Reason To Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (17 Jan 2013)
• ISBN-10: 0141348445
• Breathing Series #1
• An 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.
• 
  
• Cover: This is one cover that's grown on me.  When I first saw it, I didn't care much about it.  It didn't grab my attention in any way.  However, I do like that the whole trilogy matches, and together on the shelf, all in silver, they look great.
• And now that I've read it, the girl on the cover, the rain - it's all relevant and significant, and makes me like the cover that little bit more.

This was recommended to me by a YouTube subscriber because of how much I love the book Heart On a Chain by Cindy C. Bennett, and they thought if I liked that, I'd enjoy this series.

Now.  That thought obviously brought about some seriously high expectations as Heart On a Chain is one of, if not, my favourite book.

It took me quite a while to get into this one.   I found the first 100 pages or so really slow going.  I also found it difficult to connect to Emma (side note- Emma, Emily, Em?  Pick one and stick with it.  THAT I found irritating.  Emma as a nickname for Emily?  Really? Lame.)

But after that, it picked up pace and I managed to connect to Emma and sympathise with her situation.

I did think that the author made her too perfect.  She artistic.  Athletic.  Oh and let's not forget super brainy.  Ah yes- and guys want her but don't approach her as she tries to be invisible.

I do feel it's too long.  Heart On a Chain is a stand alone and scarcely 300 pages- but it's packed with feels.  Whereas Reason To Breathe is over 500 pages and the first in a trilogy, and feels drawn out.  There's a lot of things I found unnecessary- the overly descriptive passages of people's houses for example.

I HATED the love triangle we got for about 100 pages.  I hate them anyway, but this one just really riled me.  It made me hate Emma for those 100 pages.

The actual love interest with Evan was great.  I loved him.  He was a great love interest.

The cliff hanger was fantastic and definitely made me want to continue the trilogy- I just hope there are no more love triangles because that will disappoint me.

Over all it wasn't a perfect read, but I did really enjoy it and would recommend it for NA fans.

4/5 stars.