Review: Breathe by Abbi Glines

Summary/Cover Image from Goodreads:

Sadie White's summer job isn't going to be on the beach life-guarding or working at rental booths like most kids her age. With her single mother's increasing pregnancy and refusal to work, Sadie has to take over her mother's job as a domestic servant for one of the wealthy summer families 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 hadn't spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house she might have been normal enough to be excited about working for a rock star.

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. By the end of the summer, Jax discovers he can't breathe without Sadie.

Review: 

In the past few days, I've read four books by Abbi Glines (The Vincent Brothers, Fallen Too Far, Because of Low, and this), and while this wasn't my favorite of hers overall, I still found it to be an enjoyable and fun read.

Breathe begins the story of Sadie, a girl who's always had the short stick in life. She's had to take care of her mother for most of her life, and it's only getting worse now that her mother is expecting another child. Due to this, Sadie is forced to take over her mom's latest job: as a maid for for the family of Jax Stone, one of the biggest musicians in the industry. Sadie, though, isn't phased by this one bit. She's never been that into Jax or his music, and she knows how important it is for her and her family to keep this job. Everything changes, though, when she slowly begins to fall for Jax. However, what happens when everyone finds out? Will their relationship get stronger, or break under the pressure? Only time and more pages can tell.

One of the things I enjoyed in this book were the characters. I admired Sadie for helping her family out even though it meant not always getting what she wanted in life. In addition, she was a strong girl and someone I had no problem rooting for. Jax, on the other hand, was someone I had a hard time liking. He was a bit odd so to say. I don't know if this was because he started his career young and never really had the chance to develop normally socially, or what, but his whole manner of speaking or acting was a bit atypical for a teenager. I did end up liking him a bit more as the novel progressed, but I always liked Will, his nemesis for Sadie's attention, way more.

The plot in this was a bit predictable, but I still enjoyed seeing the novel progress and new twists an turns introduced. The relationship between Jax and Sadie was a bit quick to develop to tell the truth, but I still thought it was fun to read about it. Plus I enjoyed seeing how his career hurt/helped their relationship. I also enjoyed seeing both bloom as the book progressed. As mentioned before, Jax was a little awkward and so was Sadie, but by the end, they really came a long way.

Breathe is oftentimes referred to as Abbi's weakest books, and I can see why. However, at the same time I was able to see some good in, and that's why I suggest Breathe as a good in-between, lazy day read. If you're new to Abbi's book, though, I say you give her other Sea Breeze books a try first. Because of Low, for example, is amazing, a contemp I really, really adored!

Grade: B  

Breathe (Amazon, BN, Goodreads) by Abbi Glines is now out!

Source: Purchased from Barnes and Noble