Ten Tiny Breaths: A Novel (The Ten Tiny Breaths, #1)

by K.A. Tucker

Just breathe, Kacey. Ten tiny breaths. Seize them. Feel them. Love them.

Four years ago Kacey Cleary's life imploded when her car was hit by a drunk driver, killing her parents, boyfriend, and best friend. Still haunted by memories of being trapped inside, holding her boyfriend's lifeless hand and listening to her mother take her last breath, Kacey wants to leave her past behind. Armed with two bus tickets, twenty-year-old Kacey and her fifteen-year-old sister, Livie, escape Grand Rapids, Michigan, to start over in Miami. Struggling to make ends meet, Kacey needs to figure out how to get by. But Kacey's not worried. She can handle anything-anything but her mysterious neighbour in apartment 1D.

Trent Emerson has smouldering blue eyes, deep dimples, and he perfectly skates that irresistible line between nice guy and bad boy. Hardened by her tragic past, Kacey is determined to keep everyone at a distance, but their mutual attraction is undeniable and Trent is determined to find a way into Kacey's guarded heart-even if it means that an explosive secret could shatter both their worlds.

• ISBN10: 1476740321
• ISBN13: 9781476740324
• Publish Date: 10 October 2013 (first published 12 February 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

Reread 2020.
Still an amazing read, though knowing what will happen does take away some of the shock XD But still much love for this novel and it's characters 3 Great to read again :)


Read 2013.
Amazing !! I would give it 6 stars if I could :)I reallllllly loved this book, it was so tragic and compassionate, just absolutely beautiful ! The way it was written made me feel so much with Kacey and the others. Storm was very awesome !! Livie and Mia were really cute !! And Trent was very hot haha ^^ LOVED THIS BOOK.

[Ashley]

BookNook — Young Adult book reviews

Holy.

Shit.

What did I just read?

I can't review this book. I can't do it. Because the absolute best part of it is a BIG. FAT. SPOILER.

Ten Tiny Breaths was good.. really good. I was laughing, giggling, lusting.. But then I reached the ~80% mark and it blew my fucking mind. I was just reading along, lalala, then a big fat school bus hit me in the face. I'm pretty sure my eyes got all wide and shocked in real life, and there's a possibility that my mouth was hanging open too. That's how blown away I was. And it pains me that I can't share any of that with you guys because it's a huge spoiler! *pouts*

Okay, I'll give this a try.

As soon as I started Ten Tiny Breaths, I knew I was going to love it. I just clicked with Kacey. She is HILARIOUS. I was cracking up at her dark, sarcastic, sexual humour. I really enjoyed her character, I loved her kick ass attitude, I loved her devotion to her sister, and I loved drooling over Trent with her. There's no question that this book has the BEST characters. In addition to Kacey, we have Storm. Who knew that a strip club bartender/acrobat with enormous boobs could be so awesome? Honestly, I had my doubts. But it turns out she's an incredibly sweet, devoting, loyal friend, and an excellent mother!

But the best thing about Ten Tiny Breaths (other than the crazy insane ending that I can't discuss) is that Kacey is absolutely insane. I'm serious. She's nuts. And I kind of love her. It took me a while to get that though. At the beginning of the book I loved her sarcastic, snarky humour. In the middle of the book, I was getting annoyed with her for being so in denial. I just wanted to bitch slap some sense into her. But by the 75% mark, it just clicked. She's insane. And she kept going down, down, down until her insanity was almost hilarious. I laughed at her and I pitied her. You can really see just how dark of a hole she's slipping into. It's a little terrifying.

An example:

This is after nine days of no communication with Trent, and she's desperate to see him. She's already gone through a million possibilities about why he hasn't contacted her. He's seeing someone else, he was in a car accident, he's working... Now, check out her next hypothesis:

Wandering past Trent's apartment door on my way to the gym, I freeze. I'm sure I just caught a whiff of something funky.
Ohmigod.
Trent's dead.
I run to Tanner's door and hammer on it until it flies open. Tanner's standing there with his standard Batman pajama pants and deer-caught-in-the-headlight eyes. "Come on!" I grab his arm and yank him out. "You need to open 1D right now!"
Tanner uses his weight to resist me. "Wait a minute. I can't just open—"
"I think Trent's dead!" I shriek.
That gets him moving.
[..]
When he opens the door, I shove past him, not even considering what I'm rushing in to see. [..]
Tanner moves past me, and does a quick sweep of the bedrooms and bathroom. He even opens the closet door. When he comes back to face me, it's with a glower. "Why exactly did you tell me Trent was dead?"
I swallow, averting my gaze. "Oops."
—Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker, Pages 189-190

Yeah... she was so desperate to see Trent that she made herself believe he was dead just because she smelled something strange near his door. LOL.

