Review: Exhale

Exhale by Kendall Grey

Genre: Adult 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Says: Her dreams brought them together, but reality could tear them apart…

The man of Zoe Morgan’s dreams isn’t only real, he’s interested. In her. But her boss wants her too, and is leveraging his unsolicited advances with the threat of blocking the huge promotion she's after. When he places a spy on her research team, the intense stranger discovers more than he should, and Zoe fears hiding a relationship with Gavin Cassidy from her boss is the least of her worries. The whale she must protect has been marked for death, and Zoe's old enemy Scarlet is eager to deliver the killing blow. To both of them.

Australia’s Sentinels must find and lock the door into the Dreaming before Fyre Elementals launch another attack on innocent dreamers. But corruption and distrust abound, and Gavin believes someone on the Sentinel council is in league with the Fyres. As he reluctantly embraces his new role as council leader, Gavin must not only keep Zoe safe from Scarlet's vengeful clutches, but organize a Sentinel defense strong enough to prevent a full-blown Elemental war—with a traitor fighting by his side.

*This book contains graphic language, sex, and some violence. Not suitable for readers under the age of 18.
**The author will donate all profits from the sale of the JUST BREATHE trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face.

Inhale. Exhale.  Just Breathe…

Exhale, the second installment of the Just Breathe Trilogy, kicks off exactly where Inhale left off. Ahhh, Inhale. Inhale left me so happy and full of hope. Gavin and Zoe had finally met in Realis and everything was right with the world… except for the crazy Fyres.  Together Gavin and Zoe would conquer the world.  Zoe is one tough cookie and Gavin is trying to be one, they would accomplish anything, together. J 

So. Much. Hope.

There’s none of that in Exhale!

Gavin is set on protecting Zoe in Realis as well as in the Dreaming. Zoe is set on rejecting Gavin.  Gavin meets a new instructor who teaches him some new tricks. (NICE)  The Fyres are still whackadoo causing havoc in Australia, and all the other elements are out of sync because of it. Lastly, the elementals don't see eye to eye on anything.  Not with one another within their own faction and not with any others in other factions.  Sinnder is being Sinnder, dripping with mystery even when he’s revealing his history. Scarlet is being Scarlet (she is one crazy chica!).  It’s a hot mess.

This was me while reading Exhale:

(Thank you, niece.)

I cannot begin to explain the whirlwind of emotions that went through me while reading this book.  I truly LOVE this series!

In Inhale, I found many people talking up Gavin. I thought he was cool but honestly Zoe was the IT person for me. She was a strong character who fought hard to be in the position she was in professionally. She had to overcome genetic obstacles to do this. She also had to overcome emotional and mental abuse inflicted by her mother. She acknowledged her weakness but never gave it power.  This was not the same Zoe in Exhale.  In Exhale,  Zoe is too career focused  using this as an excuse to reject Gavin when in reality the rejection was due to her insecurities (age being a big one). I was frustrated and wanted to kick her. Yes, I did.

GAVIN!   Inhale was all Zoe whereas Exhale was all Gavin. OMG! I LOVE GAVIN. From the very first page to the very last page I LOVED GAVIN. He was just that great. Talk about a man that doesn’t give up and tries and tries and tries.  Love is not easy, it takes work and he understood this well. THAT made him sexy to me.  I was so fascinated I wanted to kiss him. Yes, I did.

Exhale was mostly about these two coming together to create the most beautiful whale song ever… Does it happen? I’m not telling.  We do find out some very important things along the way which leads me  to a very important trait…

Is this series sexy? Yes. Is it hot? Yes.  However, this is not the most important aspect to me. The most important aspect is that there is a story being told. There is something of substance here and never superficial.  You can’t imagine how much research the author had to do to make this world come alive. There is a lot of spiritual and cultural information included in this series. There is a twist that is revealed in the book that I wasn’t expecting because honestly I didn’t think the author knew about this connection.  BUT SHE DID and that was such a wonderful surprise. 

This series is crazy good!

Incredible world building. Strong and well developed characters. The details. The twists! The words! My, oh my, those colorful words. Kendall Grey has a talent for words like no one else I’ve read.  This chick can write! More impressive though is that she writes what she wants to write. She dictates what happens in this world, and if Twitter is any indication, in her own world too. Her personality shines bright throughout this series.  I just love that.

I CANNOT WAIT FOR JUST BREATHE. 

ARC provided by the author for an honest review.