The Air He Beathes - Brittainy C. Cherry
1:01 PM
Brittainy C. Cherry is a novelist I'm quite familiar with. I've read all of her books, and although my favorite one is by far Loving Mr. Daniels (you can read my review over here), I still can't believe how good The Air He Breathes was. Don't be fooled by the long intro; while the beginning of the book is slightly long and seemingly unnecessary, the story quickly gets incredible.
Elizabeth is twenty-eight years old when she returns to her old home with her five-year-old daughter Emma, one year after the death of her husband. She's welcomed in the town by all her close friends, but one thing has changed. Liz has a new neighbor, and he's not exactly appreciated by the rest of the town. He's an asshole, a bastard, a...tick! But for some reason, Liz finds him fascinating. He's broken like her, so Liz thinks that they might feel better if they spend more time together. It doesn't take long until they start fixing each other...and falling for each other.
Tristan is thirty-three and mourning the loss of his wife and son. He spends most of his days mowing the lawn, walking his dog with no shoes on, and carving wood. He's weird and the whole town knows it, but no one really knows him. Liz, however, creeps into his life like a bug and decides to stay there even when he tries to push her away. But he doesn't find it easy to resist her, as well as the cutest five-year-old in the world. They've both just lost people, so he decides that mourning with someone else might feel better than mourning alone.
Let me tell you, I did not see the plot twist of this book coming. I mean, it's not the biggest plot twist in the world, but you don't see it coming at all, and I personally think that it was a great turn of events. One of my complaints about it is that the said plot twist was done very fast, in the last couple of chapters of the book. I would have liked things to go slightly slower, only because my head was spinning at some point by the amount of things happening all at once.
Another complaint is the intro. I don't think it was very necessary to add this much information about Elizabeth's mom's past, because you kind of get the idea as the book goes on. If the author had to follow a limited amount of words for the novel, I would have liked to read more about the plot twist. The prologue was completely unnecessary.
Other than that, the character development in this book was impeccable. I would not have expected any less/more from two mourning people, and I think it was remarkably done. As for the other characters, Liz's best friend, Faye, could have been less extravagant. Her character sounded a little bit fake and over the top, which was also unnecessary to the story.
If you're familiar with Brittainy C. Cherry's work, then you've already guessed that the writing was outstanding. You won't find a single typo or punctuation error in there, and her choice of words is always immaculate.
Overall, this book deserves all the raving it's been getting on Goodreads and Amazon, and it's one of my new favorites.
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