Oh, and fair warning: Kacey is a sex fiend. That's not an exaggeration. She puts all other girls I've read about to shame. Sex is always on her mind and she's always doing her best to seduce Trent!

"I've heard redheads were crazy, but man, no one warned me that you were sex fiends.
—Trent, Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

And then there's Trent.. Oh, Trent. He seems so perfect and sweet and Mr. Can-Do-No-Wrong, but then we realize that he's just as fucked up as Kacey is. Maybe even more... At the height of their relationship, there were a few professions of love and "forevers" that I was unsure about, then suddenly it all made sense. And this is where the spoiler comes in that I WISH I COULD TALK ABOUT!!! Sigh.

But god.. THE ENDING. I know I've made it clear already, but it completely blew me away. Suddenly the book went from being a hilarious, kind of light read with dark undertones, to this crazy, insane, traumatic, disaster of an emotional tornado. It will shock you, stun you, and leave you completely breathless. And to top it all off, Ten Tiny Breaths has some really strong, powerful messages about empathy, forgiveness, and learning to cope with your past. I've read books like that before—like On Dublin Street—but this was a whole new level.

This book is definitely a must read. Enjoy the beginning, laugh at the awesome jokes, and then let the end shock you for all eternity.

[layawaydragon]

Another freebie/win that I can’t find confirmation for in my email after all the years. :( I WILL keep better track of these things if I win anything again.

I heard great things about Ten Tiny Breathes and decided to check it out. I haven't read Beautiful Disaster so I can't say much about the "female Travis Maddox" problem. But now, I'm really nervous about ever reading that book.



Characters are typical, plain, and flat. The perfect sister. the perfect little girl. the single mom stripper. prince charming. the bad girl. the bad boy. Everyone else is creepy pervs/sluts or hearts of gold perfection. There is no in between or characterization.

It's over-the-top cheesy and melodramatic. Romance is flat lust and there's no reason to cheer their relationship. It makes a stalker a romance interest that gets the girl. Kasey's quick to slut shame and POC are sexy stereotypes for laughs and ridicule.

I was worried about the romance being the fix it solution and sadly, after a brief period of hope, that's exactly what happened. While having a support system certainly helps, love doesn't heal all wounds. Making it about a man kills any depth or meaning it was supposed to have. It'd be much better if it Kacey's healing revolved around herself, Storm and Livie.

The Trent's big, secret twist? Saw it coming. *yawn*

The romance itself is based on lust and they didn't talk much. Trent stalks Kacey (though we don't find out how badly til later) and their fucking chemistry gets the ball rolling. That's all folks.

But really one of the biggest problems I had letting go, was the PTSD and therapy portrayal. While it's different for everyone, I have a hard time believing Kasey's theatrical antics.

Plus there's so little of her actual progress. It's mostly Broken Kasey, and Lusting Kasey. It's very rushed and...off. Some of the ridiculous sexy sessions (cumming by looking at him??) and checking each other out should've been cut to make room for more growth.

I still don't get the ten tiny breaths...at all. She's all "I get it now!" and then starts using it the next page without explanation.

Well, I fucking don't. And I sure as hell don't know what it means to Kasey? After all that time it clicks on for her but leaves us in the dark. That's some bullshit.

"Oh, it's up to the reader." Oh a giant part of characterization is up to me now? Fine, it means breath shallowly until you pass out and/or die. YAY!



Kacey

She’s not a pleasant person and I was okay with that up to a point. Being a judgmental asshole made sense since she’s trying to keep everyone out and it is often a defense mechanism. However, it isn't resolved, just left to fester.

I was not okay with her slut-shaming every woman around Trent. She didn’t show any remorse or second thoughts about it, just lamented being driven “crazy” by Trent.

She eventually shapes up towards Storm but Storm’s practically perfect and that has nothing to do with reforming. Kacey claims to love the strip club when leaving, but no strippers are more than background sluts with awful POC stereotypes.

At first, I was really happy about Kacey’s reaction to Trent’s secret and how she was getting help. But of course that couldn’t last. I understand it’s a romance novel but that doesn’t fucking mean it has to be happily ever after.



Kacey has major fucking issues and she’s “cured” quick *cough*bullshit*cough* but that’s not enough. She’s still empty without Trent and of course they have to make it work.

**sigh**

Trent:

Besides being a creepy stalker, he's also manipulative and they're toxic together. Withholding sex to make your partner cave? Creepy and wrong, no matter what gender. Either break it off or get real. Fuck off with patronizing bullshit. She can make her own decisions.



