Review: Just Remember to Breathe by Charles Sheehan-Miles

Title: Just Remember to Breathe
Author: Charles Sheehan-Miles
Published: August 30th 2012
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Alex Thompson’s life is following the script. A pre-law student at Columbia University, she’s focused on her grades, her life and her future. The last thing she needs is to reconnect with the boy who broke her heart.
Dylan Paris comes home from Afghanistan severely injured and knows that the one thing he cannot do is drag Alex into the mess he’s made of his life.
When Dylan and Alex are assigned to the same work study program and are forced to work side by side, they have to make new ground rules to keep from killing each other.
Only problem is, they keep breaking the rules.
The first rule is to never, ever talk about how they fell in love.

I have never read a romance book written by a male species representative. Haha, that sounded weird. Ok, I haven’t read a romance novel by a male author and boy was I ever surprised at how Mr. Sheehan-Miles pulled at my heart-strings and twisted them throughout the novel. I sure want to read the rest of the books in this series after having a good experience with Just Remember to Breathe.

“When I'm ninety, I want you to tell me that it's my turn to ask you a question, and if that miracle happens, then my question is going to be, 'Do you still love me?' and I hope that answer will still be yes.”

The story. We have a dual POV book with Dylan and Alex as our MC-s. Dylan is a young injured war veteran and Alex is his ex-girlfriend. These two are bound to meet again since they both attend Columbia University in NYC. Forced to work together on a project, they set rules to not talk about the past. Too bad neither of them can hold off too long and soon their past will come to haunt them in the most cruciating ways.

My thoughts. We, readers, get the story as they tell it to us, but Dylan and Alex’s feelings stay hidden from each other for quite some time. What bothered me the most was that in the beginning there was so much telling rather than showing and we get most of the story right away as they both explain it to us. It didn’t keep me from getting invested in their story though. I have met only one person in my life who has gone to war. I know it’s a big issue to people from the states and perhaps it’s an even more emotional read to people who have been through similar situations even as a by-stander. At first it was hard for me to get an understanding of who the MC-s were as persons, but as the novel progressed, they grew on me.

I especially enjoyed the side characters such as Kelly, Alex’s sisters and Dylan’s friend Sherman. Throughout the book we get to know them pretty well and I came to care about their storylines. Luckily Alex's sisters get their own companion novels. Nevertheless, the main focus is always on Dylan and Alex who are struggling to cope with their explosive break-up when he was in war and try to move on from the hurtful past. There are other storylines in addition to their romance, such as Dylan’s guilt over his dead friend, Alex’s crazy-strict and rule-following parents, a guy who wants to get some with Alex and stops at nothing to get what he wants. 

You know, I have had this book for such a long time. I don’t think it was the strongest New Adult book I have ever read, but it made me care and it definitely won’t be the last book I’ll read by Charles. I’ll get to the other two Thompson sisters’ stories soon and hopefully they’re just as good if not better. I shed quite a few tears during this story and the ending couldn’t have been any more perfect. You hear me? P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!! I think this novel is worth exploring. You would be surprised at how a man can write such a good romance novel of second chances. Read on!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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