BLOG TOUR: Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel @KT_Gabriel @TLCBookTours #everystolenbreath

Kimberly Gabriel’s heart-racing YA thriller Every Stolen Breath was such a delight to read and truly hard to put down! Filled with tension and inspired by the real life flash mob violence that occurred in Chicago nearly a decade ago, this is a must-read thriller this year.

About the Book

The Swarm is unrecognizable, untraceable, and unpredictable—random attacks on the streets of Chicago by a mob of crazed teens that leaves death in its wake. It’s been two years since the last attack, but Lia Finch has found clues that reveal the Swarm is ready to claim a new victim. Lia is the only one still pursuing her father’s killers, two years after attorney Steven Finch’s murder by the Swarm. Devastated and desperate for answers, Lia will do anything to uncover the reasons behind his death and to stop someone else from being struck down. But due to debilitating asthma and PTSD that leaves her with a tenuous hold on reality, Lia is the last person to mount a crusade on her own.

After a close encounter with the Swarm puts Lia on their radar, she teams up with a teen hacker, a reporter, and a mysterious stranger who knows firsthand how the mob works. Together, they work to uncover the master puppeteer behind the group. Though if Lia and her network don’t stop the person pulling the strings—and fast—Lia may end up the next target.

Reflection

Lia is such an interesting and unique character. She suffers from debilitating asthma and she also is still working through PTSD since the murder of her father two years ago. I really grew to love Lia from the very beginning of this book. She’s an unlikely heroine—emotionally fragile and physically she’s a bit of an underdog. But her heart is what motivates her, and it is an unstoppable force.

I grew up in Chicago and live there now, and I remember the chaos of the Magnificent Mile flash mob attacks. Groups of people, often coordinated via social media or other difficult to track ways, would assemble and when they got the notification to activate, they would stage horrific attacks on businesses and people in the area. It was a really scary time and one that was disturbing for so many residents. It made you question being out in the city, which Is so awful.

I remember one story about a mob attacking a man to steal his phone (or it might have been an ipod) and beat him senselessly. It was impossible to understand why this would happen, and how the Chicago Police Department could prepare for these types of attacks. Sadly, these attacks to a less frequent degree have resurfaced in Chicago as recent as this year.

In the book, Lia’s father was a prosecutor investigating a string of similar attacks when he becomes the victim of one himself. Lia knows that these attacks are not as random as they appear, and for two years she follows any thread she can find. And finally, it pays off. She deciphers a tweet that indicates where the next attack will be and she shows up after forwarding it to the police.

The events of the book are so suspenseful, I was truly on the edge of my seat at times. Along the way, Lia partners with a group of others who are interested in uncovering what is happening behind the attacks. I was particularly intrigued by the characters of Adam and Ryan (in very different ways), who offer hacking and reporting expertise to her investigation. These skills are needed for Lia to make progress, but her drive, tenacity, and intelligence are key as well. There’s a lot to learn about both Adam and Ryan, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave my thoughts at “intriguing”!

The attacks themselves are appalling and involve quite a bit of violence, though I thought the author did a fantastic job of leaving out any graphic content. The darkness of the individuals behind the attacks was prominent and shocking. I felt the terror these attacks would spark, and I appreciated the way Lia refused to back-down from finding answers.

Fast-paced and filled with tautly-wound tension, this is a fantastic thriller that will appeal to fans of both YA and adult fiction.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Kimberly Gabriel started writing in fourth grade when she wrote, bound, and gave away books of terrible poetry to family and teachers as holiday gifts. Today she is an English teacher, who still squanders all free minutes to write and uses it as the best scapegoat for her laundry avoidance issues. When she is not teaching or writing, Kimberly is enjoying life with her husband, her three beautiful children, and a seriously beautiful boxer in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Every Stolen Breath is her debut novel and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.

Connect with Kimberly

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