Breathless

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Title: Breathless
Author: Leigh Lavalle
Publication date: 05/27/2017
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No
 
There’s some good stuff here, and some stuff that irks the bejesus out of me. So, let’s start with the good, shall we?

Here we go:

• ​It’s well-written. No annoying bursts of dialogue that don’t feel authentic. No silly typos and grammatical errors to pull me out of the story. The pacing is nice. There’s lots of sexual tension, which is a huge plus in any romance novel.

• I love that the heroine is a yoga instructor who isn’t all new-agey and eating kale salads all the time. She was just a regular gal who happened to really like yoga.
• Jake was a great hero. He was a little broken and damaged, but didn’t let his past trauma and PTSD turn him into a reclusive jerk. He still managed to successfully live a fairly normal life, and I found that admirable.   

Now for the irksome bits:

• Girls who go out hiking in the woods alone, with no first aid kit, no survival gear, and no way to get help if they’re hurt kind of deserve what they get. We hate TSTL heroines here at Romance Rehab.
• There were multiple mentions early on about how “curvy” Hannah is, and how she’s not your typical stick-thin yoga gal. She was even concerned that she was too heavy for Jake to be carrying around after she hurt her ankle. It’s revealed later on that Hannah is a size 6. That’s small, folks. Even if she has boobs and a butt that are slightly larger than proportional on her frame, she’s still a tiny little thing that big strong Jake probably could have carried around all day, even with his bum knee. I can see gals who are actually curvy in the reading audience getting slightly PO’d anytime they read about this size 6 yoga girl thinking she’s anything but a tiny little thing.
• I HATE the “I’ve been hurt before so I’m on a dating hiatus and I can’t go out with you” trope. I’ve seen sooooo many romance heroines who resist dating perfect guys because they’ve been hurt in the past. Hannah took it one step further in this story by making actual lists of reasons why she shouldn’t date Jake, most of which stemmed from her own insecurities and past hangups. It was annoying. A strong, confident heroine would’ve latched onto Jake immediately and thrown caution to the wind.
• Jake was honest with Hannah from the start. He didn’t want a relationship. He wanted to spend time with her, get to know her, and have fun. If she wasn’t OK with that, she never should’ve gone out with him in the first place. She had no right to get mad at him when, at the end of their time together, he didn’t want to get married and adopt a dog. Again, a strong, confident heroine would’ve taken whatever she wanted from Jake and not gotten all weepy when he walked away, because she would’ve been expecting it (since he, you know, TOLD HER AS MUCH).
• Hannah resisted a date with Jake for 50% of the book. 50%!!! That felt like a REALLY long time to me.       

Irksome moments aside, I’ve definitely read worse. Lovers of sexy mountain men and angsty will they/won’t they romances would probably still like this one, even if it didn’t resonate strongly with me.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
Well, it doesn’t crush the myth, but it’s well-written enough to avoid contributing to the stigma.   

Other reading suggestions
For the best sexy mountain men you’ll ever find, try Kristen Ashley’s Colorado Mountains series. ​

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