Synopsis
For Savannah Rae, living life without her parents was unimaginable. But being blamed for her first love’s suicide? That destroyed every part of who she was.
Gone were the days of innocence, happiness, and dreams. Now her days simply meant attempting to survive. In her mind, her only means for that was replacing her grief with men, booze and the fast life. And for five years, it worked.
When an opportunity to leave the nightmares of her past in Australia opens up, she takes it. Los Angeles beckons – with hopes of late nights, new beginnings, and the promise of a string of endless men to distract her, she can’t wait to dive in.
One thing she didn’t count on was meeting her match.
In the eyes of outsiders, Tate Connors has it all; the ultimate LA bachelor who is content with his lifestyle of wild nights, women and one night stands. He’s Mr. Unpredictable with looks that could destroy any woman with one glance.
The craziness of Los Angeles throws them into the chaotic path of each other. Savannah becomes the perfect game, and Tate becomes the ultimate prey. Lines are crossed, emotions are smashed, and the idea of who they truly are begins to be tangled.
However, one thing will become clear.
They are more alike than either one could ever have imagined
5 /5 stars
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My Review
“Yes, I don’t own you, Savannah, but you know what? You fucking own me. You have since the first time I met you…”
I’ve known Rachel for a few months now, and I have been utterly peeing my pants over wanting to read Just Breathe, I even made her send me small teasers – okay, that’s a lie, she voluntarily sent me teasers in a DM during the countdown to me getting an ARC of Just Breathe. I’m such a lucky girly! I got more Tate 😉
I’m not sure if I should be telling you this but blah…a few days before I got my ARC, Rachel sent me the prologue and chapter 1 and 2 to tide me over until I got the little gem in my inbox. LIKE WHATTTT, I need more. But I didn’t get anything more. I was and still am under the Tate Connors effect and dear god, all you will too when you read Just Breathe. It’s hard to resist.
As a debut novel, Ms. Brookes has written a cracker of a book. Seriously, it is amazing, and if you haven’t yet downloaded it, I’d get right on it!! From the prologue you will become hooked. You may cry – I sure as hell did and you will swoon because the prologue is just so sweet. It pours with love and Rachel does a brilliant job of making you feel the emotions of the characters involved, especially Sav and Tate.
Rachel’s writing flows, the plot flows and once you start, you will neeeeed to get to the end, to see what happens. If there is a cliff-hanger or if it ends perfectly so book two will carry off from there? If you follow me on twitter, you will know from my posts how much I was loving this book, how much I was loving the characters and how every time I was reading in public, it was like Rachel knew I was surrounded by people so a sex scene had to come alone and get me all hot and bothered.
But because I love Rachel, I could let that go and just focus on the beauty of all the characters, the way they all love each other and of course, the love between Tate and Sav.
Savannah ‘Sav’ Rae hasn’t had the best life; it’s been hard to say the least. Losing her parents at a young age, and then being blamed for the suicide of her ex-boyfriend can turn anyone’s life upside down and so because of this tragedy so doesn’t want to give her heart away again, so she rebels, she becomes a player, she drinks away the pain and uses guys. That’s who Sav is now and it’s how she copes. But when an opportunity to leave Australia and start afresh in LA calls, she jumps at the chance to leave everything behind.
Tate Connors is the ultimate playboy. The ultimate bachelor who is completely content with his ways; booze, girls and wild nights. With one glance of those blue eyes and he can have girls dropping their panties in an instant. Then one spot of Sav and he knows shes a challenge. He wants her and it seems that from the looks of things, she wants him too.
But there’s more to them than meets the eye. What started as a challenge has turned into more, for both of them and with emotions and lines being crossed and tangled, one this is clear, they are more alike than either of them imagined.
Uhh Tate. The blue eyed sex-on-a-plate guy, who you would literally just want to devour, even if it was just for one night. You would definitely get a fix of him and one look and you will be under the Tate Connor’s effect and drop your panties and mumble incoherent words while he smoulders you with his eyes. NO, I am not overreacting, just you wait and see. Tate will surprise you throughout the book. He surprised me a hell of a lot and I loved that about him. He really is unpredictable. One minute hes douche then the next hes all lovely. Much like Sav, hes a broken man, his past still haunts him but he drinks and sleeps around as a persona, to hide away the pain. That is until Sav walks into his life. Once a to him, she switches him upside down until he doesn’t know what the hell he is doing, apart from wanting to be with Sav.
