In Her Wake

A Ten Tiny Breaths Novella

By: K.A. Tucker

Narrated by: Sebastian York

Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Before you knew him as Trent in Ten Tiny Breaths, he was Cole Reynolds - and he had it all. Until one night when he makes a fatal, wrong decision…and loses everything.

When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy. Normally, he’d be able to lean on his best friends - the ones who have been in his life since he could barely walk. Only, they’re gone. Worse, there’s the shattered body of a 16-year-old girl lying somewhere in a hospital bed, her entire life ripped from her because of a case of beer and a set of keys.

Everyone assures him that they know it wasn’t intentional, and yet he can’t ignore the weight of their gazes, the whispers behind his back. Nor can he shake the all-consuming guilt he feels every time he thinks of that girl who won’t so much as allow him near her hospital room to apologize. As the months go by and the shame and loneliness festers, Cole begins to lose his grip on what once was important - college, his girlfriend, his future. His life. It’s not until Cole hits rock-bottom that he can begin to see another way out of his personal hell: forgiveness.

And there’s only one person who can give that to him…

©2014 Kathleen Tucker. All rights reserved. (P)2014 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

I liked the first book better

I liked the first book better. but am looking forward to listening to the next book.

Cole Trent Reynolds (aka Trent Emerson)

I wish there was a way to give extra stars to authors who include dates. ☆☆☆☆☆

*****Spoiler Alert*****

Audible review. Single POV (Cole/Trent). Ten Tiny Breaths series book 1 of 5; novella covering 26APR08 through August 2012 in Cole/Trent's life. Sebastian York did a great job narrating in an average American accent. Unnecessary intro and finalé music. Thankfully, it's brief and doesn't overlap the narration. Don't let the cover fool you, it has absolutely nothing to do with the story. Trigger warnings: drunk driving accident leads to the death of 6 people in 2 different cars; attempted suicides; drowning death of a baby; death of a toddler by a car; brief counseling; sexual promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse; no sexual contact between the H & h.

Cole Trent Reynolds is a 20 year old football player attending Michigan State University. By all accounts, he's a good guy and is in a 3 year relationship with his best friend's little sister. One night he goes to a house party with his two best friends. Cole volunteered to be the designated driver but was easily convinced to have a few beers and quickly lost track. He needed to return home because his final exams were scheduled for the next morning. His best friend believed he was sober enough to drive them home. Cole comes to when he hears a female voice telling him he's been in an accident. Cole is quickly taken to the hospital. The next time Cole comes to his mom and dad are with him and he's in pain. When Cole asks about his friends, his parents don't have to say it, he realizes they both died. He later finds out that the friend driving was almost double the legal alcohol limit and speeding when he crashed into another car. Neither of his friends were wearing their seat belts. The car they crashed into had five passengers: a 16 year old girl who survived accompanied by her boyfriend, best friend, and parents, who all perished. Cole struggles to find his footing after he recovers from his injuries and his world implodes. He breaks up with his longtime girlfriend, drops off the football team, quits college, his parents separate, and then eventually divorce. He comes to hate his name because he continues to hear the paramedic at the scene in his nightmares saying his name and telling him he's been in an accident so he legally changes it to Trent Emerson (his middle name and his mother's maiden name). Trent pushes down everything that happened just to function but continues to check on the survivor from the other car from a distance. The last page leaves Trent moving to Florida to watch over the survivor and her sister. JP

1st listen 08-20-21
2nd listen 03-21-23 (with KU borrow)

Great book!

Extremely captivating plot, just like all other four novels of this series. Worth to check all of them out ;) Highly recommend!

Love this series!

Love it! It's such a good read and a great insight to listen to before reading/listening toTen Tiny Breaths!

Great!!

What about Sebastian York’s performance did you like?

His voice and personality through his narration was perfect for this character

Any additional comments?

This book is suppose to be read after the book Ten Tiny Breaths even though it is 0.5 in the series. The order is a little misleading but it was written after book 1. I think it would be hard to enjoy it as much unless you knew what happened in book 1. That being said I loved loved loved this little book. As much as I love the male character in book 1, getting this insight into his background was so eye opening. I was a real treat to get to know how his life ended up where it did in Ten Tiny Breaths. It made me immediately go back and read book 1 all over again now that I had this information. Sebastian York is the perfect voice for the male character in this book. PERFECT!!!

Perfect narration

I loved Ten Tiny Breaths, so I had to read this one. It’s heartbreaking and depressing, but still beautiful. And the narration is perfection!! Sebastian York could read an obituary and I think I’d enjoy it.

Sebastian is always a win

I loved it! Trent's POV was more emotional than TTB! In many ways I wish I listened to this 1st before TTB!

A war of sympathy and frustration

In Her Wake is the prequel novella to Ten Tiny Breaths (TTB). I decided to start this series before diving into TTB based on reviews that I had read. In this novella, we meet Cole who makes one life-changing decision that affected more than just him and his two best friends, but also Kacey. Not only does Cole have to grieve the loss of his childhood best friend and the carefree young adult he himself used to be, but he also blames himself for the impact his choice made on Kacey as she deals with the loss of her parents, best friend and boyfriend.

As the book unfolds, we get to see Cole want to reach out to Kacey to make sure she's alright, to apologize, etc. but she's made it clear she never wants to see Cole or his family ever. So Cole (soon to remake himself as Trent) has to keep any interaction with Kacey under disguise.

I definitely felt for the guy. I'm not entirely sure how anyone could carry on with the guilt, regret, and grief this character has to deal with. And while some of the lengths he goes to in order to ensure Kacey is safe and out of trouble may be borderline creepy, I'm hoping it ends up working out for him in TTB.

I'm giving this a 3.5 star rating. I enjoyed the peek into what happens before TTB, but the novella left me conflicted. It was difficult to feel such sympathy and frustration for a character at the same time. K.A. Tucker certainly writes Cole's character with such harsh honesty, but it certainly left me feeling a bit melancholy - not the romance read I was expecting. Of course, I can't wait to pick up Ten Tiny Breaths now :)

Sebastian York swoon!!!

Man, not only do I love Trent's point of view and his struggles but it ties in so nicely with what happened in TTB. Sebastian has such a soothing voice, those neck nuts hit you right in the happy place 😉😉. I kind of wish this was the full version of TTB but from Trent's view, it would be interesting to know what happened and what he was thinking when he was missing from TTB.

great writing. pulled me into the story.

I don't like reading about such gut wrenchingly sad emotions. Therefore, I am at a quandry wto proceed to the next book in series or start with a new book. Think I'll leave the sadness behind.