#BookReview: K.A. Tucker's IN HER WAKE - 4 Wine Glasses

Title: In Her Wake 
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths 0.5
Author: K.A. Tucker 
Format: ebook, 256 pages
Expected publication: September 1st 2014 by Atria Books
ISBN: 1476784299
Links: Goodreads | B&N | Amazon | ARe
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Crystal
Rating: 4/5

Before you knew him as Trent in Ten Tiny Breaths, he was Cole Reynolds—and he had it all. Until one night when he makes a fatal, wrong decision…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 ones who 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. Nor can he shake 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 on 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…

Thoughts:
In Her Wake is an incredibly soulful story, leading us on a touching and tragic journey through the events that started it all. Don't mistake it for a retelling of Trent and Casey's book, Ten Tiny Breaths, because it is a story all it's own. It was wonderfully written, well paced, and I empathized with the characters throughout. 

Cole Reynolds had it all. A great family. A promising future. Awesome friends and a loving girlfriend. Until one drunken decision at a college party destroyed it all. Now his friends are gone, his family is shattered, and he can't even imagine a future because his present is filled with such turmoil. Lost in guilt he almost looses the one thing he has left, his own life. But in doing so he also gains some clarity. He needs to reach out the to one person who could understand what he is living with and the one person he needs forgiveness from the most. The only other survivor of the tragic accident that was his fault...

I don't recommend you reading In Her Wake until after you've read Ten Tiny Breaths, you'll get so much more out of the story. Ten Tiny Breaths was Casey's story, heartbreaking in it's own right but it couldn't encompass the struggle that Trent/Cole faced on his own and the events that brought him next-door to Casey and Livie.  I'm really happy that K.A. Tucker decided to write this because it helped me understand Trent's motives better and cement in my mind just how perfect he is for Casey. Trent had understandable fallen into a downward spiral that led to nowhere but darkness but was able to climb out of it and into the light for Casey, to make her world better. He took an incident that could have been, and almost was, soul-shattering and life-destroying, and was able to turn it into something beautiful. In Her Wake contained a lot of powerful messages, and even being a few years (give or take lol) past my college years, it didn't affect me any less. A wonderful addition to the Ten Tiny Breaths series and Trent and Casey's story!