DNF'd about 30% in

Thanks to NetGalley / Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

The Breaths We Take has one of the sweetest friendship I've ever read about. In this book we have Ben as our main character and he has three best friends: Ted, Hope and Doris. Their relationship gets complicated when Doris starts playing matchmaker with Ted and Hope but regardless, Doris and Ben's relationship is so wholesome. We get to see them grow together and supporting each other even if they don't complete agree on everything.

Other problems arise when Ben catches feelings for Ted's brother, Adrian. In my opinion, Adrian was really sweet and charming even though sometimes he acted as a spoiled kid lol. I liked their dinamic because it felt real and deep but it also made me angry the homophobia we could see surrounding them. That was one of the factors that made me remember this book is supposed to happen in the 90s and not now because some things were said that today wouldn't be acceptable (I'm sure homophobic people still say things like that but regardless you get the point) And another detail was that no one had cellphones, at first I was weird out by why they waited to get home to call someone and then I got it, that maybe cellphones weren't as popular back then.

Another positive aspect of this book was the writing, I actually could feel like I was inside of the book watching everything happen around me. Oh, I didn't mentioned it before but Ben and his family are Jewish so there were a couple of words used that I didn't know what they meant but fortunately at the back of the book there's a glosary which makes everything easier to comprehend.

Now onto the not so positive aspects of this book, the main issue I had was that everyone seem to get married to their highschool sweetheart. It was so weird to read and it really pushed me out of the story because it just didn't seem legit to me. I'm sure there are a couple of people who did but not everyone like this book showed. I'm just not really into stories were people only love one person for their entire life

Then there was a conflict with Ben's grandfather and his health. During this time Ben talked about how worried and scared he was but I didn't believe him at all. I've been through a similar situation recently and I definitely spent more time with my family than what Ben did, his sister came from college for a weekend and even her was more helpful in the situation.

And lastly, the ending was very slowed paced for me. There was a tiny conflict almost at the end that I feel was there just to make the book bigger because it didn't actually affect how things were going before it.

Then the actual last chapter was very quick and I liked it a lot because of that and also because it showed how things are not always perfect all the time but we can still get a happy ever after.

I love books set in the 1990s and I love queer stories.
Ben is an interesting character, though I would've liked to see him more as a tridimensional character. We can see from the story that he is sensitive and empathetic. The plot was fast and filled with some serious moments that can be emotional. I liked the age gap, that's a trope in stories I love to see. I think the writing might have been better, at times falling a little flat. Overall I enjoyed this story and I would definitely try the previous books in this series.

Some thoughts:

- I had high hopes for this, but I was just so confused and the plot was very choppy.
- I wanted more character development
- It was in the year 1992! Come on, my year of birth!
- The concept itself is what drew me in and it did deal with some hard hitting topics
- It just took me so long to get in to

Overall I wouldn't of recommended this to others, some may like it, but for me I sadly didn't enjoy it as much as what I would of liked.

Ben has everything, his parents support him, he has great friends, if only he had a boyfriend, life would be perfect. Suddenly life starts to get complicated when Doris drags him matching-making scheme between their friends Ted and Hope that could ruin friendships, and then his grandfather moves in and life at home becomes tense. When Ben starts to develop feelings for Ted's brother Adrian, which start to reveal secrets that might be better left in the past.

This was book of finding oneself and learning how to navigate between friendship and love when they are so entwined. I enjoyed watching Ben grow from a boy who believed he had everything into a self assured young man who followed his heart, and learned that sometimes life is more than just a happy ending.

Although I could see the potential in this text, I was not able to sustain my attention and finish the narrative.

Third in a series where I have not read the previous two books. The story of Ben, a high school student in the 1990's, who really wants a boyfriend. Desperately. Not the best read, as the writing is choppy and Ben is super obsessed with getting a boyfriend....althugh he does have a lot of other stuff going on too with his grandfather's illness and issues with his friends. They all seemed quite mature for being teenagers, which is great but not very realistic, even back in the 1990's. Ben is just not super interesting thus making his life not super interesting either. Decent but too short and not enough story/character development for me.

