The Air He Breathes

***3.5 stars***I waited a long time to read The Air He Breathes. I bought the entire set of books because I had Cover Lust. These covers are among the most beautiful in my library. My purchase was positively reinforced because each book in the series has so many excellent reviews.The Air He Breathes is a story rooted in tragedy and pain. The two main characters are both survivors who have lost what grounded them in is world. Each dealt with the pain by running from thee places that so brutally reminded them of their loss. The dual points of view from Elizabeth and Tristan help to illustrate how similar their circumstances are yet how very differently each character coped with their situation.The Air He Breathes is also a story of fresh starts and the redemptive powers of love. The similarities of their circumstances drew Elizabeth and Tristan to each other, but is love that ultimately helps them to heal.Britainny C. Cherry has a gift for writing descriptive phrases that is clearly above average. Her characters are complex in ways that make them interesting and memorable. There is clearly an intriguing plot and progression to the story. The emotional exchanges that connected the characters to each other are beautiful. I truly enjoyed the connections the characters in this story had with each other. These elements are what kept me reading until the very end of the bookFor as many wonderful aspects as, there are in The Air He Breathes, there were also elements that needed strengthening. Being the hyper-critical reader I am, I found more than one moment when was I confused because something was said or done where there had been no previous point of reference in the story. I found some elements a bit extreme to be believable in their presentation. There were also a few points were I had trouble staying connected to the characters and their plights. However, there would always come a point where one set of exquisitely written words or an interaction between characters would pull me back in and encourage me to complete my reading journey.My first foray into the writing world of Brittany C. Cherry was not quite all I hoped it would be. But it did show me peeks of the strong writing skills she possesses. I am looking forward to reading the other books in this to witness the growth of Ms. Cherry's skills and to see what other interesting and memorable characters she creates for our reading pleasure.

I dont like to rate under 3 stars, not meaning I dont dislike books but just that I dont review under 3 stars. But it has recently been brought to my attention that reviews are needed and even bad ones count so here goes.I was really bored reading this book. I had to force myself to DNF because I dont quit on books. The first few pages I was like ok I can see potential lets go then there is a scene where the female lead hits a dog with her car and instead of crying and running and picking up said dog and running to a vet she decides to go on and on in great detail about the dogs owners looks WHAT?! like there is an injured animal lady PRIORITIES!! (ok I know I am an animal lover and not everyone would be bothered by this lol) that was the beginning of the end of this book for me. The only thing I liked about Tristan was his name, he is rude and full of himself. I had a horrible devastating, life altering thing happen to be in life but that doesnt give me the right to be a complete douche to people. Liz needs to pack her crap and move away from this place. The "twist" was apparent from the beginning oh and what was up with Tanner?? I am still not quite sure why there was a need for him in the story at all?! This was my first book by this author and with all the high reviews I had high hopes but this just was not a book i enjoyed.

I have to say my biggest fear is losing my husband. He isn’t perfect, but he is my soulmate and I can’t imagine a life without him in it. Thank God I haven’t experienced this type of loss, because reading about it nearly broken my heart in two. Not every author or story can make me feel the pain the characters are feeling, but Brittainy’s writing makes me feel everything. I felt their loss, their grief, and their doubts. I felt their love, their healing and their hope.Elizabeth Bailey is a single mother to Emma. When we first meet Liz it has been a year since her husband’s death and she is moving back to their home in Meadow’s Creek. Meadow Creek is a small community and she is immediately bombarded with nosey neighbors and caring friends and family. Despite being surrounded by family and friends she still feels this deep loneliness, an ache in her heart that won’t let up.Tristan Cole isn’t from Meadow’s Creek, it’s just the town he ran to when everything he loved was taken from him. His world was shattered when he lost his wife and son. His grief has turned to anger and he doesn’t hold back. At first glance it’s easy to believe he is just a grumpy, self-centered, rude man, that is certainly Liz’s first impression. She isn’t thrilled to learn Tristan is her neighbor now, nor is he pleased to see Liz and Emma next door. Tristan is burdened down by his grief. He has let his pain fester, has isolated anyone who cares about him, and is completely alone.There is this insane beautifulness to Tristan and Liz’s connection. They are both lost, lonely and searching. They are both grief stricken, stuck and terrified to move on, afraid to forget. They are stagnate in their lives and consumed by their hopelessness, until they finally accept help from each other.Tristan and Liz’s relationship was perfect. They are not your typical hero and heroine, they are two damaged souls in desperate need of healing. Together they help each other grieve and eventually move forward. I absolutely loved these two together. I loved how Tristan is damaged and afraid. I could feel Tristan’s pain and loss, and my heart broken for him. I loved how Liz was the light he needed, even in her own grief she offered a solace to Tristan.The Air He Breathes was perfection on paper. It was devastating sad, but had these moments I found hope in. It was heavy and emotional, but had these amazing light, fun, humorous moments. Brittainy built this deep soulful connection between Tristan and Liz, and I loved it. But she also added in these perfect, fun, even crude moments that made me laugh out loud. I also love how she was able to captivate and surprise me. She delivered on all fronts!When you are looking for a book that is hopeful, beautiful, uplifting, unique, emotional and sexy this is the book you need to read. I will never forget this story or how I felt when reading it. Definitely one of my Top 2015 Reads!

