Author: Brittainy C. Cherry
Series: Elements #1
Publication date: September 25th 2015
Pages: 422
ISBN: 9782755623826
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
I was warned about Tristan Cole.
"Stay away from him," people said.
"He's cruel."
"He's cold."
"He's damaged."
It's easy to judge a man because of his past. To look at Tristan and see a monster.
But I couldn't do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him because it also lived inside of me.
We were both empty.
We were both looking for someone else. Something more.
We both wanted to put together the shattered pieces of our yesterdays.
Then perhaps we could finally remember how to breathe.
Review:
In the world of literature there are many facets, often called genres, which helps narrow down a subject matter a reader would be interested in. Mine is more times than not in the romance genre. A subset of this genre, the new adult section, has become my home away from home. While looking through books I may enjoy reading this one came across my desktop. I went into the read totally blind as I often like doing so that I am not waiting for a particular scene to happen to have the synopsis make sense. What I found was equal parts delightful and cringe-worthy.
Elizabeth and Tristan know loss better than any other people in their small town of Meadow's Creek. Elizabeth, one year from the loss of her husband, is trying to pull the pieces of her life back together when she meets her new surly neighbor. The hard edge of his eyes are often seen as evil or angry by most of the other townspeople but Elizabeth sees more. She knows the look of loss and desperate pain because she wears a similar expression in hers. Elizabeth and Tristan feel an attraction for one another and hope to feel what they lost once more in each other's arms. The recipe for disaster was set from that point on. The two of them must learn to grieve, let go, and move on before they lose themselves completely.
This book was scattered and not well formatted. The quick pace makes me feel as if the book would have been better suited for a trilogy. One book having their struggles to deal with their pain and try to love again, one where they realize their love only to lose it, and one where they come together as a united force against a common antagonist. As it is, the book rushes from one milestone to the next leaving me blinking in confusion while trying to let myself fall into the story. The characters, in my opinion, grieve and fall in love too fast. There were ample opportunities to throw obstacles in their way to cause hiccups. The hiccups did happen, but they were overcome so easily I had to roll my eyes. It had only been a year since they lose their spouses and yet they were able to throw themselves together without much buckling as to how the dead spouse would feel (as is common with the loss of a spouse, I would assume)?
Mostly, the book just left me exhausted. I felt like so much happened and it was so rushed that I wasn't able to relax into what was happening between two characters that were otherwise well constructed. I would be willing to give the author's books another chance to see if the rush job on this one was a fluke but if a pattern is evident I will sadly have to write it off as a loss.
I wanted to love "The Air He Breathes" but I was never given a chance to catch my OWN breath.
DISCLAIMER: This book was borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited Library at the discretion of the reviewer and not in exchange for a good review by the author.
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