Don't Breathe A Word by Holly Cupala

Don't Breathe A Word by Holly Cupala
"Joy Delamere is suffocating.

From asthma, from her parents, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. She can take his cruel words, his tender words . . . until the night they go too far.

To escape, Joy sacrifices her suburban life to find the one who offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. He introduces her to a world of fierce loyalty, to its rules of survival, and to love—a world she won’t easily let go."- summary from Amazon

Wow. That's about all I have to say about this book. Cupala did such an amazing job handling the emotional abuse, homelessness, the romance, becoming stronger that it just felt like such an effortless book. Nothing was forced here, and I couldn't put the book down.

I also liked that things were revealed slowly and it flashes back and forth between the present (with Joy running away) and the past (when Joy meets and dates Asher). The past part is done pretty much chronologically, so we don't find out the inciting incident for her running away until much later in the book. It was an interesting way of telling the story.

The small homeless family that Joy gets involved with (Creed, May, and Santos) made a big impact with me. Their trials and tribulations, their secrets, their occasional moments of joy- Cupala did a fantastic job creating these characters, making them fleshed out and memorable. I particularly liked Santos. Creed, of course, is in his own realm of greatness too. But every character in this book made me feel something and I was completely invested in all of them.

Overall, this is definitely a book to pick up and I urge everyone to read it. It has a powerful message told through this beautiful, heart-wrenching story. Cupala is fast becoming one of my very favorite authors.

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.