***This Review contains spoilers – you have been warned***The Air He Breathes is the first book I have read by Brittainy C Cherry.This isn’t the type of book I normally read and honestly had I not been recommended it I probably would have overlooked it.The blurb for this book is illusive and I really didn’t know what I was letting myself in for when I started this.The Air He Breathes is a romance, but it’s so much more than that!!This book starts with tragedy and not just a broken bone or a broken relationship but the earth shattering, heart breaking tragedy that had me tearing up and kissing my kids.This book is hard, it’s uncomfortable to read and generally just difficult.Tristan and Elizabeth are broken, perhaps shattered is a more appropriate description and their relationship to start off with is f#cked up.I mean let’s be blunt two people who have lost the loves of their lives having sex and pretending that the other is their dead partner.Yep f#cked up!!!I can’t begin to imagine how these characters feel, I hope to god I never have to understand how they feel because reading about it was hard enough. And although I can’t begin to say the way this couple dealt with things was normal I completely empathised with them.This book is an emotional journey, I cried (a lot) I laughed and smiled but overall I was just overjoyed that this couple ultimately found a happily ever after.I’m a big believer in fate and this author beautifully intertwined the fickle nature of life and death and the fate of two broken people finding each other and helping to piece back together the broken pieces.What the hell was going on with Tanner that was a massive twist that literally came out of nowhere!!!I LOVE Faye she’s basically my hero and if we could have a much more light-hearted story about her that would be a must read for me.My heart broke a hundred times whilst reading this book, it moved me to tears and really made me appreciate my beautiful kids and fantastic husband. I’ve never read a book like this but I’m so glad that I did, it was definitely an experience.The Air He Breathes gets 4 incredibly moving stars.

What a powerful emotional story of loss and pain and finding love again when you aren't looking for it, you are just trying to hold on to your past.This book was full of feels, at times I felt heartbroken for the main characters, other times Id laugh with them.The chemistry and push and pull between the broken pair definitely pulled on the heart strings. I loved Tristan and Lizzie as broken individuals, but together I adored them and little Emma was sassy and brought so much more to the story.The twist in this book was brilliant, I never once imagined that's where it would lead.4 stars for me as the last chapter and epilogue felt a little rushed for my personal preference and I think there could of been so much more added, to add depth to the conclusion of the characters story.A well written, beautiful book I would definitely recommend reading. My first book by Brittainy, which I loved so much that I have downloaded more of her work:

Where do I start with this book. Devastating, heartbreaking, full of despair at it's worst but then there is a ray of light that brings hope, faith, love and passion. Yes I fell in love with this book !!!This is a story about Liz who has had a traumatic experience in her life. She leaves the town where she was bought up in to move in with her Mother and this is where she stays for a year. She decides suddenly to move back home and to try to start a new life which she is finding extremely hard to do. When she moves back to her old house, she finds she has a new neighbour - Tristan. He is the town joke, ridiculed because he is rude, cold, cruel, and unapproachable. But Liz see's in him what she is going through, in his eye's are despair, hurt and pain. They are both attracted to one another and this tells the story of their secrets, their building bridges, their finding themselves. Hope, loss, love, and more.Liz has a best friend Faye who is so so funny with her one liners and smart remarks, you will just love her and many a time I was laughing out loud at some of her antics.I can't praise this book enough, it is one of those stories that makes your heart smile. Extremely well written, but then I do love Brittainy Cherry's books so much. Loving Mr Daniels is an absolute favourite of mine.There is also a nice little twist near the end of the book that makes it just even more perfect, and I didn't think it could get much better. Fantastic and a keeper that I know I will read again. Well done Brittainy Cherry !!

