Breathe

Title: Breathe   

Author: Abbi Glines

Publisher: Wild Child Publishing, Simon Pulse

Publish Date:  16 May 2011 (Wild Child); 04 June 2013 (Simon Pulse)

Pages: 333

ISBN: 9781442488694

Source:  bought; received at BEA

Genre:  YA, romance, contemporary

Series:  Sea Breeze

Other books in series:  Because of Low, While it Lasts, Just for Now, Sometimes It Lasts, A Little Misbehavin'

Other books by author:  The Vincent Boys series, Existence Trilogy, Too Far series

Rating: really liked

In the shore town of Sea Breeze, Sadie discovers that fame is nothing in the face of passion. A steamy read from bestselling author Abbi Glines.

Sadie White’s summer job is at the beach, but she won’t be working as a lifeguard. Since her mom is pregnant and refuses to work, Sadie will be taking over as a domestic servant for a wealthy family on a nearby island.

When the family arrives at their summer getaway, Sadie is surprised to learn that the owner of the house is Jax Stone, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world. If Sadie were normal—if she hadn’t spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house—maybe she’d be excited about working for a rock star. But she’s not.

Even though Sadie isn’t impressed by Jax’s fame, he is drawn to her. Everything about Sadie fascinates Jax, but he fights his attraction: Relationships never work in his world, and as badly as he wants Sadie, he believes she deserves more. Yet as the summer stretches on, Jax’s passion leaves him breathless—and Sadie feels like the only source of oxygen.

Can their love overcome the disparity in their lifestyles? One breath at a time, they’re going to find out…

Even though Sadie is supposed to be the child in the relationship with Jessica, she found herself acting like the parent more often than not.  That is what got her into the predicament at the Stone resident.  Jessica, her mother, is pregnant and couldn’t go to work, so she puts it on Sadie to go for her.  Sadie isn’t sure that they are going to let her work in her mother’s place.  When she arrives at the Stone residence, she has to prove to Ms. Mary that she is not going to be some crazy teenager when the owner and rock star heartthrob, Jax Stone, show up. 

While working at the Stone mansion, Sadie makes friends and catches the eye of Jax.  She and Jax start spending as much time together as they can given their schedules.  She knows as soon as she starts things with Jax that it is not going to have a happy ending.  He will go back to his world and she will only have memories of the time she spent with him.  What will happen between Sadie and Jax?  How will Jessica deal with their relationship? 

I have read a lot of books by Glines recently and really like her writing style.  Even though Sadie is “beautiful” and is told that multiple times throughout the book, she still doesn’t believe it.  Not that she necessarily has self-esteem issues, but I don’t think she has had a lot of time to think about it.  She just thinks that she is not as pretty as her mother and that is the ending of her thinking on the matter.  I liked that she is not stuck on her beauty like some of the girls her age that you read about. 

Sadie has some other qualities that are admirable.  She takes care of her pregnant mother.  This doesn’t end after her mom gives birth.  Why should it?  Sadie has been doing it for a long time.  She is a hard worker and doesn’t let her teenage curiosities get the better of her.  She needs this job to support her family – a thing she shouldn’t have to think about at her age.  I don’t need to reiterate that Sadie is responsible.

Jax is a rock star; a teenage rock star that has oodles of girls fawning over him.  That is the reason that he doesn’t want any teenage girls to work at his summer home, his one place where he can go and be “normal” for a while.  When he first sees Sadie, he thinks that she snuck into his house to get his autograph or just get close to him.  It baffles him that she doesn’t act all fangirl on him and actually is concerned about her job.  I like Jax in this story.  Even though he is this big star, you learn how grounded he is.  He doesn’t think that he is on a level up in the stratosphere while Sadie belongs in the dirt.

This book was a fun read.  Who doesn’t want the rock star to fall in love with you?  It seems like a fairy tale, like a modern-day The Prince and the Pauper.  I like the way Sadie learns to rely on other people.  If Jax had been in a “boy band,” I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the story as much.  Just saying… 

Since this is a re-release of the book, there is a new cover.  There have been two other covers that I found.  The next cover (#2) is the one that I got when I bought the book.  After reading, I found out that this is the e-book cover.

This next cover (#3) was on the paperbacks.  I admit that I liked that better than the e-book covers.

Cover #1 is the one used at the top of this post.  This is the most recent one that was used when Simon Pulse re-released the book.  This is also the one that I got when I received the hard copy at BEA.  I read somewhere that for the re-release, Glines had put some of Jax's POV, so that would make it better.  I know that would make me want to re-read the story.

As far as which cover I liked the best, I would have to say #3.  In #1, it's nice because it has a nice looking girl, guy and a guitar.  But these are supposed to be teenagers.  Granted, I guess teenagers COULD look like the cover, but I would say that they are a little older. The other thing is that Sadie is supposed to different than the millions of fangirls, which means she likes him for him and not just what he represents.  This cover just doesn't show that.

 #2 is just generic in my opinion.  It has a person playing the guitar.  You don't even know if it is a male or female.  You could PRESUME that it is a guy, but it doesn't have to be.  I don't really get a sense of the story from that cover.  I like covers that represent the story.  I chose #3 because I like the softness of it.  The models might very well be the same ones from cover #1, but you really cannot tell.  This cover, to me, represents that Sadie just likes being with Jax.  No pretense or special things needed.