A review by smartinez9
Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

1.0

This was absolutely nonsensical? Emma’s sole reason for putting up with acute verbal and physical abuse was so her cousins wouldn’t be taken away from their abusive parents. So instead, she’s leaving them to grow up with a clearly unbalanced, violent mother who could turn on them at any time? Her lack of self-awareness and inability to come to obvious conclusions (a 4.0 student can’t figure out that she could just move in with her wealthy friend whose father is a judge and threaten to report her aunt if she tries to stop her?) did nothing to redeem the book’s additional poor treatment of sexual assault or mental health. Brushing off attempted rape because “he was just drunk” is not a good precedent to set. No one in the novel suggests reporting the incident or holding the culprit responsible in any way. As for mental health, while there is brief mention of Emma’s aunt taking medication, her absurd behavior is otherwise unexplained and doesn’t seem to affect other areas of her life like her marriage or relationship with her children, which feels incredibly unrealistic. The rationale for the aunt’s behavior seems to be that she’s a jealous bitch and therefore crazy. Rather than getting any closure, the book ends without any sort of justice being served. I would understand if the sequel picked up right where Emma was left unconscious, but instead six months are skipped over and the reader is robbed of any resolution. Not a fan.