And despite all this bullshit, it was easily readable and I flew through it. Can't say I enjoyed it but I didn't struggle to finish it.



But there's no way in hell I'm continuing the series.

[thebookdisciple]

Wow. So, so good. And so real. It really was wonderful.

[Bianca]

Well, if they're not tiny breaths and they're not deep breaths, then they're just... breaths. Then you're just breathing for the sake of... breathing.

[littleread1]

Ok, so you know those books that are great and yet at the same time you aren't a fan? That's this for me. I'd feel ok giving it 2 stars at the same time I'd be ok giving it 4, so I split the difference with a 3. Without spoilers, the instant attraction was weird, some of the incidents that happen don't really make sense and seem to be thrown in to cause conflict, and there are some sick sick people who do some sick sick things. I mean I know that shit happens in real life, but I don't know how I could forgive Trent for the deception, and the instant attraction and how he broke through her defenses was never really explained . Plus I think something was lost with the lapse of time.

That being said, TTB deals with some heavy shit, and deals with it well. Drunk driving accidents and their survivors are not easy subjects to discuss on a good day. But Tucker handles it with amazing grace and sensitivity. Kacey is a character you can connect with, empathize with. Some of the side characters are wonderful and fascinating. So ... will I read the next book? Possibly. I will look into it.

[KitsuneBae]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Really surprised the hell out of me. This is a very sad and depressing book. I actually braced myself for the onslaught of endless sex but I really had the surprise of my life. :) Way to go, Tucker.

[Rowena]

This book was good but there was a lot of stuff that got on my nerves. The love interest? I knew who he was almost from the very first time we met him. His whole deal kind of weirded me out but everything works out in the end.

The main character, Kacey was hard to like throughout most of the book. I wanted to bean her in the head a time or two because she lived. Everyone else died and she lived and instead of making the most of her life and living a life that her parents could be proud of, she stewed far too long and became a hard person that was hard to relate to and for her sister, she became a person that was hard to love.

Despite all of my issues with the book, I have to give the author credit for keeping me reading. I couldn't put the book down and even though I was disappointed in the end, it was still a book that captured and kept my attention throughout the entire reading.

[nitzan_schwarz]

2013 cleaning my shelves challenge

[Linda]

*WARNING* There was some ugly crying going on towards the end of Ten Tiny Breaths. Beautiful story, but my goodness, a lot of very difficult stuff to read about!

This and other reviews can also be found on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews where all my reviews are originally posted.

Yeah, even the readers need to think about breathing while reading Ten Tiny Breaths, that’s for sure. Between forgetting to breathe in places because I just wanted Kacey to be OK, and not being able to breathe because I was ugly-crying so hard it was impossible I figure the title is one of the more apt titles I’ve seen in a long time!

Ten Tiny Breaths start with Kayce and Olivia fleeing their aunt and uncle’s house with only one suitcase each, after their uncle had come into Olivia’s room during the night, acting inappropriately. Kacye swore she would take care of her sister, making sure she could finish high-school and live her dream by going to Princeton just like their parents had done. When they arrive in Miami in front of their new home, it isn’t as nice and shiny as it had seemed on the web-site, but it looks quite good anyway. On the first day, Kayce meets Trent in the laundry room, and for the first time in years, all the walls she’s built around herself seem to be thinner as she notices how good-looking he is, and that she might actually still have feelings.

As Ten Tiny Breaths continue, the readers follow Kayce mostly, but the other characters are important as well, both Olivia and Trent, as well as their other next-door-neighbours; Storm and her five-year-old daughter Mia. Storm even helps Kayce get a better-paying job than serving coffee at Starbucks, and serving drinks in a strip-club isn’t as bad as Kayce first thought. The tip is awesome, and both the boss and the bouncers are taking good care of everybody who works there, without ever being inappropriate.

Kayce is a character that is so broken it is amazing she can function at all, but she does, and little by little, she finally starts working through her grief of losing four people she cared about at the same time. Having new people to care about both scares her and makes her feel a little better, the fear of losing them always at the forefront of her mind. Although Kayce is broken, she does her best to take good care of Olivia, who is the good girl , always helpful and loving, caring and polite. It seems as if the two sisters are polar opposites, but they are more alike than they realize, they just deal with their issues differently.

All through Ten Tiny Breaths, Kayce thinks about a phrase her mother used to tell her when she was upset, sad or stressed Breathe, just breathe. Ten tiny breaths. Seize them. Feel them. Love them. Kayce doesn’t understand what her mother meant by that, but she tries it every time she feels overwhelmed – which is quite often.