BreathlessTourBanner

Breathless
Leigh LaValle
(Yoga in the City, #1)
Publication date: May 27th 2017
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

A sassy new romance from a USA Today Bestselling Author…

After moving cross-country yet again, Hannah Roberts wants to put down roots in Colorado. She’s sunk her life savings into a share of Bloom Yoga Studio, but the studio is losing money, and fast. The building is undergoing a messy, noisy renovation–and the hot carpenter in charge is distracting her yoga students in more ways than one. If Hannah can’t talk the hard-bodied builder out of his power tools, she might as well kiss her dreams goodbye.

When Jake Marshall returned from Afghanistan, he brought back an injured knee and a lot of bad memories. He just wants to finish this renovation, rehab his knee, and head for Alaska to leave it all behind. A sexy yoga teacher doesn’t fit into his plans. But when Hannah offers him private sessions in exchange for quiet hours—he’s all in. He doesn’t expect that while she’s healing his knee, Hannah will poke at all his hidden wounds…and come dangerously close to breaking open his heart.

Goodreads / Amazon

My Review:

It’s my great pleasure today to bring you my review of Leigh LaValle’s Breathless! This novel is romantic, funny, complex, crazy, emotional – just everything all wrapped up into a neat package. The main characters are Hannah – one of four new partners at Bloom Yoga, and Jake – a war Vet with a laundry list of issues. However, they are perfect for each other and put them together they equal amazing chemistry, peace, and love.

I loved the realistic nature of Hannah. She was absolutely imperfect and in her own quirky ways, she totally did not fit the normal mold of a yoga teacher. Jake was a sexy, injured, caring, complicated war hero, however, despite the issues that he had, I still fell 100% in love with him.

Breathless is one of those love stories that from the beginning you say to yourself, “this is doomed and will break the hearts of the characters and mine as well.” However, I found myself reeled in and perfectly content with the conflict and suspense regarding “will they or won’t they?”

My negative thoughts on this novel are quick and simple, and that was Hannah’s character. I’m all for personal growth, etc. but Hannah’s character was somewhat of a pathetic stalker. She went above and beyond a typical young woman with self-esteem issues and took it to an entirely new level of crazy. However, her positives were so strong that I can forgive the negatives (although still annoying and disturbing).

My positive thoughts go on and on, but most of all, this was a romantic story tainted with real-life issues and struggles. Being married to a Veteran with his own PTSD struggles, it was easy to relate to Jake and Hannah. So often, men think that they have to portray this macho persona, but when it comes to our Veterans, and especially those with PTSD, honesty is the best policy for all involved. It’s o.k. to take a few minutes off from being a hero once in awhile and just tell the person you love that you are struggling and need support. So many times in this novel I found myself wanting to grab Jake and just shake some sense into him – which made me realize what incredible characterization LaValle pulled off. Kudos to her honest, emotional, and at times, an uncomfortable portrayal of a couple trying to make their way in the world when weighed down with PTSD and self-esteem issues. This is not your average fairy tale, but so much more. It was a pleasure to read this novel and be a part of this blog tour.

Author Bio:

Leigh LaValle is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and historical romance. She lives in Montana with her family. When she is not chasing kids, bemoaning the laundry, or carving out time to do yoga, she is sneaking away to write. She would rather read than sleep, and cannot imagine a better job than writing romance. She is also a certified yoga teacher, but is not nearly as flexible as she once was.

Awards and Nominations

RT Book Reviews 4 stars…..TOP PICK Night Owl Reviews….Nominated BEST HISTORICAL The Romance Reviews….Nominated for Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award…Nominated Best Historical Romancing Rakes

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter