Breathe by Abbi Glines

Breathe by Abbi Glines
Series: Sea Breeze, #1
Source: Bought
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: June 4, 2013

In the shore town of Sea Breeze, Sadie discovers that fame is nothing in the face of passion. A steamy read from bestselling author Abbi Glines.

Sadie White’s summer job is at the beach, but she won’t be working as a lifeguard. Since her mom is pregnant and refuses to work, Sadie will be taking over as a domestic servant for a wealthy family 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 were normal—if she hadn’t spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house—maybe she’d be excited about working for a rock star. But she’s not.

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. Yet as the summer stretches on, Jax’s passion leaves him breathless—and Sadie feels like the only source of oxygen.

Can their love overcome the disparity in their lifestyles? One breath at a time, they’re going to find out…

I'm going to come right out and say that I expected more from Glines - I read and loved her Vincent Brothers, and I put all of that expectation into Breathe. Let's just say that it didn't exactly turn out the way I had planned. Don't get me wrong, I liked it. Breathe was a plenty sweet read, but I felt like the romance was very... cliched.

I felt like Sadie and Jax really didn't have time to get to know each other. They fell in love really quickly, and suddenly they're just saying and doing cheesy things all the time. I'm not a fan of the cheese, to tell you the truth. Something like "you're my air" being repeated over and over just makes me roll my eyes, and I can't help it!

It was super hard for me to connect with Sadie. I don't feel like she ever just let herself go, or that she ever just acted like a teenager. So I just can't relate to her - she's too stiff. Jax was okay, I guess, but he only got about 1/3 book time, compared to Sadie.

I felt like the "choice" between Marcus and Jax was ridiculously understated. I'm really, really glad that she only loved one of them (and I'm not sure she's actually in love), but that part of the story passed so quickly that it was just kind of like a speed bump. And I really felt bad for Marcus. Nitzan pointed out that everything he did was for himself, but I really thought that he was a sweet guy. I'm definitely interested to see his story in Because of Low!

There were a few fluttery moments in this one, but I feel like they were ruled by a bunch of drama (one particular instance towards the end had me rolling my eyes), and they mean less like that to me. I think it's ridiculous when characters push each other away, even if there's a good reason - and in this case, there really wasn't. I didn't particularly care for the ending.

All in all, Breathe was a cute read, but it's definitely not one of my favorite Glines books.