**SPOILERS** The characters are lost and broken but unbeknownst to them is that there is a real reason and a person behind all they have lost.Elizabeth lost her husband to a road accident and all she has left is her daughter Emma. Wanting to escape she returns to her mother's house where she knows being left alone is what she will get. Her mother never got over her husband's death and has run the gauntlet of all available men seeking something that is already lost to her.A year on and Elizabeth decides it is time to go home. As she drives back into town she has to negotiate the section of road that took Steven's life - this has her rattled to the point that she doesn't see the dog that runs out in front of the car till its too late. The dog is accompanied by a man with bare feet, long hair and a beard. Following his rant about learning to drive she takes him and his dog to the nearest vets and pays for the dog's treatment. It is here that she sees him cry when he is told the dog Zeus will be OK.It turns out the Zeus's prickly owner Tristan Cole is her neighbor, complete with overgrown lawn and neglected flowerbeds. His new nickname is "Tick"Elizabeth and Emma attempt to befriend him but he is rude and abrasive at every turn, but Elizabeth saw him cry once so she knows there is a heart inside. They are both broken and empty but there is something about him that she recognises and that draws her in.Elizabeth has a best friend Faye and her husband Steven's best friend Tanner to lean on now she is back but Elizabeth fails to see that Tanner is not all he seems including his ever present coin he tosses. Both of them warn Elizabeth away from Tristan alluding he is violent and dangerous.As they get to know one another she tells him about Steven but he is unable to tell her about his wife and son dying, about the guilt he carries and cannot let go of. They start a relationship that becomes physical using the excuse of a warm body to pretend that they are not alone, their lost loves are still here.As time passes they become closer, Emma has gotten close to Tristan and she is slowly healing him from the inside even though Tanner keeps provoking him to violence with snide comments regarding his dead wife and son. As a last ditch attempt to get Tristan to leave Elizabeth alone he tells Elizabeth that it was Steven's car that hit the white car that contained Tristan's wife, son and mother. His mother being the only one that walked away.Tristan is aware that Elizabeth is withdrawing but he does not know why until Tanner in a last ditch effort to get his rival out of the picture tells him. He tells her it doesn't matter but it does.He withdraws from the relationship without notice leaves town, he heads to his parents for the first time since the loss of his family. It is here and the months that follow that he learns from his mother that the woman in the picture is the same woman at the hospital that night, his wife and son had come out of surgery but his mother could only sit with one of them, Lizzie sat with Jamie his wife telling her to hold on and that she was wanted and needed until a nurse asked her to leave as she wasn't a relative.Tristan returns to town and finds Needful Things packed up and Mr Henson happy as he has signed the shop over to him with his comment of everyone needs to dream a little hits home. But his dreams are still a little way off as Lizzie appears and is angry with him for vanishing and asks he stop leaving post it notes on her window, to allow her to finally move on. But it is Tanner leaving the notes. He visits the shop and explains to Tristan he has to leave as he has a plan that he decides that he really needed to put into place, he originally won the first date with Elizabeth in college with a coin toss but Steven went ahead and dated her anyway, married her, got her pregnant and as far as Tanner was concerned rubbed his nose in it every opportunity he got. To clear the way he fiddled with Steven's car (who would suspect the family mechanic), this caused the car to fail and the crash to happen. But Tristan's arrival into her life foiled his future plans. His final part of the plan was to remove all evidence of Steven which included his daughter. As Tristan, Elizabeth and the police discover cameras hidden around her house she takes Emma to her grandparents for safety but they allow Tanner to take her away (he's her godfather!) and the hunt begins. It all ends with Emma being slowly gassed in Tristan's workshop and Tanner losing the plot waving a gun at them both until he is distracted and Tristan is able to get in and rescue her. There is a struggle between Tanner and her for the gun which goes off three times. Lizzie is screaming she has killed him as she looses consciousness.It turns out Tanner never won the bet at he was using a double sided coin! But the epilogue is five years later and is excellent, with a brother for Emma and another baby on the way. I do confess that I am still not sure about the carved wooden engagement rings (!!!!)**SPOILERS**

It is almost impossible to find the words to describe this book. Brittainy Cherry has taken two of the most heartbreaking situations and from them moulded a perfect love story.Lizzie’s Husband who she adored and worshipped, who adored and worshipped her back is killed and the only thing that keeps her moving each day is their daughter Emma. When she finally moves back to their home having run away to her Mother’s in grief, she meets her new next door neighbour Tristan, the man everybody in the town is warning her to stay away from.Tristan has spiralled, cutting himself off from the world after losing his entire world. His wife and son killed in a freak accident. He doesn’t know how to be a real person without them in his life and now he just floats through each day. But his new next door neighbour is persistently pushing for a friendship he doesn’t have to give.My heart broke from the early pages in this book, seeing these two forge an uncomfortable friendship, their shared grief helping them find a bond that nobody else could possibly understand. But beyond that grief they were so perfectly suited to each other. Emma adopting Tristan as a male role model and friend.This is not a book to read if you aren’t willing to shed a few tears and have your heart torn from your chest time and again. These are characters who are going to make mistakes and have their hearts ripped from their chests before they find any true happiness and when they find out the truth behind the death of their loved one’s it’s truly devastating.I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting when I picked this novel up but what I received was a stunningly written and heartbreaking novel which took me on an emotional roller-coaster. This is an author I will definitely be reading more by.