💙💛One Breath (Isle of Kala 2) by Crea Reitan – review tour💛💙
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 13, 2026
Every note of longing tastes like Cash.
Falling in love with my best friend’s little brother is the biggest mistake I could possibly make. But Cash Ellis has hypnotized me since we were children. Every song I write is a love letter. A plea. Lamenting what can never be.
As my best friend gets angrier and more unrecognizable with each setting sun, I find that I’m taking solace in Cash’s company. I shouldn’t. It’ll prove my undoing. It’s only a matter of time before my one-time best friend finds out.
•••••••••
REVIEW: One Breath pulls me in from the very first line of the description, that quiet confession that every note of longing tastes like Cash.
There is something immediately intimate and painful about the way Onyx frames the story, as if the music itself has become both sanctuary and confession.
Falling for a best friend’s little brother is one of those classic forbidden setups that can feel overdone, yet here it lands with a particular ache because the history between them stretches all the way back to childhood.
Cash has always been the one who hypnotized Onyx, the constant undercurrent in every song written, every lyric shaped into a love letter that can never be delivered. That long, slow burn of unspoken feeling gives the story weight before it even properly begins.
What makes it so tense is the slow erosion of the friendship that once felt unbreakable. As the best friend grows angrier and more unrecognizable with each passing day, Onyx turns toward Cash almost instinctively, seeking the steadiness and understanding that used to come from elsewhere.
I love this author’s work, they have always been skilled at writing characters who are messy and human rather than perfectly heroic, and this setup seems tailor made.
The island setting of the Isle of Kala series adds another layer. I love this island and its inhabitants, is a sense of closed community and watchful eyes that heightens the stakes.
But secrets do not stay hidden long in places like that, and the knowledge that the truth will eventually surface creates a constant low level dread that sits beneath the romance.
The music element was a lovely addition. Songs as love letters, as pleas, as the only safe way to say the unsayable, give Onyx a voice that is both artistic and deeply personal. It turns the internal conflict into something external and lasting, something that will exist even if the relationship itself cannot.
I find myself most drawn to the quiet moments of it all. Onyx knows this will prove an undoing, knows the cost, and still cannot step away. That kind of helpless honesty is what stays with me after reading the description, I couldn’t put it down, I wanted to know more, even though I knew I would probably need a tissue 😢
It promised a story that does not shy away from the messiness of wanting someone you are not supposed to want, of finding comfort in the one place that will eventually cost you everything else. And it delivered that and more.
One Breath was a book that left me sitting with the characters long after the last page, still hearing the songs that were written for someone who was never supposed to know they existed. I loved it. And can’t wait to return to Isle of Kala.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Julie B 🦋
Crea lives in upstate New York with her dog and husband. She has been writing since grade school, when her second grade teacher had her class keep writing journals. She has a habit of creating secondary, and often time tertiary, characters that take over her stories. All of her RH relationships end up being heavily polyamorous – meaning it’s not just all the men for one woman. There’s also some M/M action going on. When she can’t fall asleep at night, she thinks up new scenes for her characters to act out. This, of course, is how most of her meant-to-be-thrown-away characters tend to end up front and center – and utterly swoon-worthy! Don’t ask her how many book boyfriends she has…
When not writing, Crea is an avid reader. Her TBR pile is several hundred books high (don’t even look at her kindle wish list or the unread books on her tablet). Sometimes, she enjoys crafting; sometimes, exploring nature; sometimes, traveling. Mostly, she enjoys putting her characters on paper and breathing life into them. Oh, and sleeping. Crea loves to sleep!
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