Breathing Ghost

 Title: Breathing Ghost
 Author: Laekan Zea Kemp

She is a winding cosmos, bleeding and bursting into night. She is a dream. She is dead.

River has just lost the one thing that matters most to him—Nia—and all she's left behind is a pile of scribbled love notes detailing their past and a pin-holed map planning out their future. Hopes and dreams confined to one dimension now that she's gone and River’s too afraid to leave his hometown, crippled by the same anxiety that’s plagued his mother for as long as he can remember.

But after a strange encounter with the only girl he ever loved a week after laying her to rest, River, armed with nothing but her map and his memories, decides to finally leave and never look back. And with the help of a pair of eccentrically named siblings as well as a mutt with three legs, he sets out to do the very thing Nia always knew how to do better than he ever could—live.

From the moonlit beaches off of Florida's east coast, to the forests of Mississippi, to Bourbon Street, Cadillac Ranch, and the Arizona desert, River is faced with not only Nia's ghost but his own and he learns that in life there are no accidents, only miracles.

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When I got asked to read and review this book, I did not expect to read what I got. The main chunk of this book is about grieving and loss and love. It's also a grief road trip book, a sub-category of contemporary fiction that I'm iffy about.(Think Crash Into Me by Albert Borrisor or  In Honor by Jessi Kirby) Grief road trip books are honestly hit or miss for me mainly cause thay walk a fine line between bittersweet  melancholy or over done nostalgia.Road trips books in general are hit or miss for me as well but I tend to love most of them.

 

 River the main character  has just lost the one thing that matters most to him—Nia—and all she’s left behind is a pile of scribbled love notes detailing their past and a pin-holed map planning out their future.Opposites tend to attract and that's seen with River and Nia,she's random road trips,getting lost to find the good stuff and escape.While Rivers grounded,stoic and a bit less hopeful in escape.After Nias death River  takes off in search of Nias ghost...

What I enjoyed about Breathing Ghost is that it a ghost story but not a ghost story.It's a story of moving on,love, and of life.With the interesting twins who are plagued by their own ghosts and a three legged dog Rivers journey is haunting.The cover is gorgeous I love it and I think it fits the story perfectly.While I wasn't sure about the book at first I grew to enjoy the steady pace of the story,Check it out to form your own opinion.3/5