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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780778325772
ISBN number: 0778325776
Label: Mira
Manufacturer: Mira
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: September 01, 2008
Publishing house: Mira
Sale Popularity Level: 6480
Studio: Mira
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Product Description:
Chicago cartoonist Sarah Moon tackles life's real issues with a healthy dose of sharp wit in her syndicated comic strip Just Breathe. As Sarah's cartoon alter ego, Shirl, undergoes artificial insemination, her situation begins to mirror Sarah's own difficult attempts to conceive. However, Sarah's dreams of the future did not include her husband's infidelity: snag number two in Sarah's so-called perfect life.
With Chicago and her marriage in the rearview mirror, she flees to the small Northern California coastal town where she grew up, a place she couldn't wait to leave. Now she finds herself revisiting the past, an emotionally distant father and the unanswered questions left by her mother's death. As she comes to terms with her lost marriage, Sarah encounters a man she never expected to meet again: Will Bonner, the high school heartthrob she'd skewered mercilessly in her old comics. Now a local firefighter, he's been through some changes himself. But just as her heart is about to reawaken, Sarah discovers she is pregnant. With her ex's twins.
It's hardly the most traditional of new beginnings, but who says life and love are predictable or perfect? The winds of change have led Sarah here. Now all she can do is just close her eyes and breathe.
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Rated by buyers 
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I guess I was expecting something different in terms of humor, especially due to all the reviews about it being so funny. I thought the sad parts in the book far outweighed the funny parts. I'm a fan of the SEP type of humor, which is quick, witty, and regularly found in dialogue....these characters weren't that kind of funny. In fact, I found myself sad, frustrated, and unsympathetic to Sarah at times. I felt the ending was somewhat incomplete.....although I was led to believe it was happily ever after, I was looking forward to a final scene with everyone where their fate was absolutely unquestionable.
Rated by buyers 
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Sarah Moon is a cartoonist. She uses her own real life experiences in her comic strip "Just Breathe." Sarah's husband, Jack, works for his family owned construction company. Sarah and Jack have been married for five years, during which time Sarah has stood by and cared for Jack when he had cancer. She went through twelve months of fertility treatments in a desperate endeavor to conceive a child to no avail. Then she found Jack with another woman. Sarah left Chicago and gone home to her family in California to lick her wounds and make a fresh start. As she plans her divorce from Jack she gets two unexpected surprises. She's pregnant with Twins.
Will Boon is the boy Sarah had a crush on in high school. He ignored her then. Will is now the town's Fire Captain and father to his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter Aurora. Will and Sarah begin an unlikely friendship that soon becomes more, but neither of them is in a position to start a relationship. That doesn't stop them from falling for each other though.
Just Breathe is a wonderful story bathed in vivid realism. Sarah's response to Jack's cheating, the birth of her babies, and her feelings for Will, are realistic and packed with emotion. I felt a real connection to Sarah. Either because I had a similar experience to one of hers or I felt I would have reacted the same way she did had I been in her shoes. Jack however handled things very badly. I lost respect for him quickly as he became bitter and selfish. His infidelity infuriated me. Will on the other hand is a knight in shining armor. He is compassionate, gorgeous, and honorable. He's the perfect man! Aurora is lovely. She's a typical teenager struggling to cope with some not so typical issues. Just Breathe is a realistic look at one woman's life as she faces loss and heartache, then love and joy. Just Breathe is my very first Susan Wiggs novel but definitely not my last. She is a wonderful storyteller.
Nannette
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed
Rated by buyers -
Sarah Moon thought she had found her happily ever after. She had a wonderful husband, Jack, who has recovered from cancer, a comic strip that allowed her sarcastic wit and observations from life a voice in the form of Shirl (her alter ego), and is trying to fulfill her dream of being a mother. Her perfect world falls to pieces when she finds her husband is having an affair because he believed Sarah was too obsessed with getting pregnant and sex had become a chore to fulfill that obligation.
