A Review for Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

Posted by Donna
Release Date: February 17th, 2013

Finished Date: January 27th, 2013

Publishers: Penguin UK
Source: For Review

Format: Paperback

Pages: 524
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

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.

The Review: 2.5 stars! 

After reading Cindy Bennett's Heart on a Chain a few months ago, I was recommended Rebecca Donovan's Reason to Breathe because of the similarities they have. However, while I loved Heart on a Chain, I'm kind of on the fence with Reason to Breathe.

Reason to Breathe is a heart-wrenching story that deals with abuse in it's worst form. Emma lives with her aunt and uncle and instead of having a loving and caring family, she suffers from daily beating from her aunt - who despises her. We see Emma try to battle between the life she wants and the life she has and honestly, it's very intense at times. 

I honestly thought I was going to love this story. Its is heart-breaking and very emotional and while I did like parts of it, I found it hard to connect with the characters. I've never been in an abusive situation so I can't comment on what I would do if I was in that position but what I didn't like about Emma was the fact that this abuse was happening and she just took it and didn't fight back. She had a number of ways out and she didn't take them. Also, her best friend is aware of what's happening and I felt as though she was more distressed about it than Emma. Emma just kind of took everything - but for what? There is no reason! Her aunts abuse is uncalled for and irrational, so there's no reason why she does this to Emma. But what makes it that much worse was that Emma's aunt has kids of her own and she worships them. Emma even tries to protect them from seeing any of the abuse. But surely if a women like that can abuse her niece, what damage could she do to her own children? It's scary! I guess I couldn't work out why the aunt would be so horrid to Emma but not to her own kids and why Emma wouldn't speak up to people even though people were aware of what was happening. Maybe the answers will come with book two and three and I really hope so because so far, I don't understand. 

Now what I did like about the story was the romance - of course the romance. I have to say it was one of the things that kept me reading. I was intrigued to see how it works out. Emma has to sneak around to spend time with Evan. I loved how the more time she spent with Evan she became more confident and started enjoying the good parts of her life. I also loved Evan's mother - she's the kind of mother that Emma should have because she offers her so much support in such a short amount of time. 

In all, I'm not to sure if I will continue with this series. I guess I'll see at the time if I fancy it and although it's got a promising start, I'm really not sure what could happen next.