As you already know if you follow me, I am an author but also an avid reader. I love creating my own stories but also enjoy reading some of my favorite authors. And it just so happens that I won an advanced readers copy of Gena Showalter's newest book Can't Hardly Breathe that will officially be released August 29, and thought that I would review it for all of you.
Got as an advanced readers copy Can't Hardly Breathe is the fourth book in The Original Heartbreakers series. This series shows how very versatile Gena Showalter is in her writing. They are stories that are easily relatable and suck you in to their worlds. Can't Hardly Breathe has the main characters Dorothea Mathis and Daniel Porter who's stories and lives are very relatable to many.
Dorothea, or Thea, is a curvy girl were was always bullied. Basically bullied for everything from her appearance to her brains and even her shyness. She was always awkward and because of that she grew up with very low self esteem. Now she was grown, divorced and running the inn in Strawberry Valley when the object of her high school crush catches her eye once more, but he has changed a lot since their time in high school. Daniel Porter is back in Strawberry Valley to take care of his ailing father and any type of relationship is as far from his mind as possible. Back from war he suffers from severe PTSD and feels like he has nothing to offer a woman because of that. But he cannot help being consumed by desire for Thea, a relationship isn't possible but maybe fun is. Thea too has secrets from her past that she hides, and after being married once has no desire to do so again. So she decides that some no strings attached fun might be good, and that Daniel would be the perfect man to have it with. But things don't always go as planned. As they get to know each other they are forced to face and reveal the demons from their pasts, hoping to become the light to each others darkness. It is a relationship filled with hardships on both sides but when they face them and break through the difficulties it makes the success at the end even better. Can't Hardly Breathe is a romance that you could see happening in real life. It is not simply the good in the relationship, but the fighting through the bad to make that relationship work. Five stars for a book showing past demons, inner battles, outer battles, desire, growth, and most of all love.
I hope you all enjoyed reading, and remember to watch my blog for updates to my next book.
-Donna J.A. Olson