Hello everyone!
I am here with another book review, today it is the next book in the Ten Tiny Breaths series, Four Seconds to Lose by K.A. Tucker.
This book follows eighteen-year-old Charlie who, after living with her stepfather, Sam, for years after the death of her mother, moves to Miami to distance herself from Sam. Except he won't let her go easy and continues to make her a part of his drug trafficking. Charlie is trying to start over away from him and knows she needs cash fast in order to get away from him. Through a dancer friend, Charlie meets Cain, the owner of Penny's Palace and she sets her up with an interview as a dancer. While working at a club isn't ideal, it pays what Charlie needs. But she wasn't anticipating the stoic and detached Cain, who really is only concerned with helping his employees get back on their feet. Some their relationship develops, but Charlie has secrets she's not sure she can share and tries to push Cain away before someone gets seriously hurt.
After reading book two in this series, Four Seconds to Lose is a complete 180-degree turn. This book was so much darker than that one, it reminded me more of Tucker's debut and the first book in this series, Ten Tiny Breaths. I sometimes forget that this series is companion novels, not sequels. They have connecting characters, but the stories are completely different from one another. I think I would have liked this book more if I hadn't just read the second book, in fact, I almost feel as though this one should be read after book one, because they have similar storylines and I believe that this one takes place chronologically before book two, before Livie has left for college.
The story itself was interesting enough. I don't think I enjoyed this one as much as I did book two. I don't know if its because I was expecting another "lighter" romance or if I just wasn't in the mood for such a dark book. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this book, but I just felt like it didn't bring a whole lot new to the table.
I liked Charlie's character well enough, she had a good head on her and she knew what she was doing at all times. She had lost all previous delusions about Sam and what he was capable of. She was able to understand the severity of her situation and didn't try to pretend everything was great. Cain was an okay character, I just feel like I don't know him as well as I could have. The details of his past are hazy at best, and while I suppose they don't really matter, I felt like I only knew him on the surface level.
There was a lot of similarity in both Cain and Charlie's pasts, to the point where I was convinced for a minute that Charlie was Cain's dead sister, or that the Penny Cain knew was Charlie's mom, but then things didn't add up. I'm not sure why but for a bit I was convinced their paths had crossed before.
I liked seeing cameos of the other characters, I've found that, with this series especially, Tucker does a great job of throwing in the characters of the other books. We see lots of appearances but because (I think) this story comes before book two, there wasn't much new information in that regard.
Overall, a good continuation of the series but not my favourite of them so far.