She leaves Chicago (it had always been Jack's city, his friends and family, etc) to return to her hometown in Northern California (which Jack never liked). She returns to the town that was never really her home and where she was the oyster farmer's daughter which she had always resented. She was loner in high school and found peace in her artistic abilities and keen observations especially in her underground comic which poked fun at high school and some of the personalities of her classmates. She returns to her father who she always had a difficult relationship with, her perfect brother, and her colorful grandmother and aunt. She also feels the void that her late mother has left behind in her life.
In her road to recovery, she goes through the divorce process and all that entails. During this stressful time, she is blessed with the miracle of life and discovers she had gotten pregnant from the last insemination that also occurred on the same day she found out her husband was cheating. It is not the ideal situation but she has to get her whole life in order for her unborn children. She throws herself into motherhood annd doing it on her own (with the help of her family of course).
She is also blessed with a second chance at a happily ever after. Will Bonner had been the airhead jock she had ridiculed in her high school comic. He was the person everyone expected to go far but he returned from Mexico after graduation with new wife and a stepdaughter. He settled down to raise his now 13 year old stepdaughter after her mother left town and is now the fire captain. She reconnects with Will and they form a friendship over time which could lead to more if circumstances were different. It is not the best timing since Sarah is going through a divorce, pregnant with another man's children, and trying to rediscover who she is. Will has to deal with a 13 year old teenage girl as a single parent (need we say more).
Sarah changes over the span of this book. When she left Chicago, she really didn't know who she had become because her husband's life had dictated the last 5 years of her life. She really didn't recognize the person that she had become. Returning home she rediscovers the bonds of family, the importance of establishing a home, facing the past, following her dreams, and moving on to the future especially for her children. It also allows her to deal with the loss of her mother and re-establish and strengthen her relationship with her father and brother. She also realizes that she was meant to be a mother and it was one of the key pieces that she was missing in her life.
Will and Sarah seem a perfect fit as a couple. The chemistry is there as well as the knowledge that Will loves her and her children even though they are not his. Sarah seems to be the perfect mother figure for the Will's artistic stepdaughter, Aurora. She kind of reminds Sarah of herself at that age and they bond of over their creative abilities. Will they be able to find love again and blend their families together? They have both been through hell and back and deserve their happily ever after as well as a bright future and loving home for their children.
This is my very first Susan Wigg's novel but certainly not my last. She creates unforgettable characters that the reader can relate to that deal with real life issues like infidelity, single parenthood, and divorce. So enjoy this wonderful heartwarming novel.
Rated by buyers -
Though I miss Susan Wigg's historical romances, she has provided readers with absolutely wonderful women's fiction and contemporary romances. This book touched me on so many levels, I was laughing one minute and sobbing the next. She has created a delightfully witty heroine who finally gets what she wants but suffers loses no woman should endure, but in the process she learns who she is and finds a lasting love. I found the story well written with a pace that drives the reader so they forget they have their own reality. Always a sign of a great book to my way of thinking. But she doesn't stop at a great female protagonists, her hero in this tale is a wonderfully complex man who has is own problems but clearly he knows who he is, this a man who readers know from their own lives.
However, what really worked well for me was the growth of the female protagonist as she battles both internal and external conflicts some of her own and others from without. I have loved Susan Wiggs female protagonists especially Sarah; they are witty but flawed and are always moving in ways that readers can identify with. Bottom line no one, not Susan Elizabeth Phillips nor Norah Roberts, can create unique heroines like Susan Wiggs. This book should be read behind a closed door that reads DO NOT DISTURB, while they hunker down in their favorite cozy chair, a favorite beverage at their side and front of a roaring fire to keep them warm. This book will be difficult not to read in one sitting, it can't be easily put down. When I grow up I want to be a Susan Wiggs heroine
Rated by buyers 
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I have been on vacation for about a week and read 9 other books. This was by far the most enjoyable read I have had in awhile. I have read most of Susan Wiggs' other books. I am a relative fan. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not so good. But, this one was excellent. I would have rated this 4.5/5 stars if I could. The story may seem long to others but I laughed and cried right along with the heroine. Pick this up...you won't regret it.
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