JUST BREATHE by Janette Paul

Just Breathe by Janette Paul
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

NetGalley free read

This isn't the typical romance novel, but I liked it. The things that I felt that where wrong was only that it seem to delve too long into the boring aspects of Dee's life. The boxes she bought while traveling, counting the money for the couch, shopping for the couch, etc. It would be different if it led somewhere but it didn't. I kept waiting for the roommate Pam to steal the money she kept in the books. I gave Ethan credit, because if someone who was thirty-one years old told me they kept their savings in a coffee table book, I would think they had lost their mind. I got confused a little by the many characters that were thrown at us in this book. I don't think anyone other than Dee and Ethan had fully formed characters. Even his sister Lucy, who was the catalyst to them meeting wasn't complete.

But saying all that, I didn't like it and found the two main characters charming. I loved how quirky Dee was. I had several crack-up moments. When she got caught on the door while working as a waitress at the event where Ethan was trying to introduce her to the Insurance client for the job and she smashes the tray of deserts onto her own face. I am still laughing when I think of when Ethan was trying to show what the worst that could happen if they capsized when he was trying to get her to go sailing with him.

Something slid past her leg - something slimy and slow. There it was again - slimy and slow and very fish-like. She snapped her legs back, keeping them high, hoping whatever was prowling about was dumb enough not to look up.

'This is nice.' Ethan's voice was so close she could feel his breath on her ear. 'But it might be easier if we both try to pull the boat up.'

'Huh?' De turned, saw his face just inches from her, which was a lot further away than the rest of her body. In recoiling from the slimy thing, she wrapped herself around him like a koala baby - legs around his wait, arms around his neck, everything else pressed hard up against him. A wave of heat washed over her - embarrassment with a touch of lust - and as the thought formed that she really made a very nice fit, she shoved away, surprised the water wasn't boiling from the blush in her face. 'Something was swimming around my legs and I, um, got nervous, and, ah....

I cried when her friend Emily died and Ethan took her to the funeral and stuck by her through her dispare.

I also understood how hard it was for her to take a risk after the things she'd had to endure in her past. But what she didn't realize was that her life living from moment was a risk in itself. It's hard not to prepare for what may or could happen next. And I understand the fear in failing to the point that she was afraid to take a risk on new things and new business.

I loved how once Ethan knew she was interested in him, he stuck with her and tried to make it work and get her to understand that he wasn't her past. He was sweet and ready for a real relationship after many years of staged or superficial relationships.

Reading this book made me wonder why I stopped doing yoga. I loved it and loved the restorative aspects of it. I put my yoga mat next to my bed this morning just like Dee. Nothing like rolling out of bed and right into a pose.

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