Breathe Into Me by Sara Fawkes

How did my life get so broken?  It’s a question Lacey St. James asks herself every day.  Stuck raising her little brother in a trailer park while she works a dead end job at a grocery store, she has a stalker exboyfriend, a bad reputation, and no way out.  

And then, she meets Everett, who changes her entire existence.

Everett is an outsider who’s housesitting his family’s mansion off the coast, and for reasons Lacey can’t understand, he’s completely transfixed by her. He seems determined to show her that life can offer more than she’d ever hoped for, if only she believes in herself.  She desperately yearns to trust him, but what happens when she finds out that everything he’s told her is a lie? 

What happens when a girl who has been convinced by her entire community (family included) that she's worthless meets a boy who has convinced himself that he doesn't deserve forgiveness or happiness? You get the story of Lacey and Everett, two people who have been broken but who have a chance to mend one another as their friendship develops over a summer. Everett is a rich-kid from New York who is house-sitting for the summer. Lacey is a poor girl working two jobs and living in a trailer park with her brother, mother, and grandmother. They are two people who should have never met, but thanks to her so-called friend and soon-to-be ex-boyfriend (who gives new meaning to the term a**hole) they meet on one of the worst nights in Lacey's life and thus begin their journey.

I liked how the two filled a need in one another's life and became close before their relationship became sexual (great sex scenes by the way). I have no issue with books in which the two main characters "hook up" right off the bat, but the delay was especially important in this book considering the relationship that Lacey was getting out of and her desire to change the path on which her life seemed to be headed. Fortunately Everett's issues kept him from moving their relationship forward before she was ready. We learn that both have very good reasons for being cautious, but despite this there is very little back and forth angst (ie, will he, won't he) that is so common in the New Adult genre. This does not mean that there isn't conflict and turmoil, but I never felt the need to slap some sense into either of them while reading the book.

Sarah Fawkes has written a tragically beautiful love story that I enjoyed immensely. I will definitely be reading more of her work.