.png)
Breathe
Elena Dillon
Elena Dillon
Genre: Young Adult
Romantic Suspense
978-0-9886353-0-2
Breathe Mobi
978-0-9886353-1-9
Breathe EPUB
978-0-9886353-2-6
Breathe Print
978-0-9886353-3-3
Breathe Smashwords
Word Count: 62,300
Cover Artist: Alexa
Dillon
Book Description:
Jasmine’s
life wasn’t normal for a 16 year old girl. It hadn’t been normal since
the murder of her older sister, Daisy, two years ago. Her life had been changed
forever. The monster that murdered Daisy was never caught. That was the
reason her family decided to move away from their hometown in Southern
California, to start over. Hopefully in a place where the last name
Rourke wouldn’t bring on staring or judgment or morbid curiosity.
In
Lafayette, Louisiana things are quite a bit different but in a good way.
Good manners, Cajun accents and a whole lot of Southern Hospitality all make
her think things are going in the right direction. On top of that the
most gorgeous boy she has ever met is interested in her. Her new friends are
better than she could have hoped for even if she is worried about what they
might think when they find out who she is. Life would be perfect if odd
things didn’t keep happening. Creepy phone calls, texts, and flowers in
her locker start adding up quickly to something terrifying. Could the Monster
have followed them to Lafayette? Was he coming after her this time? Maybe
she was just worrying unnecessarily…or not.
Chapter 1
Most
days I can almost forget someone murdered my sister. I try to go through every
day like a normal sixteen-year-old. I can eat breakfast, go to school, do
homework, but then something will remind me that my family will never be the
same. I’ll see my mom looking out the kitchen window—she has this blank look
and her clothes are hanging on her. I worry she doesn’t eat enough to stay
alive. Or I catch a glimpse of the picture on the coffee table we took three
Halloweens ago, when Daisy and I dressed up like crayons, and Caedan and Lily
were Skittles. It seems like a long time ago, and then, again, I remember it
like it just happened.
We
finally moved two weeks ago. Mom decided we couldn’t continue to live in
Burbank. Besides the obvious reason that Daisy’s murderer was never caught,
someone was always staring at us with that look that said, “Isn’t it so sad
what happened to the Rourke family?” But you know in their hearts they are
thinking how glad they are it didn’t happen to them. It’s obvious they’re thinking
my mom must have done something wrong. She wasn’t a good enough parent, didn’t
supervise Daisy enough, didn’t call the police soon enough. They wanted to
believe the murder of a teenage girl happened for a reason and they could avoid
it, if they just did everything right. The thing is, I think the exact opposite
is probably true.
So,
three months ago, we had a family meeting. We got out a map of the US and each
chose a city and state. Mom and I did research on ours, Caedan picked his based
on name only, and Lily did the spin-around-and-wherever-your-finger-lands
routine. Thankfully, we pulled mine out of the hat. I don’t know how I would
have felt living in Smackover, Arkansas. Caedan thought it was hilarious. He is
so twelve.
Tonight,
my mom drove us all to Wal-Mart in our new town of Lafayette, Louisiana. School
supplies were the one thing we hadn’t shopped for in the last two weeks, and
school was starting tomorrow.
“Jas,
take your brother and sister to the school supplies, while I go grab stuff for
lunches this week, will you, hon?” my mom asked, as she walked away without
waiting for my reply.
“I was
going to—” I clamped my mouth shut. She didn’t even hear me.
I was
stuck with this life now. I love my brother and sister, but I hadn’t always
been the oldest and in charge of herding them. These are the times Daisy’s
absence hits home the most with me. She had been good with them. I used to slip
into the background. Do my own thing. Sneak off to the books and browse, while
she did her Junior Mommy act. I’m less patient and easily irritated. I’m angry
at Daisy for leaving me here with this mess. I don’t want to be the responsible
one. I want my life back. I just inherited her spot and, honestly, I don’t want
it. Not that anything is going to change it now.
“I want
to get all matching Justin Bieber school supplies,” Lily decided, as we found
the school supplies section. The place was crawling with kids and parents
getting all their last-minute items. I thought we would be lucky to find filler
paper and some pencils, as picked over as it all seemed.
Caedan
was pushing the cart around the corners and down the aisles with the precision
of a NASCAR driver on Sunday. He knew that one incident, and his driving
privileges would be revoked. I was trying to find Justin Bieber anything, as
Caedan turned onto the next aisle. Suddenly, I heard a crash and a loud oomph as I rushed around the other side.
