Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, today it is the final book in the Ten Tiny Breaths series, Five Seconds to Fall by K.A. Tucker!
This book follows recently divorced Reese and the always lovable Ben the bouncer-turned-lawyer. When they meet in Cancun and share a humiliating experience, neither thinks too much of it, after all, they'll never see each other again. But Fate has other plans. Reese finds herself working at her ex-stepfather, Jack's law firm as a paralegal, and not long after she starts, Ben walks in, starting his new job as a freshly minted lawyer. Jack keeps a strict no office romance policy which, at first, Reese and Ben have no problems following. She's still working out her feelings for her cheating ex-husband and after seeing his father's drunken antics and his mother stay by his side, for better or for worse, he's against all forms of commitment.
I have to say, I was a little nervous after reading the third book, that maybe this one was going to be another flop. But luckily, the change of scenery helped give this book a unique vibe.
As always, Tucker does a good job of creating unique and damaged characters. As opposed to some of the others, I almost felt like Reese and Ben's lives were tame. Sure, neither of their parents were great, but they were better than some of the other characters of the series. I felt like we already knew Ben. He was a large part of the other books, especially the last one so I wasn't too concerned with Tucker making sure we knew him. Reese was new to the group, however, and I think Tucker did a good job fleshing out her character. I liked Reese and her snarky attitude never felt forced to me. She was who she was, and if you didn't like that, too bad for you.
I really liked the storyline of this book, I'm a sucker for a forbidden romance. I thought that it was unique from other stories I have read. I liked the lawyer aspect and I felt like Tucker did a good job of making this story its own, despite being part of the series as a whole. Once again, I believe this one falls somewhere before book two takes place, we see some background drama with Charlie and Cain in this one. I'm not sure why Tucker played around with the timeline like that.
I will say that I am a bit disappointed we didn't see one last hurrah epilogue with all the characters from the other books. I think that even though this book was about Reese and Ben, it was also the final book in the series. I wished there was something to give a little bit as to what happened with everyone else. Maybe Tucker will write a novella of everyone after but I really wished we would get something to wrap up everyone's story here.
Overall, not my favourite of the series, but up there!