you know, in a relationship, there has to be some give and take, seems you are all take! 

Then we are meant to believe, that not only Jack, but any man who comes within a 5 mile radius of Jenn falls in love with her or feels protective of her, with no evidence as to why! Her primary personality trait seems to be idiocy and an ability to giggle..

But anyway, Jenn, super sleuth extraordinaire, decided that she is going to investigate the murders, despite our Lusty Sheriff telling her to back off. She seems to think her skills with Google and chatting with locals about stuff makes her a valuable asset in the investigation.


   "We can eliminate those over the age of fifty five and those under the age of twenty for starters"


........Travelling down the mountain to Gunnison, I figured getting this list to Jack was important


yes the list of every non disabled man of a certain age group! I am sure the police have not come up with something similar themselves.

But anyway, off she goes, all gung ho, decided to go to a suspects house, then decided that the victims must be Jack's ex's so decides to start ringing all of these 37 woman to warn them to be careful!

She does so many stupid things that endanger herself and others, such as when they think it might be connected to her,and the murderer might be fixated on her, she decided to go running at night, shoeless, ripping her feet up in the process. 

Then tries to run, gets brought back, again is told to stop investigating, lies about stopping, gets caught, gets chucked in jail, runs off on her own again, getting some other poor sod stabbed in the process...

Then ofc is off to a creepy haunted mine, the first thing she has done in the book actually connected with her actual job, and you just know. It is all so predictable, creepy haunted mine...yep, killer is going to turn up there.

The last 25% was even more ridiculous with a second mad man, it could have done with that not being added.

The characters were just so one dimensional and flat, no depth at all to them. Jack is an Alpha Man, so not only has he had the entire female population of the town, but does not want to be "tamed" so it never worked out with any of them , spends a lot of time threatening or telling us he wants to spank Jenn's ass. And that is his entire personality, along with an unreasonable jealousy and what seems to be a pretty short fuse!

If you are going to make it so I have to read these phrases


  "I can see why someone would fall in love with you"

........

Amber narrowed her eyes, and then gave me a once over like she was trying to figure out what I had that she didn't. "Brains" I wanted to shout.

.........

I was shorter than all of them by 3-4 inches, I didn't have big hair, my boobs, weren't as huge, and my IQ notwithstanding, they weren't that different from me. In fact since I am smarter and not a bimbo....


Then make it so! She was dumb and spent the entire book making daft decisions, giggling like a schoolgirl and generally being annoying. I cannot at all see why anyone would fall in love with her at all.

Maybe, it was because I had such high expectation, that it has fallen so short. It is being discussed on the boards as like Kristen Ashley, and I am a KA fan, but it was just about 2 stars for me and I skim read a lot of it. 

Must say, actually, I did like the bits with the build up of the murderer..that was well done, and the author probably does have potential, I just did not like this.