BOOK REVIEW: Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

This is a book review for Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt. It is the first book in the Once Upon A Crime Family series. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is May 19, 2015.

In Penelope Landlow's world, almost anything can be bought or sold. She's the daughter of one of the three crime families controlling the black market for organ transplants. Because of an autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise easily, Penny is considered too "delicate" to handle the family business, or even to step foot outside their estate. All Penelope has ever wanted is independence-until she's suddenly thrust into the dangerous world all alone, forced to stay one step ahead of her family's enemies. As she struggles to survive the power plays of rival crime families, she learns dreams come with casualties, betrayal hurts worse than bruises, and there's nothing she won't risk for the people she loves. 

I had heard mixed reviews on this one so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was excited to read a novel about the black market business of organ transplants. Unfortunately, this book wasn't really about that. Other than some vague talk about the political ramifications of the Organ Act being debated in Congress, there really wasn't a lot of other political stuff or crime stuff talked about. For the first five or six chapters, I was a bit bored with this book. Not a lot happened. We met Penelope and learned she is suffering from an autoimmune disorder (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura) that causes her to bruise and bleed very easily. I did feel bad for Penny because her parents were so afraid to hurt her that they never even hugged her. Other than that, she was a hard character to root for. She struck me as very whiny and impulsive. She kept whining about her family leaving her out of the Family business, but she kept making stupid decisions. Because of Penny's condition and because of how her family treats her, Penny (and also the reader) are completely left out of the politics and crime part of the business. The one time that she was allowed into a meeting about the business, she started daydreaming five minutes in and didn't stop until the meeting was over. How on earth did she expect to be taken seriously when she couldn't even pay attention to a simple meeting? For the first part of the book, she was also attracted to Garrett, her brother's best friend. I was kind of ambivalent about this romance. They did seem to have chemistry. but I just wasn't invested in it. Then she makes the stupid decision to run away with him. They had not even shared a kiss yet, just a couple of almost kisses. Yet, she was willing to run away with him and leave her family. She was willing to do this despite the fact that her condition required regular medical care. 

Almost halfway through the book, a tragedy strikes Penelope and her family. I won't give any major spoilers, but this is about the point the action picked up. There were tons of questions about who was behind it and who Penny could really trust. This caused Penny to go into hiding. But after a few chapters, the action slowed down again. Penny was running for her life, yet she continued to make impulsive decisions. Then she meets Charlie (or "Char," as she calls him) and I had to keep my eye rolling to a minimum. She literally runs into him and suddenly they are in love with each other and can't live without each other. She starts dating him, even though two chapters before that she was willing to run away with Garrett. I also had an issue with her waiting around to be rescued. Garrett had no idea where she was, but she just sat down and waited for him to find her. That attitude bugged me. Despite the fact that I hated the insta-love, I still found myself liking Char more than Garrett. Maybe it was the flirting or maybe it was the fact that he didn't know about her condition so he didn't treat her like she was fragile. I usually hate love triangles, but it was really hard to call this a love triangle when she was only having contact with one of the men. There was a secret about Char that I had guessed about two days into their relationship. I did not guess some of the other stuff though. After several slow chapters where Penny and Char are falling even more in love and Penny conveniently forgets she is supposed to be in hiding, the action picks up yet again. I kind of loved the last few chapters because they were so dramatic. I know this is supposed to be the start of a series, but I am wondering what the premise of the next one would even be. The good news is that this one did not end in a cliffhanger. I loved that. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow. There were some good parts, but it was just way too slow in several areas.