Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: The Art of Breathing 
SERIES: Bear Otter and the Kid #3
AUTHOR: TJ Klune
NARRATOR: Sean Crisden
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: October 16, 2014
LENGTH: 15 hours, 22 minutes
BLURB:
Tyson Thompson graduated high school at sixteen and left the town of Seafare, Oregon, bound for what he assumed would be bigger and better things. He soon found out the real world has teeth, and he returns to the coast with four years of failure, addiction, and a diagnosis of panic disorder trailing behind him. His brother, Bear, and his brother’s husband, Otter, believe coming home is exactly what Tyson needs to find himself again. Surrounded by family in the Green Monstrosity, Tyson attempts to put the pieces of his broken life back together.
But shortly after he arrives home, Tyson comes face to face with inevitability in the form of his childhood friend and first love, Dominic Miller, who he hasn’t seen since the day he left Seafare. As their paths cross, old wounds reopen, new secrets are revealed, and Tyson discovers there is more to his own story than he was told all those years ago.
In a sea of familiar faces, new friends, and the memories of a mother’s devastating choice, Tyson will learn that in order to have any hope for a future, he must fight the ghosts of his past.
REVIEW:
Friends until we’re old and gray. Beginning to end. Day after day. Because we’re inevitable.
Wow, that book wasn’t easier to listen to compared to reading it. What a rollercoaster of emotions this book is! But a good one, one I’d never regret reading. heartbreak and all.
This book spans the entire length of Ty’s and Dom’s relationship, from the first moment they met. We watch them grow up, stumble and fall. Watch them break, but also heal and grow stronger. We see them through some intense earthquakes that threaten their very foundation but we also see them rise much farther than we ever anticipated.
The family ties are as strong as they ever were. It’s the core of this series. Some have been lost, others gained along the way. (I just need to add that I can’t wait for Kori/Corey’s story, I really fell for them in this book). Everyone is flawed in their own way, but they are still there for one another, no matter what, no questions asked, no change required. And the love they all share is very tangible, it’s deep, it’s strong and it’s forever.
family isn’t defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole, who makes us who we are.
When I started listening to this book I was almost ready to start singing: Hallelujah. Or at the very least yell finally as I don’t sing. You know that music that I’ve been complaining about in the last couple of books? That was gone, non-existent, vanished without a trace (not that I’d go look for it if there were). That alone made the book a hit for me.
Now, to Sean Crisden and the narration… I’m of two minds if I’m being honest. Without a doubt Crisden is a talented narrator with great pacing, and feeling. He can bring you to the world he’s telling you about. His voices are clear and distinct and often fits the characters really well. (I’m a huge fan of his Bear impersonation). However, he also have a finite amount of distinct voices (shocker right, Crisden is human!). So when he had the same voices for Bear and Otter in the first book as he had for Dom and Ty in this one, it makes my world collide just a little bit, it wasn’t quite right. Other than that I loved every second of this wonderful heartbreaking tale.
The Art of Breathing is by far the angstiest book in the series. It will gut you at times, it will make you cry, laugh and by the end you’re left just a little bit drained from the intensity of it all. That being said, I’m going to jump right into the last book in the series, and I have a feeling that is not going to be a cake-walk either. I’m strangely looking forward to more awkward family dinners at the Thompson house, with Bear around they are inevitable 😉
RATING: 
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