Breathe by Lisa T. Bergren

Howdy folks! Boy, has it been an interesting week here. We had a huge storm come in on Thursday evening (when I first intended to post this blog) that knocked out my Internet. Friday, it was time to do my homework I had been putting off all week (boo!). So, now that I've finished my homework for the week, it's finally time to sit down and write this review! I've also been researching on Google+ and gotten some very good ideas to implement on my blog. So here it goes!!

This week's book is called Breathe by Lisa T. Bergren. I have not read any of her books previously, but downloaded the second book in the trilogy, Sing. Now, if you're like me at all, you can't just jump into book 2 of a series when you KNOW it's not the first one! So, I did my research and downloaded the whole trilogy (so look for review #2 within the next week!).

From Barnes and Noble:

Overview

Devastated by the loss of four sons to tuberculosis and his wife in childbirth, a Philadelphia patriarch sends his three living children west in 1883 to make a new life in the clean mountain air of Colorado Springs. Odessa is struggling to survive consumption; Moira is beautiful and dangerously headstrong; and pugnacious Dominic is charged with establishing a new arm of the family business-a business he doesn't want. Readers will love The Homeward Trilogy, in which the St. Clair siblings struggle to follow where the heavenly Father leads them. In Breathe, Odessa arrives at a famous sanitarium seeking a cure for the disease that killed her brothers. While Moira and Nic establish themselves in Colorado Springs society, Dessa inches her way back to health . . . and into love with a soft spoken fellow patient, rancher Bryce McAllan. When she witnesses a murder-in the very hospital where she is recuperating-and other patients begin to die, Dessa struggles to breathe again. She'd always expected to die young, but now that she has a reason to live, can she hold on to her fragile health to solve the mystery?

My Review:  This book is fantastic. It has it all. Love. Mystery. A touch of Christianity. It's the story of three siblings, told from all three points of view. I thought I might find this distracting, but I didn't. It actually added to the story and made you want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens!  When Odessa arrives in Colorado Springs, you're thinking, WE JUST MET THIS CHARACTER! IT CAN'T END ALREADY! And you're glad when it doesn't. The mystery is intriguing, the love story is sweet and subtle, the bond between the siblings is one I can relate to (having a sister of my own). I love how they affectionately call each other "sissy" and "brother." The Christian undertone of the book cannot be denied, but it's not overwhelming in any sense, and I related to each characters struggle to accept that God wants us to live, to breathe, and to accept his creations and his path for our lives, come what may. I loved the ending and am eager to finish the second book as well. The book is well written, the characters are just beginning to grow (as all three books will feature points of view from all three siblings) but are already lovable and I'm rooting for them. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I hope you do too!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breathe-lisa-t-bergren/1100570534?ean=9781434767080

Upcoming Review: Sing (Homeward Trilogy Series, #2)