Still Air

Pulls on ALL of your emotions…..

I remember the first book of Freya Barker's that I read - I went in to it wondering if I'd like it, hoping that I would and worrying that, the gods forbid I didn't, how could I tell her, someone that I knew and really liked, that I just couldn't take to it.... well, the worst never happened, the story was excellent and that concern turned out to be so far from an issue that I'd actually completely forgotten my worry until I was recently looking over some of my reviews of Ms Barker's previous books..

Ok, I'll stop digressing and actually move on to what I want to say....

Still Air was an absobloodylutely fantastic read - let's face it, that's pretty much a given when it comes to this series!! The one thing you can always be sure of with Freya's writing is that it will pull on ALL of your emotions; it's expressive, meaningful, sarcastic, so very true to life, real, hard-hitting and heartbreaking at times and, as is the case with this series especially, the story is at points raw, painful and occasionally fugly BUT is is also sweet, hopeful, uplifting, humorous and heart-warming, her characters shows the true beauty and importance of friends and family (of choice and not just of blood - hell, at times often in spite of blood!!) and that now and again we have to wade our way through the seemingly never-ending crap continually thrown our way to get to the HEA that, in our darker moments, seems just that little bit - or possibly too far - out of reach!!

I FLOVED Still Air (just in case you didn't get that vibe already!!) What a way to end the series!

We saw a very different side to Pam than we had previously - where before she was the strong, resilient, confident woman this time, in her own story, we found that Pam had so many layers, had dealt and was still dealing with so much heartache and she suffered from as many, if not more, feelings and insecurities than the people that she took care of and supported. Afraid to open herself to anyone because she didn't feel deserving of love, care and a happy future, she kept everyone at arms length, especially Dino - until things happen and she can no longer avoid him!
Throughout the other books in the series, Dino has been the voice of reason, the strong one who could see and read more about people than they were comfortable with but lately he hasn't had the easiest of times himself, between his wife and all of her issues, his responsibilities to his kids and his feelings of having let his kids down and everything that happens in this book, it doesn't seem like he has time or should be looking for anything for himself.... until he gets close to Pam and they find out that they hit it off more than either of them expected.

If you haven't checked out the Portland, ME series, or for that matter, any of Freya's other books you are sorely missing out!!!!

I rate this fabulous read 5* - but if I could, I'd mark it way, way higher as five stars don't truly tell how good this book is!!!