I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Jesse Lachlin used to be my childhood best friend. We were inseparable. We had the type of friendship people strive to have, and then, a few years ago, he cut me so deeply that I still bleed.”
Only A Breath Apart is a marvellous young adult contemporary novel all about discovering your inner strength and being true to yourself.
Jesse Lachlin is cursed, or so the town folklore says.
But while Jesse has had his fair share of tragedy, the only curse he believes is in can be found in his grandmother’s will. If Jesse wants to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, who also happens to be the girl her froze out his freshman year Scarlett Copeland.
Scarlett Copeland is psychic, or at least that’s what Glory Gardner tells her, but Scarlett thinks Glory is delusional.
What is real is Scarlett’s father’s irrational fears, controlling attitude and dark secrets at home. Scarlett may have a plan to escape, but there’s just one problem; she’ll have to rely on Jesse Lachlin, the one person her used to trust and who ended up breaking her heart.
As Jesse and Scarlett begin to confront their secrets and their feelings for each other, the curse rears its ugly head.
“Rule number one: Don’t upset Daddy. Rule number two: Be home by four, plenty of time before her father returned home from work. Daddy worried and needed to know where they were, at all times. Rule number three: Don’t tell Daddy she played with Jesse.”
Only A breath Apart starts with a flashback, when Jesse and Scarlett are both young children before jumping to the current day. I really liked this because it gave some important backstory and information without having too much exposition form the characters, which can often, I find, ruin the flow of the writing.
I have been a fan of Katie McGarry for quite a few years now and I just love her realistic, and often gritty, novels. McGarry writes one hell of a coming of age story and is never afraid of taking on confronting topics that many people have dealt with in their lives, such as domestic violence- which is something that featured in Only A Breath Apart.
I loved how well paced and natural Jesse and Scarlett’s reconciliation was, as they worked through their issues to regain each other’s trust and friendship, and then moved from friendship to love.
‘“Second star on the right then straight on till morning.” Second star on the right. I haven’t been Tink to his Peter Pan for a long time. But watching Jesse head off to the land the two of us conquered in battles that belonged in our heads creates a sense of nostalgia I can’t ignore. I start for the land that calls to Jesse, the land that used to call to me. It’s definitely time for an adventure.’
One of my favourite things about this novel, was that it showed two young people supporting each other through difficulties, but also allowing each other to stand up and handle it themselves when they need to. So often in YA books I find that one person will sweep in and fix everything (or try to) for the other person, and it develops into a kind of co-dependency that isn’t very healthy. Sometimes in life you need to know you can do it yourself, to face your demons, but also be prepared to ask for help or support, and that’s exactly what happens in Only A Breath Apart.
“The point I’m making is that you can choose to look at the tough moments as failures or you can choose to look at them as a bad few minutes in a good day. It’s okay to feel sorry for yourself for a few seconds, but then you need to pick yourself up and brush yourself off. If you do that, you never fail.”
Only A Breath Apart is a remarkable story and a definite must read.
Purchase:
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