10 out of 10. Dom is my favourite role in book 2 because he was sooooo subtle. At one point that I thought I might have to accept the Kid would lose Dom but they ended fine, a relief.I particular liked the fact that Tyson in the end chose a different career path from what everyone would expect for a prodigy and genius, which is so real and encouraging!It seems that book 4 might come in the future. Just wondering if anyone agrees with me that I feel it would be a story about the two boys who were playing kite at the end of the book, one of them called Mal? I have a gut feeling that the next book will be all about them being epic. Any one agrees? 2.5This will be very long because I'm very frustrated.Anyway, this was seriously overwrought, but from what I can tell, this is the sequence of events:-Ty realizes just a bit before turning 16 that he's in love with his best friend, Dom.-At the party, Ty decides to find Dom and basically tell him he loves him.-Ty finds Dom making out with Stacey. Ty has a panic attack and decides then that he won't stay in Seafare after all.-Dom sees Ty's look of betrayal and heartbreak and realizes what Ty feels for him.-Dom also realizes his own feelings for Ty at Ty's graduation speech.-But Dom's been seeing Stacey and continues to see Stacey.-Turns out that Stacey realized before Ty left (she confesses it near the end of the book) that Dom was in love with Ty, like seriously, deeply, Ty's-his-whole-world in love. She keeps dating Dom anyway...-Ty leaves for college. Dom continues to see Stacey, despite everything.-Ty and Dom are still in contact, still talk on the phone, until...-Ty gets a invitation in the mail for Stacey & Dom's wedding. That he totally had no warning about.-Dom calls him to try to stop him from opening the envelope but it's too late!-Ty has a terrible panic attack.-Dom gets on a plane to NH to talk to Ty and explain (though I don't know what he thought he'd be explaining since he had every plan to go through with the wedding) but Bear doesn't let him see Ty.-Turns out (another Stacey confession!) that the invitation to Ty was sent early by Stacey.-There's no contact between them for 4 years. Bear and Otter make no mention of Dom or anything happening in his life.-Ty gets addicted to prescription meds for his panic attacks and other problems.-His grades suffer. He's near to being expelled.-He returns to Seafare to try to get himself back in order again.But!Back in Seafare:-It turns out that Dom's got a son with Stacey. No one told Ty in order to "protect" him and because Dom was also careful to keep it all from Ty.-Everyone blames Ty because he "ran away" from the problem.-Nobody says that what Dom did was shitty. NO ONE.-People keep telling Ty he's got to act like an adult, "man up", etc. because he's the one in the wrong here. He gets this constantly shoved in his face.-Dom straight out tells Ty he'd do it all again because he's got Ben now. Not that he loves Ben but would have handled it differently. No, he'd do it all that way again.-Dom also makes sure to mention that Ben's numero uno in his life now, not anyone else, and will always be number one.-There is absolutely no apology from Dom. In fact, Dom acts like he's the one that was wronged, that he's the only one that was hurt and broken.-Stacey even gives Ty a big talk (this is where she confesses she knew way before that Dom had a thing for Ty and that she sent the invitation to Ty early) about how Ty broke Dom when he cut him off. Like Dom didn't break Ty with what he did. No, it was only Ty that did anything wrong and Dom was just being a good guy, forget the fact that he was breaking Ty's heart and he knew it.Okay. That's what seems to me to be what happened, in which case:1) Stacey is kind of shitty. I mean, you know the guy you're sexing up is in love with someone else and doesn't love you the same way, but you're going to keep on with the relationship anyway, and then you go ahead and marry him. Then you lecture the kid you and your ex (Dom) basically broke about what a shitty thing the kid did to your ex (yeah, it was so shitty for Ty to be hurt and to try to protect what was left of himself the only way he knew how).2) Dom's kind of shitty, too. I mean, he knew how Ty felt. He felt the same way. He knew how much he could hurt Ty. What'd he do? Keep dating Stacey, then marry her when he knew perfectly well what it would do to Ty and that he didn't love Stacey the way he loved Ty.3) Everyone else is shitty. Ty gets his heart shattered into a million pieces and his ground crumbling beneath his feet while he's still pretty much a child and they're all down on him for not being a level-headed mature adult about this? I don't know why everyone's all worked up about the damage done to poor Dom, but no one (except maybe Bear and Otter) gives a shit about how much Ty was damaged by it all, too. I loved Ty's extended family in the first two books, but now I pretty much dislike them (with the exception of Otter and maybe Bear) and can't really stand to read about them.4) There's a whole thing about how terribly cruel it was of Ty to cut Dom out for 4 years (because it wasn't cruel, what Dom did to Ty) without even listening to Dom's explanation. I don't know why every character acts like Dom's explanation would have fixed anything. What was he going to say? It's not like he wasn't going to marry Stacey, because he was. It's not like he wasn't having a baby with Stacey, because he was. It's not like he did it all without knowing how Ty felt, because he did. What explanation could he have given? "I love you, you're my whole world, but I'm going to marry Stacey because I'm in a relationship with her and she's pregnant"? How would that have fixed any damn thing? I think it would have just made it worse for Ty, knowing that Dom was deliberately hurting him.5) I'm not too sure I like how everyone's telling Ty that he shouldn't be having such a hard time getting over his panic attacks and abandonment issues because he's smart. 'Cause they make it sound like, really, if you're smart enough, you can just snap yourself out of it, it's not that hard at all. Mental illness and psychological problems can be fixed. It's just mind over matter. Depression? Bah, just be happy! Panic attacks? Pish-tosh, you can just tell yourself to calm down if you're smart enough!Also, what is with all these characters in books constantly thinking that they have to get married if they have sex and one of them gets pregnant? Because it's so obviously better for children to be raised by married couples, no matter how unhappy they are together, than adults who are happier not married to each other? Do so many people still really think this? Is this why all the fictional characters think this, too? Guess that means no fictional character approves of divorce or separation or single parents.
What do You think about The Art Of Breathing (2014)?
4.5 Wonderfully deserved stars.Can't wait for the fourth book...
—fatima
The first two in this series were much better.
—Nickdore
This book was reviewed by Love Bytes Reviews!
—Mattie
