Review–I Breathe You by Lori C. Clark

 Summary: When a tragic accident leaves Rhane Evans -- lead vocalist for the rock band Fate's Crazy -- permanently unable to speak above a whisper and kills the love of her life, she moves across the state to pick up the pieces. Shattered, Rhane struggles to understand what happened the night of the accident, an accident everyone blames her for, even though she wasn't driving the car.
Enter Ian Callahan. He's the one person who may have a more tumultuous past than Rhane. Though they try hard to deny the sizzling attraction between them, it proves nearly impossible. When Ian's troubled past threatens to tear them apart, they begin to believe happiness isn't in their cards.
Because Fate's Crazy that way...

Source: I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.  

Review:  

 

 I Breathe You was amazing. I love the writing style of Lori C. Clark and how in depth she gets with her characters. While the story had a romantic plot, it was also a lot more than that. A lot of time was spent getting to know Rhane and her history. A the same time she was sorting out her feelings for Ian, she was also sorting out a ton of her own issues and I enjoyed the extra layers.  

 

Rhane lost the love of her life, her musical passion, and her voice in one tragic accident. Thanks to her late grandmother’s inheritance and caring uncle, T, she was able to set up a life for herself in a secluded area instead of the city without worrying about finances. The seclusion was helpful for her recovery. A live in housekeeper, Gwen, was hired and Rhane went to work getting her old home ready to be lived in, while also trying to regain her identity.  Rhane, Gwen, and T settled into a nice routine as Gwen cooked nice meals, T helped out by hiring contractors, and Rhane went to work figuring out what the old home needed in terms of repairs and upgrades.

Ian Callahan was hired for most of the construction and the attraction between him and Rhane was undeniable from the moment she saw him. He was gorgeous, hard working, and incredibly down to earth. However, the story didn’t follow the typical love story timeline. While Rhane and Ian formed a strange friendship that was also strained due to sexual tension, they spend most of their time not pursuing anything. Rhane started going to therapy to help her nightmares and attempted to figure herself out as a person. Losing the ability to speak and sing left her utterly broken and she wasn’t quick to move on from that. I loved that she wasn’t quick to replace her lost love with Ian or try and avoid her own issues. Ian also had his own history that Rhane would have to deal with.

I loved watching the characters grow and become better people. By the time Ian and Rhane came together, they were ready and it was so much more epic to me because of how much they grew and got to know each other. I really felt like they cared about each other and weren’t necessarily operating on hormones, no matter how difficult that was for them. Both of them were flawed and complicated, but they both knew they had to come to terms with certain things before they let their hormones get the best of them. There was a lot of push and pull and total satisfaction when they finally let their bodies take over. It was great.

I love Lori C. Clark’s writing. I love how she writes about broken people and makes her characters so human and real. Her characters are incredibly multi-dimensional and I absolutely love it. I Breathe You captured my heart completely. Ian and Rhane’s love story was amazing and heart wrenching. I loved how Rhane expressed herself and colored her hair crazy colors. I loved how Ian knew sign language, though Rhane didn't and wasn't deaf. I loved how Rhane's emotions flowed into the keys of a piano and how she was able to share those moments with others. I loved Ian's patience with Rhane and how understanding he was when he had to be.

I never post spoilers, and this isn’t necessarily a spoiler for this novel, but I know a lot of people have issues with bad, sad, or tragic endings. I’m a huge fan of Lori C. Clark and loved her novel Different Roads, but it had a very tragic (but fitting) ending. I loved it, but not everyone did. I’m happy to say that I Breathe You does not have a tragic ending, so if you were put off by her novel Different Roads because of the ending, don’t hesitate to pick this one up. It has the in depth broken characters without the decisions that lead to tragic endings for them. I only mention it so that people don't unnecessarily avoid reading I Breathe You in fear of a tragic ending!

I highly recommend I Breathe You to fans of NA contemporary romance with gritty characters who are real, flawed, and interesting.