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~**~ ARC Review: Only a Breath Apart by Katie McGarry ~**~


***4 Stars***

Oooooweeee.

Okay. So, I had an idea of what I was getting into when I dove into this baby, but Whoa. Things get quite heavy, distressing and even disturbing at times and yet all of that upheaval was tempered by sweet moments and a whole lot of grit and heart and a feeling of hope that kept me turning the pages until the very end.

I really liked Jesse and Scarlett. I did. They were very much teens on the cusp of young adulthood, trying to figure out who they are and what their next steps in life were going to be. Unfortunately they both have way more on their plates than just passing tests and writing papers and watching them both struggle against all they’d ever known and believed was all at once heartbreaking and yet the sense of hope that things would work out for both of them was strong.

As for their journey. It was all kinds of sweet, second chance romance and I honestly enjoyed watching as they worked through what happened in the past and learned to trust each other again, or in their cases, more than they had before their friendship fractured and I liked where they were at, separately and together, when the book ended.

This is my first read by the author and I really enjoyed it. The writing was engaging, pacing good and dual first person POV was well done. As I said, things in this one get quite heavy, and uncomfortable, with the issues that both Jesse and Scarlett deal with but they were realistic and I like the way everything was handled. As for the secondary cast of characters, some I liked, some I wanted to Gibbs smack while some I wanted to hurt, but they definitely gave depth to the story and made things feel real. Glory was my favorite and I really enjoyed how she looked at and utilized her psychic abilities.

~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

Jesse Lachlin is cursed.

So the town folklore says, but while Jesse’s had his fair share of tragedy, the only curse he believes is in his grandmother’s will: in order to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, the girl he froze out his freshman year, Scarlett Copeland.

Scarlett Copeland is psychic.

Glory Gardner tells Scarlett she has hidden psychic abilities, but Scarlett thinks Glory is delusional. What is real is Scarlett’s father’s irrational fears, controlling attitude, and the dark secrets at home. Scarlett may have a way to escape, but there’s a hitch: she’ll have to rely on the one person she used to trust, the same boy who broke her heart, Jesse Lachlin.

Each midnight meeting pushes Jesse and Scarlett to confront their secrets and their feelings for each other. But as love blooms, the curse rears its ugly head…

Release Date: January 22nd, 2019

KATIE MCGARRY was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

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