Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs review by Susan M Dusterhoft

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs

I actually started Susan Wigg’s Just Breathe a long time ago and I recently unearth it from the underside of my bed. After the first few pages, I remembered that I had indeed started it, but wasn’t sure how far I had gotten.

It’s the story of Sarah Moon, a comic strip writer, and her husband Jack, an architect, trying to have a child. Unfortunately Sarah is having a very difficult time getting pregnant, so she and Jack decide to go and get fertility treatments in hopes that it will increase her chances for having a child. While all this is going on her husband Jack gets sick, and Sarah must put her plans on hold in order to care for him.

After Jack gets well, they continue on with trying to get pregnant and go on with their everyday lives. Sarah continues to write her comic strip where art imitates life and Jack designs and builds houses. The tedium is getting to Jack and unbeknownst to Sarah her marriage to Jack is slowly unraveling. The proverbial light bulb goes on when one day Sarah decides to visit her husband at one of his jobsites. What she finds is not what she was expecting – Jack with another woman. Fleeing the scene she goes home completely devastated. Knowing now that her marriage is over she decides to leave and go home to California.

With the help of her family and the people in the community, she begins to start her life over. She reconnects with her high school friends and their families. She also meets up with Will Bonner, a boy she once had a thing for in high school, and his daughter, Aurora. Trying to settle into a new life, Sarah discovers that she is finally pregnant. Big surprise!

The rest of the story is how Sarah deals with all of this, including how she copes with her soon to be ex-husband, his family and the impending birth of her child. Susan Wiggs has a wonderful way of developing the back story of the story as there are plenty of back stories in this novel – Will and Aurora, Will and his firefighting crew, Aurora and her friends, Sarah and her Dad/Grandmother.

Many of you might wonder why I chose this book as the Reading Romances Challenge for March. While on the surface, it wouldn't appear to be a romance, but as the reader, you really need to look deeper and I think you'll see why I believe this is a true romance...in disguise. Love is lost, love is a blessing, love is renewed and love is found...all found within these pages. If that is romance, then I don't know what is! 

This book has an easy flow and despite the 472 pages, it doesn’t seem intimidating. In fact, my interest was piqued throughout the entire book and once I got back into it again, I was hooked. The author, Susan Wiggs, has a way of providing just enough information on the page to keep the reader wanting to turn the page. The thing that I enjoyed the most about the book was the comic strips inserted into the novel. I wished there had been more. In fact, I would have liked to seen the entire strip! Read this one, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Review by Susan M Dusterhoft

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