“Caedan!”
I shouted.
“Jas,
I’m sorry I didn’t know he was there. It was an accident,” he pleaded.
“So
sorry,” I mumbled to the man pushing the other cart. He shot me a look and
moved past us. “That’s it! I’m driving.” But when I looked down at Lily, who
had been walking next to Caedan, her eyes were big and full of tears.
“My
Justin shirt!” she cried out. I looked down, and in the collision her purple
slushy had spilled all over her shirt.
“Don’t
be such a baby! It is just a shirt,” Caedan told her with all the sensitivity
of a pre-teenage boy.
“Shut
up, Caedan. I hate you.” Lily shoved him in the chest.
“Purple
is not your color, Lils.” He was looking at his twin with pure disgust.
People
next to us were starting to stare. I could feel the blood rushing to my face.
Why did anyone have children anyway? They were cretins. By this time Lily was
starting to melt down.
“Okay, okay, we are going to fix it,” I
hurriedly told her. Lily had always been emotional, but since Daisy’s murder
she was hypersensitive to anything upsetting her world, and Justin Bieber was
her world.
Into
this chaos, my mother arrived. In the past, she could handle these situations
quietly and easily. The twins fighting, or Daisy and I arguing over the mess in
our room, would not even get us a raised voice. She was an RN for geriatric
patients, and she was used to calming situations and peacemaking. Since Daisy’s
death, even simple sibling arguments seemed overwhelming for her.
“What is going on?” she said between clenched
teeth. Lily chose this moment to burst into full tears, while Caedan started
protesting about it not being his fault and how mean I was not to let him
drive. “I guess it’s too much to ask for you to get one thing done for me
without any uproar,” my mother remarked to me sarcastically. “Jasmine
. . .” The use of my full name was never a good sign. “Go to the car
and get your sister her sweatshirt, while I bring her to the bathroom to get
her cleaned up.” She looked at my brother with narrowed eyes, “You will stand
outside the ladies room door with the cart, quietly, while I handle the mess you made. And I don’t want to hear
another word from you while we are in this store. Are we clear?”
I made a
face at Caedan behind my mother’s back before I whipped around and stomped off
to the car. Why was his obnoxious behavior my fault again? Whatever. Being the
oldest really was the worst.
As I
reached the electronic sliding doors to the outside, I slowed down and caught
my breath. It had gotten dark since we had been in the store. After Daisy’s
murder I had found myself starting to get anxious in particular situations.
Outside in the dark could be a problem, sometimes escalating to panic attacks.
I tried to keep these little incidents from my mom. She was definitely starting
to pay more attention these days.
I scanned the parking lot quickly to find the
car. My breath started to come in short gasps. The car was halfway down an
aisle, three rows over . . . and not under a streetlight. Damn! I
grabbed my keys out of my purse and stepped into the lot. I would just hurry. I
was being ridiculous. This was Lafayette, not Los Angeles. I had nothing to worry
about here—lots of miles between us and him.
When I
was three feet from our car, “Hey there,” a male voice said from behind me. I
jumped and squealed at the same time. I turned around fast with my pepper spray
out. Thankfully, I noticed, before I sprayed, that the nozzle was pointed at
me.
“Hey,
hey, sorry. I just, um . . . saw you drop something . . .
um . . . here.” A tall brown-haired boy around my age was holding my
mother’s list of school supplies. He kept moving toward me. “I didn’t mean to
scare you.”
I kept
backing up until my rear end hit the end of our car. “Okay. I, uh
. . .” I said weakly. All of a sudden there was a loud buzzing in my
ears, and the world started to tilt.
“Whoa.” I heard as everything went black.
I could
hear voices around me as I started to wake up.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty. No time for a nap,” a
deep, soothing voice said quietly in my ear. “Trenton, what did you do to her?
She fainted dead away.”
I became
aware that I wasn’t on the ground, like when I normally wake up from a faint.
Since this had happened more than a few times in my teenage life, I found that
odd. Due to some hormonal upheaval or whatever, since I hit puberty, fainting
had become a fairly common part of my life. But right now, I felt warm,
surrounded by the most amazing smell. I was not on the ground with a goose egg
on my head as usual. I opened my eyes and saw the most handsome face I’d ever
seen. I thought I must still be passed out and was dreaming.
“I was just trying to give her back the paper
she dropped, and she acted like I was gonna attack her or somethin’. I don’t
know why she fainted. I didn’t touch her—I swear. Why would that happen? I
can’t believe you caught her. That was awesome! Is she okay? Do you think there
is something wrong with her?” The grating voice kept on until . . .
