REVIEW: Just Remember to Breathe

Title: Just Remember to Breathe

Author: Charles Sheehan-Miles

Genre: romance

Price: $13.62 (paperback) / $3.99 (Kindle)

Publisher: Cincinnatus Press

ISBN: 978-0988273603

Point of Sale: Amazon

Reviewed by: Chris Gerrib

This blog (or at least this writer at this blog) has been a fan of Charles Sheehan-Miles since I devoured and loved his novels Republic and Insurgent (reviews at link).  Now, much though I like Mr. Sheehan-Miles’ books, he has been known as a slow writer.  The gap between the releases of Republic and Insurgent is six years.  So when I heard he cranked out a book in 14 days (!) I decided I had to buy it and read it.  As is typical with his work, I enjoyed it.

Just Remember to Breathe is almost a complete 180 from Sheehan-Miles’ previous work.  It is a straight-up romance novel, with minimal violence and no gun-play.  It’s set in the current day, as opposed to a near-future world, and about the only commonality between this and the author’s previous work is that one of the characters, Dylan Paris, is a war veteran. 

The story starts with Alex Thompson being assigned a student work job at Colombia University.  She’s both carrying a torch for and upset at an unnamed prior boyfriend.  This boyfriend proves to be Dylan Paris, fresh back from Afghanistan, wounded, and feeling betrayed by Alex.  What’s worse is that they are both assigned as the sole research assistants to an author-in-residence at Colombia!

From this “re-meet cute” the story follows Alex and Dylan as they attempt to negotiate the trials of their new lives.  Dylan has emotional issues from both his war experience and his poor home life, and Alex, although of a wealthy family, has her own crosses to bear.  Sheehan-Miles skillful weaves these various threads together, resulting in an entertaining and engrossing read.  I’m not normally a fan of romance novels, but this one I enjoyed, and I expect you will too.

9/10