It took me forever to get through this book. It had all the makings to be a good contemporary but the plot was all over the place. Nothing had build-up. I ended up skimming a lot.
Also if you have to use slurs, don't do it just for the sake of drama. Have someone call it out and not look the other way because *said person* doesn't know any better. 🙄 I don't care what era the setting is, using *** for any reason AS A SLUR WILL NEVER BE OKAY. 😒

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review The Breaths We Take.

The Breaths We Take by Huston Piner, is an okay read.

Ben's in high school, the year is 1992, and we get to follow along as Ben deals with wanting a boyfriend, a secret relationship, friend issues, and his grandfather's declining health. In other words, Ben has a lot to deal with and has a lot on his mind.

I enjoyed this story, but it's also a bit choppy in it's writing and it could have used more character development.

That said, I like that age difference between Ben and his eventual boyfriend. Their romance however, seems to just happen, without a ton of build-up. I did enjoy the secretive aspect though.

I found the friend storyline a little strange. Yes, it was something teens would do, but it just went too far, in my opinion.


On a side note, we also get to see a middle age romance, as two former lovers are reunited. It's sweet and inspiring. I appreciated a lot of the nursing home moments and characters.

Overall, The Breaths We Take had a lot of promise, and I'm glad I read it, but it definitely feel short.

There is a special place in my heart for stories set in the 1990's, like The Breaths We Take. The characters are in high school during the same time I was, and it was easy to relate to a lot of the themes and culture references of that time.

Ben is such a great character. He's sensitive to other's feelings, caring, and genuine. He's very forthright with what he thinks are his limitations, even if he's off the mark. He has this wonderful instinct on how to handle certain situation, while internally he's freaking out.

I enjoyed his balance of love-struck teenager and responsible young adult. While he was mature at times (with his grandfather and at the center), he was most decidedly a teen with hormones in his first relationship.

There are some pretty serious moments throughout, which only added to the story and plot. The dialogue was spot-on for the teenage characters and adults.

Overall, a good coming-of-age read from the eyes of a high schooler in the 90's.

This book was.....okay. While the story revolved around Ben and Adrian mostly and their friendships I enjoyed the story of Ben and his grandfather more. The story of Ben and Adrian was so rushed. Are they really in love after 3 days? I find it hard to believe that Ben's parents allow them to stay in his room alone and have Adrian spend the night too. Their relationship felt rushed and forced.

The Breaths We Take follows seventeen-year-old Ben. The story is set in 1992, and well, he really wants a boyfriend. That is at least the first impression we get from him, as he sexualizes every guy he can find as soon as his eyes falls upon them. His organized life turns on its head when his sick grandfather comes and lives with his family.

I don’t really know how to write this, but the story the author is trying to give us here does not reach its potential. I love a cute, fluffy lgbt+ read, with some drama and family on the side, but here the writing, the characters and the plot just falls flat.

Ben is thrown into a match up scheme between two of his best friends, and it goes (surprise surprise) horribly wrong. And it is fine to have misunderstanding, but these guys here had been friends for years and that erupted into nothing over something so stupid?

Ben is also starts working at this elder center, and at first he doesn’t want to because old people makes him uncomfortable? I guess every person and character is different, but there was this big revolutionary thing where he realized that old people is actually just… people. I guess there was supposed to be a lesson in there not just for Ben, but for the reader. But it does not really come across well. It is just like everything else in this book: flat.

Ben gets a boyfriend in this book, and while they were cute there was so much unnecessary drama. I wanted to ship them, but I really felt it was so random they ended up together. What made Ben and his boyfriend like each other? Because even after finishing I’m still not sure except that they think the other one is hot.

There was also some homophobia in here, but that is called out. But again, it was there for the drama. I know the story was set in 1992 and everything, but where the homophobia came from made me roll my eyes. I don’t want to spoil, but it was really just stupid. The book is trying to show us what lgbt+ teens has gone through “over the decades”, but I felt it didn’t really give us anything.

There were parts of the story that were okay. I loved Ben’s grandfather and Herman (which is another old man). The story itself wrapped up okay, but overall I was not impressed. Ben was too boring, and the writing was not really my style.

The book is not bad, it was just okay. I would never recommended it to anyone, as I know of so much better lgbt+ stories. This story doesn’t give anything to the reader, it was not as if I had high expectations going into this (as I had never heard about it before), but I did hope I was going to get more than this.