Donovan, Rebecca (Novelist)

"In the affluent town of Weslyn, Connecticut, where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all.  She's more concerned with feigning perfection--pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises, not wanting anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is.  Without expecting it, she finds love.  It challenges her to recognize her own worth--at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she's desperate to hide"--Back cover.

In an affluent town where most people worry about who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all as she endures unspeakable cruelty and life-changing love. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations, and violent abuse. Book #1

Reason to breathe

A really good book. It was very sad and made me cry. LIKE WHY DOES EMMA HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT???????????????????????????????????? BUT EVAN THO- Like smash

Ari 😚

Rebecca Donovan

Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan is a US bestselling phenomenon. An utterly addictive and heartbreaking novel that will leave readers breathless and desperate for more. All fans of Jodi Picoult and new adult fiction such Colleen Hoover's Slammed, Tammara Webber's Easy and Abbi Glines' Vincent Boys will love Rebecca Donovan's incredible writing. A must-read. A passionate love. A brutal betrayal. Unwavering hope. In a town where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all. She's more concerned with feigning perfection, pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises. Emma doesn't want anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is. When Emma unexpectedly finds love, it challenges her to recognize her own worth - but at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she's desperate to hide. Praise for Reason to Breathe: 'Emotionally intense and heart-achingly beautiful, Reason to Breathe will linger in your thoughts long after you turn the last page.' - Tracey Garvis-Graves, New York Times bestselling author of On the Island

Reason to Breathe (The Breathing Series #1)

Zaira A 

This book just aggravated me, I don't think a book has made my heart race like that. There were moments I really fear for Emma's life. I love when a book makes me provoke an emotion or feelings out of me. Donovan those such an amazing job at making the reader feel something in this book.

I will have to say I felt frustrated at points when Emma wanted to keep everything a secret. I can see her reasoning to act the way she did. However, I agreed with Evan and Sarah persistent of provoking her to take action. The book almost felt like two stories where developing at the same time, Emma relationship with Evan. While the story of Emma living a hell with her Aunt and Uncle. 

This story is not your light hearted chick literature, has a lot of shocking moments. Ohhh and that ending oh baby jesus... I was left with my mouth open with that cliff hanger.

dija

Well i still don't know how i feel about this. 

The girl is kind of stupid, I read this yesterday and i already forgot the MC's name....W o W
I felt like all what happened to her with her bat shit crazy aunt wouldn't have happened if she listened to her best friend? And every time the best friend tells her to tell an adult she always bring up the same freaking excuse "she couldn't let the kids without their mom". And in my opinion that's crap, who would want to let their cousins live with a crazy mom?? 
I did feel bad for her but she didn't have to get through all that alone.

The romance wasn't great but it wasn't good either it was just "mehingly okay"
So yeah this whole book was mehingly okay.

Gisela Ayala 

I listened to the audio-book (the second one I've listened to in my life) and wow, just wow. I'm still left speechless with this book. I'm trying to form coherent thoughts and sentences but my mind is sickened by the whole idea of this book and it's taken me to a world I never thought I would visit. I don't think a book has ever made me feel sick to my stomach before. Literally (and I use the term correctly here), literally sick to my stomach. Not to get too graphic here, but I thought I was going to throw up a couple times when I read what would happen to Emma. 

The actual audio-book was great. Listening was a whole other experience, I didn't even think would add to the story. I've never felt so involved with the story and characters. I kept finding myself making expressions and gasping out loud when certain things would happen.

The ending is what got me, and I felt like I couldn't breathe towards the end. Honestly this book left me messed up, but I believe it would be important for people to read it, if only to leave with an understanding that they might have not had before. My heart goes out to anyone who has ever had to experience what Emma did.

Rachel Metzger

I want to give this book 4 stars. SPOILERS!

If you get anything out of this review, get that this book is different, and that's what I loved about it. 

This book is about a girl who's father died, and mother didn't believe she could take care of her. Because of this she get's sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle who have their own family and life to deal with. Because of this her Aunt has started to take out her frustrations on Emma and abuses her. Emma has spent her whole life trying to not get noticed and hope her Aunt doesn't find more reason to hurt her. In comes Evan, the sweet beautiful boy here to save her from this life. 

The reason this was so good for me is because the main focus of this book was the hardships of Emma's life, and the difficulties of trying to not let anyone find out. This is something that many people deal with and Donovan wrote it perfectly. I also really liked how they wrote her uncle. He was a guy that didn't abuse Emma, but didn't exactly stop it because he didn't want to break up his family. I think this happens a lot and although it made me extremely frustrated with him, it was understandable. 

I also really was happy with the relationship between Emma and Evan. It wasn't this crazy perfect romance or extremely dysfunctional, like many stories I've read. It was realistic and made me feel what they felt. Also you could feel through the words how much they cared.

