Hold My Breath by Ginger Scott

Blurb:
Fractions of seconds can do lots of damage. One decision can ruin lives. A blink can be tragic. And loving a Hollister…can hurt like hell.

I would know.

They say the average person can hold their breath under water for two full minutes when pushed to the extremes. Will Hollister has been holding his for years. The oldest of two elite swimming brothers, Will was always a dominant force in the water. But in life, he preferred to let his younger brother Evan be the one to shine.

Evan got the girl, and Will…he got to bury all of the secrets. A brother’s burden, the weight of it all nearly left him to drown.

The daughter of two Olympians, my path was set the day my fingertips first touched water. My future was as crystal clear as the lane I dominated in the pool—swim hard, win big, love a Hollister.

My life with Evan burned bright. He gave me arms to come home to, and a smile that fooled the world into believing everything was perfect. But it was Will who pushed me. Will…who really knew me.

And when all of the pieces fell, it was Will who started to pick them up.

In the end, the only thing that matters are those few precious seconds—and what we decide to do while we still have them in our grasp.

     

My Review:
4.5 stars — I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!  I swear to god, I spent an enormous amount of time smiling like a moron while reading this book.  No seriously, I feel like I need to get my husband to surreptitiously (and thank god for red squiggly line internets, b/c I am failing at spelling today) take a photo of my dorky reading grin, b/c I have a feeling it’s even more epic than I thought.  And this book…this book and Will….mostly Will, but also Maddy…and occasionally Uncle Duncan…well they just brought out the huge moronic grin in spades.

OK, so I will break in here for a brief moment and say that this book started off a bit slow for me.  I don’t know if it was the book (could have been), or me and what was going on in my life, but I just had a really hard time getting sucked into this one.  BUT OH MY GOD, when I did??  I was sucked…like a Hoover.  I mean seriously, I *just* finished the book, and I actually whooped and happy sighed a little, enough to get commentary from the hubby.  It was just so good feeling and happiness inducing, that I’m just beside myself.  So while that beginning is going to force me into rounding down instead of up, that ending is making me want to say SEVENTY BAJILLION STARS!!!  All the stars!

OK, I’ve calmed down…  I will try to make some of this a bit more coherent and thought provoking (HAH).  Obviously I loved the speed swimming aspect of the story, since I pretended to be a speed swimmer in my youth…I mean, I wasn’t any good at it, but I can at least say I did a sport when I was younger.  I even won my heats on occasion.  I was a bit saddened that there was no mention of the other strokes (other than free), since I’m a backstroke girl myself, but really it was an awesome spotlight on the sport otherwise.  And Ms. Scott really knows how to make you live and breath a sport, so that you can actually feel yourself pulling and clawing and grabbing the water along with them.  I mean, obviously there is a SHITTON more to the story than just the sport, but it was there, and it was nicely represented in my opinion.

But, as I alluded to up there in my gushing, the aspect that really shines in this story is the characters.  I really enjoyed Maddy right from the very beginning, but it took me a while to fall in love with her…but I kind of enjoyed that.  It felt like she fought for my love, you know?  She EARNED it.  I have mad respect for her.  I felt like I got to know what made her up, and what made her unique, and I really loved what we got to see from her.  She is a fighter.  And she had so much to overcome in her own right in this story.  I enjoyed her relationship with her parents too, mostly her coach Dad.  She pushed him to be better.  And she pushed herself too.  I felt like all her steps on the journey were believable, and she was a fantastic counterpoint to my new book boyfriend, Will.

Will.  *sigh*  Just breathe him in folks, he’s divine.  I ADORED that he wasn’t an alpha.  He wasn’t a beta necessarily, but he definitely wasn’t an alpha male.  He was just this quiet, sensitive, melt me with his thoughts kind of guy.  I LOVED the way he loved Maddy.  How he’d always loved Maddy.  But how that love grew.  My heart is just eviscerated over the obstacles he had to overcome.  Oh Ms. Scott, you were MEAN to him.  But you got him through it, so I’ll forgive you.  And you gave him good people, like Uncle Duncan…who made me laugh and smile (moronically) over the way he would quietly push him.  And like Tanya and Dylan.  I didn’t expect them.  What an intriguing twist to a story that I thought I had figured out.

And that’s the thing, Ms. Scott gives you great MCs, but she gives you great secondary characters too.  On all sides.  Fleshed out just enough, and always adding to the story.

And while she gives you a crapload of heartache, she gives you some amazing laughs and smiles.  So she balances it all out nicely.

So yeah.  Loved it.  Loved their love story.  It may have started a bit rough for me, but it made my heart so ridiculously happy in the end.  Awesomesauce.