Breathe

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1. Christy Lockstein  •  Jun 2, 2009 @3:21 pm
   

   Breathe by Lisa Bergren is the first in the Homeward Trilogy about the St. Clair siblings. This volume features Odessa, a beautiful consumptive heading to Colorado Springs to take a treatment at a special sanatorium. Her father has sent his last three remaining children West in the hopes that they will escape the family curse of tuberculosis that has taken the life of four other children. Odessa’s life revolves around survival, just taking one breath at a time. Moira, her younger sister, has a passion for singing and attracts men like bees to a flower, including the dangerous Sheriff Reid Bannock. Older brother Dominic has lived his entire life trying to live up to his father’s expectations, including starting a bookstore in the Springs, despite the desire to travel and see the world. Each St. Clair sibling is looking for their purpose in life, and they just may find it in this growing London of the West. Bergren packs action, treasure-hunting, romance and danger into this enjoyable historical fiction. Odessa and Bryce’s romance is terrific; most romance novels strive to keep the couple apart as long as possible, using contrived circumstances that strain the reader’s patience. Odessa and Bryce’s relationship is the touchstone of the book. I did become frustrated with Nic on occasion; he seemed to deliberately set out to hurt himself and leave Moira in danger, but I think that’s deliberate on Bergren’s part. The reader’s frustration with Nic mirrors his own with his life. I’m usually not a fan of the popular Western historical romance, but this story engaged me and makes me want to read the sequel about Moira: Sing.

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