“This was the place where everything was supposed to be safe and easy. No one tried to get involved with me, and I kept to myself. 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.One girl’s story of unspeakable cruelty, life-changing love, and her precarious grasp of hope, Reason to Breathe is the first installment in the acclaimed Breathing Series.
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Sexual Content - 1/5
1/5
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Violence - 3/5
3/5
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Language - 2/5
2/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 2/5
2/5
Summary
Overall Rebecca Donovan's Reason to Breathe the first novel in a series that powerfully addresses the subject of child abuse, how it can destroy a person’s soul even if it doesn’t take a life, and how coming into contact with the right people can save a person from the nightmare that the abuse creates. It details in stark detail the difficulty of developing healthy relationships in the shadow of having suffered such abuse. I like this story because the abused is the storyteller, a teenager named Emily, and, as long as she is telling, she is surviving and offering hope for other victims of this terrible crime. As long as she is telling, there is hope for her, too. As easy as it is for me to love Emily, I hate her abuser, her aunt Carol, and once I started reading I had to continue to the series’ finale in the hopes that Carol would get what she deserves for her cruelty. Like so many other stories, this one has a best friend; this one has a boy. But this one doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending. Instead, it is a
cliffhanger. That’s okay, though. I wanted more, anyway. Review by Noti.