Review of Breathe (Colorado Mountain #4) by Kristen Ashley

Breathe is the fourth book in the Colorado Mountain series.

Faye Goodnight is the shy, quiet town librarian. She's also a twenty-nine-year-old virgin. She's had a thing for Chace Keaton for many years. Chace has long denied his attraction to Faye. Then a chance encounter in the woods leads them down a new path.

Faye gives herself over to Chace, and their burning passion turns to something greater. But Chace believes his dark past makes him unworthy. He doesn't believe he's the hero the town thinks he is, and he hopes the darkness won't chase Faye from him.

Trigger warning: child abuse.

This book was a delight. It took me from delighted musings of love to utter heartbreak in the span of a few pages. They runaway they care for tore my heart out. I cried on more than one occasion in the novel. That back and forth is one of the reasons I like the book so much.

The detail of the child in the novel was at first small and I hoped it wasn't a huge issue. The heartbreak factor he brought into the novel was balanced by the sweetness between Chace and Faye and the way they worked together to care for the boy. It made the book even more delightful.

The town of Carnal continues to become more clear and detailed with each novel. I love the townspeople and the color they bring to the town. My favorite of the residents is Shambles and his wife Sunny. In this book, we got the addition of the library and the homes of Chace and Faye.

Ms. Ashley's dialog has some cheesiness at it at times, but it's a good kind of cheese. In romance, it's impossible to get away with no cheesy dialog, but if it feels natural to the reader, then it's good. There were no points that the dialog felt stilted or unnatural to me.

Chace and Faye felt true and real in their layering and the way they acted. There was chemistry and conflict as well as pure sweetness, or as much as Chace can manage. Faye had a lot of quirks and I loved every single one of them. She's a geek in every sense and it seeps into every aspect of her life. It made her endearing and hilarious at the same time. Faye may be my favorite character of the series so far.

Another thing I liked about this book was it finally pulled Nina and Max from the first book into the doings of Carnal. They haven't hardly been in the rest of the series except in almost cameos that if you weren't paying close attention, you'd miss entirely. I genuinely liked them and have been disappointed they didn't appear in the series like the other previous main characters. Now they have.

A wonderful addition to a great series.

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