I really enjoyed Reason to breath recommend that everyone should read it!

Yesenia Vargas

So good. Heartbreakingly good

A really great young adult romance story of loss, pain, and love. The characters were great and the story well-written. Can’t wait to find out what happens next!

Hannah

Andrea Ayala

When I started this book I hated it, I was going to just stop reading it, I didn't like it at all. But I forced myself to give it a chance, there tons of good reviews. I'm so glad I did this book was incredible, that ending left me hanging so badly! Emma is soo strong, I though she wasn't at the beginning but I was wrong. There were still some parts I didn't like but I ouls go pass them. Overall this is a book to be read.

Really good book!!! I will admit I did cry (allot) at the end. Its amazing.

Jolie

I stayed up all night reading this book and it was fantastic. A little graphic (the child abuse scenes) but an overall great story. I am waiting for the 2nd book to turn up as free on Kindle.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

SERIES REVIEW:

This. Series.

*sigh*

What a roller-coaster! This is the type of series that I felt needed to be reviewed together, all in one review, rather than each book separately. Each book ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. Definitely left me hanging enough that I instantly downloaded the next book each time. Which also means each book kind of runs right into where the prior one left off. It definitely had the flow of one really long book, rather than three separate books. Man, this series was GOOD!

What first made me want to read this book, honestly, was that it takes place in Connecticut. We don’t see that very often. I’ve only read maybe two books prior that took place near home, and I love that. I’m a sucker for hometown stories, apparently. ;) The second thing? Becca’s love for this series. She read this series some time last year, I believe, and I still remember her fangirling over how amazing they were. I know sometimes people’s interests change after they start blogging and reading more, and maybe books they loved prior and rated 5 stars would be rated differently now. Not this series though. Becca STILL to this day raves about this series. Since we have such similar taste, that was all the push I needed to start this series.

In Reason to Breathe we meet Emma, who is living a pretty horrific life. One that NO ONE would chose to live. After the death of her father, her mother went into a depression, drinking heavily, barely functioning, and was in no shape to parent her daughter. Emma was placed at her aunt and uncle’s house to live with them and her little cousins. Let’s just say this house wasn’t a happy one for Emma. She dealt with some pretty heinous behavior, felt completely unwanted in the house, and was counting down the days until she could go off to college.

In Barely Breathing Emma’s mom re-enters the picture. After not being a mother to Emma most of her teenage years, Emma is a bit hesitant about letting her back in. But with the hopeless feeling that is consuming her, she gives in and gives it a try. I’m sure you can imagine the messiness this situation will bring. Trust me, this book is a toughy.

Lastly, in Out of Breath, just when you think poor Emma can’t possibly face any more grief and tragedy in her life… BAM! She’s struck again.

This series constantly has twist and turns, slapping you in the face with a pillow when you least expect it. Warning: a lot of the behaviors in these books, by certain people in particular, are pretty horrifying. It was very difficult to read at times, and I was overcome with vast amounts of frustration, grief, and anger. This series definitely brought out the worst in me as far as feelings were concerned. It isn’t a happy, pretty, warm-and-fuzzy type of story. It’s harsh. It’s terrifying at times. It’s wicked. And you know what… it’s also realistic. It’s sad to say, but it’s true. There are children and teenagers that are living lives similar to this story. It’s heartbreaking, really.

That’s not to say there aren’t happy moments in this series too, because there are. Emma makes some pretty amazing friends along her journey, friends that will prove to have her back when it’s needed most. She also has a lot of fun and even meets a few interesting guys she gets to know better. ;) But Emma is a mess. She’s doesn’t always make the right decisions. She is a teenager, of course, and she definitely acts like one. But this girl is dealt a pretty crazy hand, which she’s going to have to grow as a person and figure out who she is, or who she wants to be, and how she’s going to get there. It’s a story about hope. A story that you CAN be better than the life you’re stuck in. That you CAN persevere even if it seems hopeless at first. It’s about change, and learning to be a better person. It’s also about love.

I’ll leave it at that. I don’t want this review to be too spoilery because I want you ALL to read this series. Be in the right frame of mind for it. Know that it’s going to mess with your mind a bit. But give it a shot. It’s worth the read, for sure. I know it’s usually listed as NA, but it can definitely fall into the YA category because of the characters being in their teens. Now that I’ve flown through this series like a madman, I’m definitely hoping to get to my copy of What If asap. :)


  Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

All she wants is to hide away, but love has found her . . . In a town where people worry about what they're seen in and who they're seen with, Emma Thomas doesn't want to be seen at all. She's more concerned with feigning perfection - which means pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises. Emma doesn't want anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is. But when Emma unexpectedly finds love it challenges her to recognize her own worth, at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she's desperate to hide.

Reason to breathe

Reviews