The Last Breath by Emma Pignatiello was a fun, enjoyable read.

I enjoyed it more than the first book, and I found the characters of Nella and Jett interesting. Their emotional arcs were satisfying, and they were both complicated characters with interesting backstories.

The romance between them I enjoyed.

The murder/suspense aspect worked better in this second book than it did in the first (which still to this day, doesn't fully slot together for me). But I also wasn't that blown away by the ending/twist.

At times I find the writing and characters to be at energy 100 all the time, which can be hard to read. I kept having to put it down and come back to it sometimes because my brain would get overloaded with the angst, and the butting heads, and the high melodrama.

Always happy to support Australian authors. Thanks to Penguin Random House Australia and Netgalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

🩷 Book Review 🩷
📚 Last Breath
✒️ Emma Pignatiello
💫💫💫

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the romance and the chemistry but unfortunately the 'suspense' was not suspenseful for me.

It felt like the villain was not really a villain and that also affected the big finale.

But the authors writing is really good and she weaves an amazing story and I would like to read more of her writing.

3½ stars

Last Breath continues the story of the Barbarani family, through Nella, the eldest daughter of the family, and Jett, driver for the Barbarani's.

In terms of the romance part of this novel, I really enjoyed myself. I thought the two main characters of Nella and Jett were great, and I loved their chemistry and attraction to one another. I really looked forward to their moments together, and I thought the character development for both of them was done really well. Jett's backstory was really interesting and tugged on my heartstrings, and Nella's helped explain more about why she acted how she did with the other characters. She was spiky and tricky to side with at times, but I still liked her.

In terms of the suspense angle, I thought it fell a bit flat. I didn't fully understand the twist at the end, and it seemed a little bit unbelievable. I found the villains backstory to be quite upsetting, and while it helped paint a picture of their motivations on a surface level, the suspense angle of the story seemed to be a little bit of a convenient plot device that didn't feel fully resolved.

I think this author writes really well, and I really enjoy her style of writing. She crafts stories with believable, sizzling romance between characters but in terms of the suspense part of the novel, it leaves a little to be desired, for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I got this to read I didn’t realise there was a first book in the series, so of course I haven’t read the first book, but I enjoyed this book. A romance story which also has a murder. I love that it wasn’t a traditional romance book and it wasn’t a traditional murder mystery book. The characters were interesting, with Nella coming from a very privileged background and a wine making family and Jett coming from a completely different background, but they have known each other for a lot of years. The mystery surrounding the death played out along with the romance which I enjoyed.

This book was unexpected. I anjoy a great mystery and this book was full of action and mystery...as well as a little bit of spice. It was well written and great for people who are loving the mafia style romance books.
Thanks NetGalley for my proof.