Breathless follows the story of Leesa - blonde, blue-eyed and decidedly fragile, she is the victim of flailing parental responsibility and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her brother Bradley's disappearance. Having to deal with her mother's unsubstantiated claims of being bitten by a one-fanged vampire all her life, and now pressed with the expectations of college life and finding her brother, Leesa has a lot on her plate. Fraternities, new friends, intriguing strangers, compelling professors, and of course a love interest out of this world, Leesa soon discovers that perhaps nothing is as it seems.
Introducing Rave, a mysterious outsider who has secrets of his own, secrets inexplicably tied to Leesa's own recent misfortunes. Naturally falling head over heels for Rave is all part of expectations. He is sweet, kind, alluring, and born with abilities designed to hunt and kill vampires - the very creatures Leesa seeks to both avoid and question in regards to her family's woes. But naturally with every hero there is also a nemesis of sorts. Stefan, a vampire with an agenda of his own is drawn into Leesa's world, their meetings built on the promise of excitement, intrigue and almost certain death. Rave warns Leesa to keep her distance from Stefan, but in the end danger is a laughable concept when the fate of her brother's life is literally left balanced within her grasp.
I found Breathless to be an effortlessly descriptive novel. Every location and scene was drafted with care and attention to detail, and the language in question was well measured and distributed with intent. The story line itself was a novel concept, and I did enjoy the book overall, however, there were moments when I felt the story was overly frivolous and losing focus on the more pressing issues that the novel began with.
With that being said I was drawn by the moments of action, the educational talks between Leesa and her professor in the studies of vampirism, and most definitely - Stefan himself. Unfortunately for me there just wasn't enough of him contained within these pages. (I like the bad boys!) And although I knew Rave was tagged as the 'good guy' is this novel, I wanted to see more of the 'bad guys', as friction between rivaling characters builds a level of excitement that I often search for within this genre.
On the upside, despite Rave and Leesa's overly sugary exchanges and the sometimes ordinary tangents of college parties and friendship struggles, Breathless provided moments of great clarity. It was in this clarity that I could finally understand the relationship between Leesa and her brother, the purpose behind the hunters and the vampires, and of course, the author's passion for this genre.
Overall I liked Breathless and believe that the the author's literary passion is evident. I rate this book three out of five stars.
Kristy :)
