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Bestselling author Katie McGarry’s trademark wrong-side-of-the-tracks romance is given a new twist in the gritty YA contemporary novel, Only a Breath Apart.
Jesse Lachlin is cursed.
So the town folklore says, but while Jesse’s had his fair share of tragedy, the only curse he believes is in his grandmother’s will: in order to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, the girl he froze out his freshman year, Scarlett Copeland.
Scarlett Copeland is psychic.
Glory Gardner tells Scarlett she has hidden psychic abilities, but Scarlett thinks Glory is delusional. What is real is Scarlett’s father’s irrational fears, controlling attitude, and the dark secrets at home. Scarlett may have a way to escape, but there’s a hitch: she’ll have to rely on the one person she used to trust, the same boy who broke her heart, Jesse Lachlin.
Each midnight meeting pushes Jesse and Scarlett to confront their secrets and their feelings for each other. But as love blooms, the curse rears its ugly head…
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My Review: 5/5 Stars
I love Katie McGarry's writing. There has not been a time where I have read a book of hers and not liked it. Only a Breath Apart has become one of my absolute favorites by her. I finished it in one day because I lacked the strength and heart to put it down. Her characters are emotional, complex, relatable, and so many other things. You can't help but fall in love with her characters. You feel everything they feel, you cheer for them and you cry with them. Scarlett and Jesse are no exceptions. Their story was beautiful and heartbreaking. Both of them know pain, physical and emotional. They have their secrets and live with them and the guilt that sometimes breaks them. But, there is only hope. Scarlett and Jesse were best friends as children, until their freshmen year in high school, Jesse shuts her out. This breaks both their hearts. Jesse has his reasons, believing that the curse on his family and him, will one day hurt the one person he was born to love. Their senior year brings them back together.
Jesse is desperate to save the land his family has owned because to him it is home and he loves it more than anything. Scarlett is living with a father who abuses her mother. She struggles with her fear for her mother and sister and the anger she has toward her father for doing this to them. But she feels that she cannot tell anyone. That no one will believe her and help, especially when her mother tells her she will deny that anything is wrong. Her father is a control freak who's obsessed with tracking Scarlett''s every move. To save his land, Jesse needs to win approval of 3 people his Gran selected, before she passed, that will hold the future of his land. Scarlett is one of those people. Scarlett meanwhile is trying to find a way to break out of her father's grip. Soon Jesse and Scarlett find a way to help one another and in doing so they repair the broken friendship and trust that Jesse caused a few years earlier. And in doing so, they fall deeper in love, because both have been in love with one another their entire lives.
The story is written beautifully. You feel their pain and struggles. You feel their love and hopes. Their journey isn't easy. And even once past the pain and hardships, they still need to find a way to grow independently. This part of this story was also so nice to read, because it was real. Jesse and Scarlett love one another deeply and know they are meant for forever, but that doesn't mean that they don't want to find themselves first and learn to stand on their own two feet. Like I said, this story has become a favorite of mine. If you love her previous books, this one will not disappoint.
I received an ARC for an honest review.
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