Reason to Breathe

Breathing, Book 1

By: Rebecca Donovan

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Reason to Breathe is the first book in the million-copy bestselling Breathing Series.

“No one tried to get involved with me, and I kept to myself. This was the place where everything was supposed to be safe and easy. How could Evan Mathews unravel my constant universe in just one day?”

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.

Reason to Breathe is one girl’s story of life-changing love, unspeakable cruelty, and her precarious grasp of hope.

©2013 Rebecca Donovan (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

WOW !!! Emotionally charged !

Would you listen to Reason to Breathe again? Why?

Yes missing small nuisance .

What about Kate Rudd’s performance did you like?

Just the way she could get int the characters!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Emma's realizing that she will be abused as long as she stays with her aunt and uncle and the niece and nephew will see.

Excellent until the end

No spoilers but I will say books like this need a warning about how baldy the ending sucks. I loved this book. I sat in my car listening in the parking garage, etc. If I had it in paperback I would have stayed up all night to finish it. But lately, authors get some stupid thrill in just ending a book. Just. Ending. It. I get not all books have happy endings but don't just quit. So frustrated.

Can't Stop Listening

What made the experience of listening to Reason to Breathe the most enjoyable?

This was my second time listening to the series and absolutely love this story. Adrenaline and love story all in one.

Common Foster Care Abuse

Typical foster child care scenario where there's either sexual abuse or physical and emotional abuse by the adult care givers. Tragic choice of a young teenage female to stay silent and not seek immediate help from anyone at school or through her best friend's parents to put a stop to it. How anyone can just allow such painful physical and verbal abuse to continue for years is beyond comprehension. The main character Emily Thomas has a twisted moral sense that she is saving her neice and nephew the tragedy of being in her same position as being displaced from their parents if the truth came out, but the reality is that Emily is not even considering that she'd be saving them from the monster of a mother that they have. For Emily's uncle George (her deceased father's brother) to turn a blind eye on his wife's evil deeds of her physically and verbally beating down Emily in his own house and not doing anything about it, is also too unreal to fathom such a storyline. Which led me to keep skipping over parts to find more realistic material within the chapters. For Emily to be head over heels in love with Evan even when he admits to her that Hailey was was his best friend when he lived in San Francisco. He keeps stressing that Hailey is just a "friend". Evan tells Emily that he loves her and has never felt anything like with any other girl. Total BS. A person who has good moral values would not find any interest in a guy like Evan with his sexual promiscuity of having sex with his so called best friend whom he didn't even love (unless the female is superficial and shallow like Hailey). That said, that means Evan is also superficial and shallow as his "best friend" Hailey plus being a typical hormonal teenage male dog to take advantage of his best friend and then after having done the deed say to his next girl of interest "Emily" that he regrets it and Hailey and him should have just stayed friends. This Evan character is what is known as total scum bag LOSER material. A truly innocent respectable Emily would have taken his honesty and realized this then let go to move on to a better more deserving love interest. Also, the amount of physical abuse Emily sustained to her body would have easily gotten her horrid situation exposed. Especially, as Emily is an athlete being discovered by college scouts attending her games. And her best friend Sarah is not a true friend by keeping such tragic abuse hidden knowing Emily could get seriously injured at any time or even die going home to that house and staying a victim of her abuser. Emily is inhuman withstanding all the beatings she recieved and never once going to the emergency room or the school nurses office not even to get fixed up by her coach prior to her games is unrealistic. But she's such a believable story teller explaining about her injuries to her best friend Sarah (not). The performance of male voices hurt my ears as they sound female which also caused me to keep skipping through sections. Disappointing series. Definitely could've been written better.

painfully beautiful

when i first read this series my heart broke with emma's tragedy. it was painful, draining, agonizing.. i couldnt believe george could be that oblivious, he had to know! i have read the books a couple of times and now im listening to the audiobooks because, despite how heartbreaking emma's story is, there is something deep inside that give us hope that she will someday have a reward for all she endured and suffered and we want be there for her for when it happens... we keep cheering for her to not give up, to breath!

The best book I’ve ever read

Now I have the physical copies of all 3 books and I love them all. Now I am not much of a reader unless is like a crime/mystery book but still I barely read books lol. I stumbled across the his book while I was working in retail at the time and after stocking them I picked it up and started reading it to pass the time. It’s wasn’t until halfway through my shift that I realized this book was really good and I was already on chapter 6 I think the story is really eventful in a sense and I can actually picture myself he story played out in my head a really good series to read.

Overall Enjoyable

I overall enjoyed this book. My main issues were that the aunt almost seemed like a comic book villain, the romance between Evan and Emma was kind of too extensive of a journey, and there were too many parties. I understand that teenagers like parties, but it almost made the book seem repetitive. I also wish there had been more with Emma and her cousins. They were really sweet together. I really liked Sarah and Emma's friendship throughout the whole story. And I was ready to skip thru to Evan and Emma dating lol crazy ending (in a good but freaky way lol) Very interesting story overall and I cant wait for the next book.

Great story

I found myself looking forward to driving to and from work so I could continue to listen to this story!

Reason to keep going,

I liked the story line, it kept me interested but truthfully I was disappointed in the ending. It let to many unanswered questions. There was definitely room for more. Unless your going to do a follow up book. I loved how clueless Sarah’s mom was. And what did George know about Carol? Was he also that stupid to not see what was happening. Like I said to many unanswered questions. Reguardless I did like the book .

Great

Great book just didn't like the ending. The girl was so smart away from home, but had no clue what was going to happen to her when it was very clear towards the end. Just wish the ending was better.