Review: Whisper to Me (Between Breaths #3) by Christina Lee

Whisper to Me (Between Breaths #3) by Christina Lee

Published May 20th 2014

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Synopsis:

At college, Rachel has a reputation for being a sarcastic flirt with a thing for star athletes. No one at school knows that she’d had her heart ripped to shreds by her high school sweetheart, who’d driven them both off the side of the road on a borrowed motorcycle, and then abandoned her. No one knows the real Rachel Mattson—except one person…

Ever since he helped nurse his sister’s feisty best friend back to health, pierced bass player Kai Nakos has been head over heels in love. But the supposed bad boy can’t risk letting Rachel know the truth—especially now that the two of them are back in their hometown for the summer, together for the first time since the months following that fateful night. Never mind that Rachel’s ex is back, groveling for her forgiveness.

Shaken by her ex’s return, Rachel finds herself turning to the one guy she knows she can trust. Kai is willing to hide his feelings for her, just to have Rachel touch him again. After all, this is only a temporary fling. Until it becomes something more. But maybe it had been more all along.

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Review:

I picked this one up not realising it was a series however it is a great standalone novel. Later in the story we do pick up the girls from the first 2 books but there was no impact or reduction of reading enjoyment by going for this first. 

Whisper to Me was a great read, don't get me wrong. I did enjoy reading about Kai. He's a bass player who is trying to find his way in the world through music. His past keeps coming and biting him in the ass though and he finds himself back in his home town and working for his Native American family who own a casino.

Rachel has been friends with Kai and his sister Dakota since forever. They helped her get over a nasty accident, an ex who dumped her, and all the repercussions that followed. After three years away at college Rachel comes home for the holidays and settles back into living with her best friends. 

The only thing is, Rachel's changed. But then so have Kai and Dakota. Rachel wanted to get away from her past life and recreate herself at college. So much that she's almost forgotten Who she really is any more. 

The writing is awesome. I haven't read any of Bell's previous books but I did like the story, flow and pace. However, the little things irked me. Firstly, Rachel, Kai and Dakota are supposed to be childhood friends. There are many references to what they used to do as children - playing, antics, habits etc. Also lots of emphasis on how Kai looked after Rachel after her accident. But I couldn't pick up on the these past relationships and put them together with the people I was reading about. I almost felt like they could have been strangers with no background. If the author had written a few chapters in between with some scenes of back story I may have bought it but it came over as too contrived. Dakota and Rachel had no mutual understanding or girl friend chemistry that I would have expected.

This book does get hot. The love story between Kai and Rachel is the reason the pages turned so quickly but I felt it went on too long before the final professing.

I will try out the other books now and hope there are more to come in this series.