The Breathless by Tara Goedjen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Gothic, Suspense
Content: Some mild cursing


No one knows what really happened on the beach where Roxanne Cole’s body was found, but her boyfriend, Cage, took off that night and hasn’t been seen since. Until now. One year—almost to the day—from Ro’s death, when he knocks on the door of Blue Gate Manor and asks where she is.

The Breathless is a slow paced Southern Gothic that felt a bit disjointed at times. In the beginning I was confused by all the jumping from different points of view which included flashbacks into the past. Once I got used to it, it wasn't so bad, but I think the book could have been structured better.

Once I got into this book it kept me turning the pages. There were things I liked about it; the atmosphere of the book, the crumbling mansion, the woods, the creepy secret passages, and Mae-I really liked her a lot. Those were the elements that kept me reading. Like all Gothics, there was little bit of creepiness present, but unfortunately the book never reached the level of creepiness or suspense I was hoping for.

The books biggest failing for me were the unanswered questions, especially about Cage. I liked him, but felt the author dropped the ball with his character because of those unanswered questions. I'm sure they were intended to make the reader wonder about things for a while after the end of the book, but they annoyed me. Some of those questions needed to be answered for the story to make more sense. And speaking of the end, I can't say that I liked it. I was hoping for a different outcome. Mostly it wasn't a bad read, but it wasn't great either.

Thanks to Blogging for Books for sending me a copy of this book for review. More Info



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