THE AIR HE BREATHES (THE ELEMENTS SERIES #1) by BRITTAINY C CHERRY

“You know that place in between nightmares and dreams? The place where tomorrows never come and yesterday don’t hurt anymore? The place your heart beats in sync with mine? The place where time doesn’t exist, and it’s easy to breathe?
I want to live there with you.”

The Air He Breathes had all the makings of a rich, romantic and beautifully told ‘second chance at love‘ story between two wretchedly broken characters seeking solace with, and in each other following the loss of their loved ones. There were many, many moments throughout this book that gripped our hearts.  This was a moving and stunningly told story, of that there is no doubt and for the most part, we loved it and felt the emotion of Brittainy C Cherry’s exquisite words.

‘Our mouths crashed together and he whispered a name, but I wasn’t certain that it was mine; I whispered one back, not positive that it was his.’

The slow burn relationship was superbly and sensitively handled by Brittainy C Cherry, the romance was emotional and yet encompassed a swoon factor that took our breath away.

We have to give kudos to this author for retaining the loving memories held by Tristan and Elizabeth of their past. So many times we read a story where the memory of the ex becomes tarnished in some way with the goal being to coerce the reader into believing the previous relationship was second rate, thereby believing this strengthens the bond between the H&H. To be honest it’s become a tiresome theme and it takes a gifted writer to have us believe and love the previous relationship as much as we believe and love the relationship between the H&H.  Brittainy C Cherry succeeded in ensuring we loved and adored the relationship between Tristan and Elizabeth, as much as being moved by their past relationships and the love they held for their partners. We were so relieved Brittainy chose to retain the beautiful memories Tristan and Elizabeth cherished and didn’t cheapen them as a vehicle to enforce the love between Tristan and Lizzie.

“Show me the shadows that keep you up at night. Kiss me with your darkness.”

We couldn’t even begin to count the poignant, touching and downright heart-warming and heartbreaking moments of this story. We highlighted so many stunning passages and cried a few times. The story of Elizabeth, Tristan and Emma was the stuff book heaven is made of, so we bet you’re looking at our rating and thinking…then why isn’t this a 5 star read?

‘She undressed me and made love to her past.  I slid into her and made love to my ghosts. It wasn’t right, yet somehow it made sense. Her soul was scarred, and mine was burned.’

When we started this book we sent a text to each other proclaiming “OMG….this book…5 star read coming up.” We were THAT sure this book was going to have us experiencing emotions of immeasurable proportions, and at times it definitely did achieve that, however there were a couple of things we felt really let down Liz and Tristan’s love story and we’ll explain as much as we can without giving away spoilers.

If this story had concentrated on the relationship, the healing and the love story between Tristan and Lizzie and little Emma, this would have been a sweeping 5 star read…no question. Sadly there were a couple of aspects that not only annoyed us but gutted us as they felt completely out of place in a story of such rich and powerful beauty.

What marred this otherwise heartbreakingly beautiful romantic and moving story was:

1) Faye, Elizabeth’s best friend. In our notes we wrote “where the hell did this character come from and how was she friends with someone as intelligent and sensitive as Elizabeth?” The character of Faye had an excessive juvenile vulgarity to her. Now we’re no prudes, we can cuss like sailors and love a filthy joke as much as the next person, but we found Faye’s character to be crass and sadly we felt she brought a cheapness to an otherwise moving and poignant story. She felt entirely out of place in this story and if the purpose of her personality was to bring some form of light-heartedness to this story then it failed in our opinion because all she did was anger and repel us with her vulgar banter. It was completely over the top, banal and examples such as the following were repetitious.

“The wind kind of pushed the penis toward my mouth first. This is why people shouldn’t go out on windy days. The penises are on a rampage on the windy days. “

The honest and poignant light-heartedness was brought to the fore from little Emma who more than held the story together in this regard.  Emma was cute, sweet and heart meltingly funny, the banter between her and Tristan was so powerful and witty and was all that was required to relieve the sorrowful mood of the story without detracting from the emotion therein. For us, and in our honest opinion, Faye’s character cheapened what was an otherwise beautiful and emotional story.

2) The drama element of the story was balanced perfectly until the introduction of an unnecessary plot twist towards the end.  The source of the angst was believable and understandable until…it wasn’t. It came to a point where it became a little ridiculous causing us to eye roll at its inclusion.  There was a decent enough dose of angst included without overdosing on it towards the end. Less is more, more often than not.

The three main characters Tristan, Lizzie and Emma were the glue that held this story together and they more than achieved this on their own. We wish the author had solely concentrated on them because THEY were the foundation of story and the points we mentioned above only served to detract rather than add to the story.

“Elizabeth?”
“Yes?”
“It’s easier with you.”
“What’s easier with me?”
“Being alive.”

As far as romance, love, emotion and the adoration of two characters (make that three counting Emma) – we couldn’t have been more pleased with The Air He Breathes, because we loved that aspect with all our hearts. Brittainy C Cherry once again showcased how moving and affecting her words truly are. We’re just saddened our enjoyment was tarnished by the events we discussed above.  Despite our misgivings we highly recommend this beautiful, poignant story and hope we are in the minority with our issues! This author sure does know how to pull at those heart strings because she certainly pulled at ours. Prepare to be moved!

“Show me the part of you that you try to keep buried. Show me where it hurts the most. I want to see your soul.”