We are stoked to bring you all the Release Day Launch for K.A. Tucker's IN HER WAKE! IN HER WAKE is a new adult contemporary romance and a prequel novella in the Ten Tiny Breaths Series, published by Atria Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster).

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That’s how I spot her.

There’s no doubt that it’s her; I’ve memorized her face.

Leaning against a wall on the opposite side, her lips wrapped around a clear bottle filled with clear liquor, her fiery red hair a wild mane against the stark white wall, a tight black T-shirt showing off toned arms. She’s in no rush to part with that bottle, guzzling back a good portion before she hands it off to someone, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Her eyes at half-mast.

She’s wasted.

My heart starts racing. What the hell is Kacey Cleary doing here? By my calculation, she’s probably finishing her last year of high school, having lost at least half a year while recovering.

I tug my cap down even farther, though I doubt she can see two feet in front of her.

Shit. What if she does recognize me? How would she react? Does she know my real name? What I look like? I can’t say for sure that my face wasn’t printed in a newspaper somewhere. She could have Googled my name and found a dozen game shots with me in them. I have my helmet on in most of them, but you can find a profile picture of me easily enough if you’re looking.

I don’t know that she was, though. I wonder if Kacey Cleary gives a fuck about anything anymore. Her Facebook account is inactive. She hasn’t posted a single word and the well-wishes have dwindled, as everyone moves on.

I do know that she shouldn’t be at a party in this state. I’ve heard of bad things happening when girls get that drunk. Especially when they don’t care.

But what do I do?

A blonde stumbles into my chest with two beers in hand. “Hey, do you go here? What’s your name?” She’s tipping her head back way farther than necessary to look up at me, telling me she’s trying to flirt but is too drunk to do it right.

I smile down at her anyway. She’s a good cover. I can stand right here and watch Kacey. “I’m Trent, and I used to go here.”

“Really? When’d you graduate?”

From the corner of my eye, I see Kacey shift from the wall and begin climbing the stairs, her arm hooked around the railing to help her. Two guys following her.

Cole Reynolds had it all. And then one night he makes a bad choice... and loses everything.

When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy. Normally, he'd be able to lean on his best friends. The best friends that have been in his life since he could barely walk. Only, they're gone. Worse, there's the shattered body of a sixteen-year-old girl lying somewhere in a hospital bed, her entire life ripped from her because of a case of beer and a set of keys.

Everyone assures him that they know it wasn't intentional and yet he can't ignore the weight of their gazes, the whispers behind his back. The all-consuming guilt he feels every time he thinks of that girl who won't so much as allow him near her hospital room to apologize. As the months go by and the shame and loneliness festers, Cole begins to lose his grip of what once was important-college, his girlfriend, his future. His life. It's not until Cole hits rock-bottom that he can begin to see another way out of his personal hell: forgiveness.

And there's only one person who can give that to him...

I think this book is best read at the end of the Ten Tiny Breaths series so you can go back to where it all started again, with Trent/Cole and Kacey’s story. But, I think this definitely can be read right after Ten Tiny Breaths. It definitely can’t be read without reading Ten Tiny Breaths. And there are no spoilers for the rest of the books in the series! So, this review won’t have any either!

“I destroyed her life and then got caught in her wake.

And I realize now that it’s exactly where I’m meant to be.”

Truth time—when it comes to K.A. Tucker books, I no longer even bother reading the synopsis anymore. I just grab the book and dive in. I love her books that much. She’s ridiculously talented, and her books just kill me everytime. So, of course, I didn’t know anything about this novella besides that it was Trent’s POV and it would show what his life was like before he met Kacey. So, I was crazy shocked by what K.A. Tucker ended up giving us.

“The emptiness that I’ve been living with—so utterly consuming—is what’s left of a person when he dies and yet still breaths, facing each day with nothing at the end of it. When he exists, but cannot feel beyond his own misery.”

Obviously, this is just a novella. So, anything I say about it, might be a spoiler. I mean, you already know what Trent’s backstory is. However, you don’t know it like this! This is details of what happened that fateful night, and the aftermath on Trent! We don’t get much of that in Ten Tiny Breaths, but we find out all these new things about Trent that we never knew before. And, of course, it only made me love him more.

“I stare out the window at the overcast sky, trying to dull the pounding ache between my eyes with thoughts of a red-haired girl. Wondering how she is.

Wondering if she feels like I do right now, like she’ll never be set free of that night. She must feel it. She’s the only one who possibly could.”

This was not a short and sweet novella. It’s short, yes. Sweet? Definitely not. I found myself wanting to cry. I found myself feeling Trent’s pain. It was heartbreaking! I never really stopped to think what it was like for Trent before he met Kacey…this is the shocking reality. For some reason, I thought we would get to see his “first” meeting with Kacey in Florida, from his POV, except where K.A. Tucker stops the story is surprising. Reading this novella only made me want to go back to Ten Tiny Breaths. And, to be honest, even though In Her Wake answers some questions I didn’t even know I had, it also made me have even more. I want more Trent POVs!

“I want her to meet me. Trent Emerson. The guy who wants to feel the warmth I know exists within her. The guy who’s tied to her forever, whether she likes it or not. The one who needs to somehow make things right with her because I made everything so wrong.”

And don’t miss the previous titles in the Ten Tiny Breaths Series!

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.