A Shadow’s Breath by Nicole Hayes

Posted on by Casey smurph

32323877.jpg

 

Then, things were looking up for Tessa. Her mum was finally getting her life back on track. Tessa had started seeing Nick. She was making new friends. She’d even begun to paint again.

Now, Tessa and Nick are trapped in the car after a corner taken too fast. Injured, stranded in the wilderness, at the mercy of the elements, the question becomes one of survival.

But Tessa isn’t sure she wants to be found. Not after what she saw. Not after what she remembered.

 

Let me just start off by saying I loved this book, the setting, the writing, the amazing plot lines running parallel and working so well together, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

The thing that really wowed me about this book was the writing. I got this book at the launch night, I’d never read anything by the Author and hadn’t heard too much hype so I didn’t really prioritize this on my tbr. I picked it up the other day on a whim, because well it had been sitting on my bedside table and it was just way to pretty to not read.

A Shadow’s breath has a past and present time line, alternating every chapter and the chapters are really short, so here I was turning the pages frantically wanting to know what led up to the car accident as well as if the characters would survive in the now timeline!

Usually with stories that contain alternating time lines I’ll prefer one over the other and not really fully immerse myself in both timelines until they finally merge together, THIS BOOK THOUGH, WOW. I was torn between staying in the past and exploring Tess’s friendships, her relationships, her hard home life living with her mother as an alcoholic and an abusive step father. While in the now Tessa and Nicks car has gone over a cliff and the opening scene is them trying to escape in Aussie bush. To say it was heart breaking is a bit of an understatement.

Another thing I loved was IT WAS SO AUSTRALIAN, not that I love characters crashing and having a very high chance of dying from exposure but when that just happens to happen I want it to always be set in the Aussie bush, I mean we have so many awesome things that will kill you its a great setting to make characters struggle and struggle they did.

Tessa’s family relationship, her best friend, her boyfriend all the side characters were amazing and important. Tessa is easily one of my fave characters, she’s a painter, she’s had an extremely hard childhood and teenage hood, and she has so many more struggles to come.3700057_24478ef85aa87dd08d8dbb058fa214cf

THE ENDING THOUGH OMG, I was told to prepare myself but I still didn’t see it coming and I just feel so many things for Tess.

The more I think on this book the more I love it and feel like re-reading it to pick up on all the little things I missed the first time now that I know the ending.

5/5 stars

Have you read this? What did you think of the timelines? Did you prefer one to the other? Or Do you plan to read this?

I’ll just go ahead and say if you like loveozya READ THIS BOOK… really just read this book because I loved it.

22 thoughts on “A Shadow’s Breath by Nicole Hayes”

  1. I’m not a big fan of alternating timelines, but sometimes an author can really make it work and I won’t be able to put the book down until I have all the answers. I love that this one had an ending that surprised you. It isn’t often that books pull the rug right from under you. Nice review!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. i think having such short chapters (im talking like 5-10pgs) really helped with the alternating timeline, they can go either way for me but I’m so happy I loved how the Author did this one!
      Book that surprise me are always just one step above in my eyes, thank you so much!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. “we have so many awesome things that will kill you” I swear… You’re scaring me now… Then again, I’ve always thought that y’all really had monstrous things out there in the wild. 😀 Really happy to see a book surprise you in a VERY good way though! Really interesting review! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. ha! It’s every aussies life mission to scare all and any travellers, seriously tho unless you’re lost in the deep bush during summer you should be fine. I did get bitten by a spider the other week though so yeah… it was the first time I’ve been bitten in my life though and I am still very much alive 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. I put it off for so long because I wasn’t expecting much from it but I really enjoyed it plus I love short chapters they make me fly through a book 🙂
      Hope you love it when you start!

      Like

      Reply

  6. I really like the sound of this! A book having alternating timelines is always interesting because it either works out really well for me or I don’t like it at all. But this one sounds like it worked out really well. I’ll definitely be adding this one to my TBR. Great review!! 😊

    Like

    Reply
  7. Pingback: April Wrap Up and Haul – adoptabookaus

  9. Never seen this one!

    “Usually with stories that contain alternating time lines I’ll prefer one over the other and not really fully immerse myself in both timelines until they finally merge together, THIS BOOK THOUGH, WOW.”

    I’m the same! It is very rare when I find myself equally investing in BOTH timelines.

    “Another thing I loved was IT WAS SO AUSTRALIAN, not that I love characters crashing and having a very high chance of dying from exposure but when that just happens to happen I want it to always be set in the Aussie bush, I mean we have so many awesome things that will kill you its a great setting to make characters struggle and struggle they did.”

    Hahaha Yeah I’ve heard things are crazy down there! I feel like I wouldn’t survive long in Australia lol

    Lovely review Casey 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. In metro areas and the city its really not that bad us aussies just like scaring travelers XD But when it comes to the bush things can get pretty nasty quick, although atleast we don’t have bears to contend with! I mean we have Koalas but they’re just like little high tree cats XD Being lost in the bush in summer is one of my biggest fears the threat of a bush fire is so high and I’d be so scared to be trapped by one with no one around to care or realise 0.0 Thanks Amanda ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        1. Yes that’s me, I do but not in the middle of really isolated bush or alone, there’s always other campers and we’ve only seen a couple of snakes 0.0 Also we’ve had to leave before because of flooding, never fires thankfully but as long as you stay informed it’s pretty safe, also YOU HAVE BEARS WHERE YOU CAMP! How do you survive that XD

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply
  10. Pingback: Reviews By Title – adoptabookaus

Leave a comment