✦❋Arianna✦❋'s Reviews > The Air He Breathes

4.5 Stars!!



“The Air He Breathes” is one of the most touching romance story I’ve read this year. It was simply perfect, beautifully, beautifully written and so touching. It was heartbreaking, emotional and also heartwarming, a story that definitely will stay with me for a while. It’s a story about loss, forgiveness and learning to love and live again. It was exactly what I expected from one of my favorite authors who every time with her amazing words manages to create an outstanding story.

Now take a moment and imagine you lost your husband/wife, the father/mother of your child, the man/woman who represented everything for you, your reason to live and breathe, your world. Honestly I can’t imagine losing my husband. I will be more than broken, more than devastated, more than lost. The main characters in this book, Elizabeth and Tristan have experienced a huge loss losing their loved ones, their world, a husband and wife and son respectively.

“The hardest part about losing someone you love is the fact that you also lose yourself.”

Elizabeth lost herself when she lost her husband in a car accident. Everyday it’s a struggle. She is trying her best to move on, to live, to breathe, to be a mother for her little daughter. She doesn’t think she knows how to do all that anymore, but she knows she has to stay strong. She knows if it hadn’t been for her daughter she would have lost herself to the grief. After the tragic accident Lizzie and her daughter, Emma went to stay with her mother, but now a year later they are ready to go home.

“People in town called him an asshole, and I could see why. He wasn’t nice, he wasn’t stable, and he was broken in all of the wrong and right places, but I couldn’t blame him for his coldness.”

When Lizzie meets Tristan, the new man in town, the town jerk, the man everyone avoids, she’s drawn to him. His sad eyes tell a tragic story. He’s like her, broken. She can tell. Tristan lost his reason to live a while ago and now he’s changed man, a broken man who doesn’t want to live anymore or to have a family and friends. Lizzie wants to be his friend, she wants to talk to each other, to heal each other, but Tristan doesn’t want to do anything with her or with her daughter. He’s angry and bitter at first, but eventually both Lizzie and Emma manage to warm his heart. Lizzie makes him hope and feel. They are attracted to each other, but both of them are hesitant to get involved in something new and possible dangerous for their hearts.

“He and I together was a terrible idea. We were both unstable, we were both shattered, and there was no getting around it. He was thunder, I was lightning, and we were seconds away from creating the perfect storm.”

They start using each other to remember their past loved ones, but eventually what they initially started becomes so much more.

“She undressed me and made love to her past.
I slid into her and made love to my ghosts.
It wasn’t right, yet somehow it made sense.
Her soul was scarred, and mine was burned.
But when we were together, the hurting hurt a little less. When we were together, the past wasn’t as painful to take in. When we were together, I never for a second felt alone.”

This was one beautiful story that I guarantee will move you to tears. Like I mentioned, this author’s words are simply perfect and evoked so many different emotions in me. Both Lizzie and Tristan are remarkable, well developed characters, characters I fell in love with so hard from the start. Lizzie was broken, but she was such a great strong heroine. I loved her relationship with her daughter Emma and the way she loved her. She was such a great mother to her. She also was a great friend to Faye, her best friend and later to Tristan. Tristan was portrayed as a jerk at first, but I never hated him or judged him, because let’s face it, loss can changed everyone of us. His story broke my heart and some scenes from his past were really gut-wrenching. I wanted so much to see him smile and hope again, fall in love and learn to breathe again. And fortunately he will learn how to.

“Do you ever think of me in a way that is more than a friendship?” When she looked into my eyes, she had to see the answer. I felt her soul staring deep into mine. Her eyes were full of wondering interest and her beauty was softened by an air of mystery.
I blinked once. “Every second. Every minute. Every hour. Every day.”

Lizzie and Tristan’s relationship was fantastically done. I loved the slow build relationship and how gradually they became more than friends. Their connections was palpable from the beginning and later you can actually feel how much they feel for each other, how much they mean for each other.

As for the supportive characters, what can I say? They were simply fantastic. I loved Faye, Lizzie’s best friend. She was a great person. She was kind, funny and at times everything Lizzie need it. Emma, Lizzie’s daughter was simply adorable and like I said I loved the relationship between these two. It warmed my heart. But what I really loved was the relationship between Emma and Tristan. Their interaction were amazing, so damn sweet and put big smile on my face.

Overall, a wonderful emotional read that I highly recommend it!

“Sometimes life is weird. You just have to deal with the weirdness and hope that you find some weirdos who will move forward with you.”