Despite his playboy nature at the beginning, you really do see Tate blossom. You see his protective side, his possessive side, his sweet side, his sexy side but also his vulnerable side, a painful side where we learn about his past too. We see him journey, from playboy to falling in love and it was so nice to see Tate find someone he could love so much and who reciprocated the feelings. He is a jealous boy and at times I wanted to smack him around the head because he was being a silly fool but he got there in the end and you just fall in love with him. Here is to book two and seeing how he and Sav progress with their relationship. DO NOT hurt my boy Rachel, or I will hunt you down in Aussieland and force you to change the book…but you already know this as I have told you I will do this!
Sav is such an awesome character too. Despite her past and her pain, she is strong. She has to be, she can’t let it get to her, so the drink and the partying and the guys become the norm for her.
She is the female equivalent of Tate and when she spots him, she notices all the moves he does, because she does them too. She sleeps with guys then leaves but something about Tate makes her insides fuzzy and she feels. She doesn’t want to though and not feeling helps her with to not deal with her past and the pain.
Despite her being a strong, independent character, you slowly watch Sav break – in a good way – and watch her develop feelings – for her best friends and for Tate. They scare her as she has never really had a girlfriend before and she doesn’t want to love after being told shes the reason her ex killed himself. But it was refreshing to see this side to her. The side where she was vulnerable to love and how her strong persona cracked a bit when a certain event happen on a day where it was such a big night for her.
Despite all this, Sav can really hold her own against everyone, especially Tate and I loved their bickering and banter and their fights. It all added into the sexual tension and the need for one another when they were resisting. But of course, with two gorgeous people wanting to jump one another, it was inevitable that it was going to happen sooner or later.
Tate and Sav have this connection. Like this super sexy and magnetic connection. It’s instant, the moment their eyes meet and you can see they are both affected by one another. Their sexual tension was just holy hell. Their chemistry was electric and you could literally feel it when you read about the two of them together. The banter they gave each other was hysterical, the cute moments were adorable and they were both just made for one another. They had both been dealt the same shitty cards in their life that together, they knew what the other was going through and could begin to help one another out. I loved Sav and Tate together.
I absolutely adore all the secondary characters. Seriously they are the bomb. The bond they have is just unbreakable. They are there for each other; they love one another unconditionally and have each other’s backs. I love friendship groups like this, who can just relax and make fun of each other and banter like hell. Tanzi, Jack, Lucas are just all brilliant and they welcome Sav with open arms.
Now, I can’t forget my love – Mr Davenport. He is swoon worthy and had me from the get go. I went a bit mad to Rachel over him when I first read him because he is bleeding awesome. This line from him just confirmed how bloody brilliant he is and I knew that my love for him would jus grow throughout the book and it did. Simon Baker is my Mr. Davenport.
“For the last fucking time, please call me Simon. You make me sound like some kind of pimp when you call me Mr. Davenport”
Can you see how much I love this guy?! Just remember, I have dibs on him. Yupp, I really do.
Now, after my swooooooning, I have to talk about the sex. C’mon, would you expect anything less from me? No? That’s better. You all know I love sex in books, and by god, Rachel got me all hot and bothered with the sex scenes between Tate and Sav. There a quite a lot and by god, you literally lap them up. Rachel knows how to write a sex scene that is intense and steamy and wants you just want to fan yourself and then search for your own Tate to jump on. They sizzle, burn, pop and where they have sex is just another thing. I love water hahaahha 😉
As I’ve said, Just Breathe is an amazing book. Its full of banter and angst and heartache but its filled with love and friendship and it was a great book to snuggle up in bed with and read on the way to work…baring in mind most of the sex scenes occurred on the way to work.
I would highly recommend Rachel’s book to you lovely lot, you will not be disappointed. I just wish book two was out now so I can carry on Tate and Sav’s journey.
Hurry up Aussie 😉
Z. Elizabeth 