Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  To Take a Quiet Breath

SERIES:  Rossingley

AUTHOR:  Fearne Hill

PUBLISHER:  NineStar Press

LENGTH:  270 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 9, 2021

BLURB:  

This isn’t a romance about chiseled, lantern-jawed college kids boasting V-cut abs. There are no marathon steamy sex sessions, not without having at least one nebulizer on standby anyway.

Marcel Giresse, the thirty-six-year-old Director of Finance at the French Ministry of Justice, is happy to leave all that nonsense to his oldest friend Lucien, the sixteenth Earl of Rossingley. In fact, Marcel is too short of breath and too set in his nerdy ways to ever think about sex at all. Which is a shame because the prisoner serving a sentence for murderer that he’s just interviewed is smart, intriguing, and hot as hell.

Guillaume Guilbaud is approaching forty and has wasted his best years rotting in a prison cell. The only interesting thing that has happened to him since his best friend Reuben was released is taking part in a series of interviews with a disarming and charismatic civil servant named Marcel. As if that friendship could ever materialize into anything, especially as he feels so ill-prepared for his imminent life on the outside.

But after a chance meeting at Rossingley, Guillaume finds himself renting Marcel’s annex and desperately falling for his sweet, chronically ill landlord. Which is crazy, because Marcel is celibate, posh, clever, and fundamentally out of Guillaume’s league. Furthermore, Marcel also has far too many interfering friends and concerned relatives determined to ensure he doesn’t become any more attached to the mysterious ex-con he’s shyly let into his life.

To Take A Quiet Breath is a slow-burn romance because Marcel is too breathless for a romance at any other speed. It’s about two men finding that love can quietly creep up on you no matter how many obstacles are thrown in its path and discovering that as long as an inhaler is readily at hand, anyone can swing from the chandeliers.

REVIEW:

This book is the opposite of a meet cute.  Marcel has a job with the French Ministry of Justice and he’s trying to do the right thing.  Guillaume is a convicted murderer who has been in jail for 15 years.  He’s going to be released and he has no idea what he’s going to do with himself.  He unexpectedly runs into Marcel after his release and he ends up renting a place from Marcel.  From there they take a meandering path to friends to lovers.

Marcel has been celibate because of his health.  Guillaume is his opposite – a big strong footballer.  They literally come from opposite ends of the economic spectrum.  But Guillaume is smart and has educated himself while he’s been in prison.  He took Reuben, a mutual friend, under his wing and helped him while he was in prison as well.  Their mutual friends Lucien and Reuben also are instrumental in their budding relationship.  There are a lot of naysayers and a few setbacks, but ultimately these two are able to work together and their gentle romance is sweet with just the appropriate amount of steam 😉

I have become a total fan of this author.  This series keeps getting better and better – and I REALLY like the first one!  While this is the third in this series, it can be read as a standalone – however I really recommend the two previous books for more background on Marcel’s friends and Reuben as well.  The characterizations of both Guillaume and Marcel are sooooo well done.  I really felt like I knew and understood them.  They come from such different worlds and their life experiences have been so different.  And yet, they go together so well.  The love between them was palpable.  I just adored both of them. Their relationship builds slowly and Guillaume cares for Marcel but doesn’t make him feel like he’s a burden or that his health is the most important thing about him.  Guillaume is so different from what one might expect for a convicted murderer.  But it’s obvious that these two have something.  Despite the obstacles they forge a real understanding and care, support and romance.  I was rooting for them early on and this love story is just so beautifully written.  If you haven’t gotten on the Fearne Hill bandwagon yet, I urge you to do so.  I cannot wait for her Christmas time novella in this world.  Brava!  Highly recommended.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

NInestar Press