Lovin' los libros

A book blog dedicated to young adult and new adult novels

Review: In Her Wake by K.A. Tucker

By 8:12 AM , , , , , ,

In Her Wake (Ten Tiny Breaths #0.5)
   by: K.A. Tucker

Publication Date: Sept. 1, 2014
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC received via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count:
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 5/5 stars

Before you knew him as Trent in Ten Tiny Breaths, he was Cole Reynolds—and he had it all. Until one night when he makes a fatal, wrong decision…and loses everything.

When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy. Normally, he’d be able to lean on his best friends—the ones who have been in his life since he could barely walk. Only, they’re gone. Worse, there’s the shattered body of a sixteen-year-old girl lying somewhere in a hospital bed, her entire life ripped from her because of a case of beer and a set of keys.

Everyone assures him that they know it wasn’t intentional, and yet he can’t ignore the weight of their gazes, the whispers behind his back. Nor can he shake the all-consuming guilt he feels every time he thinks of that girl who won’t so much as allow him near her hospital room to apologize. As the months go by and the shame and loneliness festers, Cole begins to lose his grip on what once was important—college, his girlfriend, his future. His life. It’s not until Cole hits rock-bottom that he can begin to see another way out of his personal hell: forgiveness.

And there’s only one person who can give that to him…

 
 
This was such a difficult novella to read. Having read Kacey's heartbreaking story in Ten Tiny Breaths, I knew that this wouldn't be an easy, light-hearted book. I fell in love with Trent instantaneously in Ten Tiny Breaths. Some people called him a stalker and it really infuriated me because that's not what it was about. We especially see that in this book. Instead, we have a very broken man who does not feel he can move forward with his life after a tragic accident took the lives of his best friends as well as a car full of innocent lives just going to get pizza. He feels survivors guilt and is constantly wondering about the young girl who lay battered and broken in a hospital bed. He feels the enormous weight of responsibility, as he was the one who was supposed to be the DD for the night. It is his father's car that does the damage and he has to live with that for every day of the rest of his life.
 
My heart ached for him. He doesn't know how to cope and ends up withdrawing from the world and the people he loves most in it. He sees his parent's marriage falling apart in front of him as the weight of grief for their son, as well as their financial stability get to be too much to handle.
 
Watching him spiral into darkness was incredibly difficult to read and while people think his obsessive behavior towards making sure Kacey is okay is stalkerish, it's not meant to be. He doesn't know how to deal. He can't leave this girl alone. He is desperate to make amends. He doesn't want her to spiral into her own darkness that she can't crawl up from. Sure, he doesn't necessarily go about all of this in the sanest of ways, but he is driven. He literally feels like he has nothing left and he wants nothing more than to earn forgiveness, as well as see this beautiful girl smile like she used to in old Facebook pictures.
 
He wants to protect her from the darkness and from herself. If appointing himself as her own personal guardian is what he needs to do in order to make sure she doesn't do something that she will regret for eternity, then I say more power to him. Upon her release from the hospital, Kacey is a mess. She drinks, does drugs, and drowns herself in a world where she no longer has to feel. Her younger sister is depending on her and needs her older sister to be there for her.
 
I loved getting Trent's story, as heartbreaking and difficult as it was to read. However, I just love him even more after reading it and I'm so glad K.A. felt strongly enough for him to write his novella.
 
 
 
 

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3 comments

  1. I am really confused if I want to read Trent's novella. I had liked him with Kacey but I'm not sure how difficult and horrible his story is going to be. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

    Janhvi @ The Readdicts

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this novella because we finally got to see what drove Trent to act the way he did. He was desperate and honestly just didn't know how to deal with the aftermath. I get it.. some of what he did was not normal or sane but he wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind and I'm so glad this novella truly shed light on the situation. Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just finished this one and OHEMGEE! My heart! It so goes out to Trent! Reading his story really opened my eyes a bit more and made the whole story, Trent and Kacey's, come full circle. And I agree with Teresa, though some of his actions wasn't...sane.. his heart was in the right place!

    Loved this review!

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