“Trenton,
shut up,” the dream said, still looking into my eyes. I tried to shake my head
to wake up and realized I was cradled against his chest like he had swept me up
in his arms.
Not a dream then. Crap. I became instantly
mortified. “I, uh . . . Can you put me down? Please? I’m so sorry. I
didn’t mean to faint.” Duh.
“Well, I
guess, if you really want me to,” Dream Guy said as he lowered my feet to the
ground.
I
couldn’t believe he had been holding me while I was passed out. It’s not like
I’m so heavy. I’m actually kind of skinny, but I’m five foot nine, and he was
holding me in the air like I weighed less than a bag of groceries. Time to make
a graceful exit. Or any kind of exit. I probably wouldn’t be able to accomplish
graceful. Who was I kidding?
“Do you
normally mean to faint?” he asked.
“Um, no.
Thanks for catching me. I really have to go,” I babbled, while I searched for
my keys.
“Here,”
he said, as he carefully handed me the keys.
“Thanks,”
I said, as I opened the car and grabbed Lily’s sweatshirt.
“Maybe
you should—” he started to say, but I interrupted.
“I’m
fine, really. Thanks again.” I shut and locked the door. They were both
standing there looking at me like I was nuts. Well, I guess they weren’t far
off. This had to be the most ridiculous moment of my life. My face felt like it
was burning. I meet the cutest guy ever and what do I do? Faint. Like an idiot.
I shouldn’t be shocked.
I gave
them a little wave as I ran/walked back to the store. I concentrated on getting
inside without looking back. If this day was any indication as to how my life
in Lafayette was going to go, I should have closed my eyes and pointed.
Review:
4.5 stars
Review:
4.5 stars
Jasmine Rourkes life hasn’t been the same since her older
sisters Daisy murder two years ago.
After grieving and trying to find a normalcy that wasn’t there, her
family decided to move from California to Lafayette, Louisiana hoping to create
a new life for themselves.
Jasmine is excited by her new start especially that no one
knows about her past. Making new friends
and capturing the interest of the star quarterback, Jasmine believes things are
looking up until she starts getting strange phone calls and pieces of her past
keeps trickling into her path.
Intense story, I thought the emotions that Jasmine has
throughout the book were realistic especially when she believes she is
protecting those she loves. I would
definitely read more from Elena Dillon, intriguing read that I was unable to
put down until the very end.
Interview:
Your story takes
place in Louisiana, is this where you are from?
I was born, raised and
still live in Southern California. Of
course, the weather here is great but connections and history are really not a
part of life for most people here. I
love that about the South. People know
their family history and everyone knows everyone else. I love Southern food,
the idea of Southern Hospitality and manners so those are some of the reasons I
love writing about the South.
I have always been fascinated with Cajun accents, was it
hard to incorporate the dialect into the story?
I have always been interested in them too. Because I wasn’t
born there and don’t even live there I didn’t feel like I could do it
justice. Also when you give your
characters an accent I think it takes you out of the story a bit if that makes sense? I did give them some Southern style and a
little bit of slang here and there. I
hope the readers can get the feeling from that.
Where did the idea for Breathe stem from?
Well I was interested in what happens to a family after a
tragedy like what happens to the Rourkes. Specifically how the siblings are
affected. Of course there would be grief
and anger but how would it change the family dynamic? What kinds of problems
might come out of that kind of violence and loss? Then, of course, moving to a
new place with a whole different way of life, I liked the idea of how the
family would have to adjust to such culture shock.
Was there a particular person you had in mind for the
character of Daisy?
I know some people write with a actor or famous person in
their heads for their characters but I really don’t. They have their own face
and personality to me so I find it difficult to picture them as someone other
than that. I have a friend who has
already done all the casting for me and knows who she would want to play each
character in the story but it isn’t really something I do. To me the character is their own person.
About the Author
Elena lives and
writes in a suburb North of Los Angeles.
She has never lived anywhere besides California which is probably a good
thing since she hates being cold and is terrified to drive in the snow. She
loves being a wife and a mother to her three kids and three dogs, although
really the bulldog is the fourth child who has never matured beyond the toddler
stage.
A self-proclaimed
nerd, she has been writing since she was a child. She has only recently,
however, come out of the closet about this to her family and friends. They now understand better, but not
completely, why she talks about characters in stories as if they are real
people.
Thank you so much for having me on your blog and for the lovely review! I love your site!
ReplyDeleteElena