Soulmates and Young Love and Asthma, Oh My!

Welcome to the next stop on our DebsTour!!! Please welcome Cheryl Herbsman and her novel Breathing! Now, I haven't managed to get a hold of this one yet (it just hit bookstores this week!), but I want to read it so badly! Here's a little bit about Breathing:

What if the guy who took your breath away was the only one who could help you breathe?

Savannah would be happy to spend the summer in her coastal Carolina town lying in a hammock reading her beloved romance novels and working at the library. But then she meets Jackson. Once they lock eyes, she’s convinced he’s the one—her true love, her soul mate, a boy different from all the rest. And at first it looks like Savannah is right. Jackson abides by her mama’s strict rules, and stays by her side during a hospitalization for severe asthma, which Savannah becomes convinced is only improving because Jackson is there. But when he’s called away to help his family—and seems uncertain about returning—Savannah has to learn to breathe on her own, both literally and figuratively.

I LOVE this concept. I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on this book! But one of the reasons why is Cheryl's own story. Cheryl Renée Herbsman lives in Northern California with her husband and two children, but she grew up in North Carolina and often spent summer vacations at the Carolina coast. Like Savannah (her main character), she fell in love as a teenager, and like Savannah and Jackson, she and her boyfriend carried on a long-distance relationship. They are now celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary.

As someone who fell in love as a teenager (just barely;)) and married young, I love the idea of young love lasting forever. (And seven and a half years is almost forever, right?;)) (Also, it's very strange to think of my husband and I as being teenagers when we met. We were eighteen and nineteen . . . but that's still a teenager. I guess I felt a lot more grown up.:D)

Also, this woman does not look like she should be celebrating a twentieth anniversary of anything that happened after her tenth birthday!! I'm twenty seven and I don't think I look as young as she does! No fair!!

But jealousy aside, this sounds like such a winner of a book and I can't wait to read it. But first, I have to put Cheryl through the Feasty Five!

AP:What kind of soda does (would) your MC drink?

CRH: Coke

AP: Fair enough. What is your MC's favorite kind of flower? How about yours?

CRH: Daisies for Savannah. Sunflowers for me

AP: That's really interesting to me as I've always thought of daisies and sunflowers as inverses of each other. Perhaps you and Savannah are just as different as you are alike.;) Does your MC believe in magic? Do you?

CRH: Yes. Yes.

AP: Can we add a yes, yes, yes, yes, yes?? Seriously though, I'm not surprised. No one who has experienced love at first sight can deny that there is magic in the world. I know I can't! And the most serious question of all, Superman or Batman?

CRH: Superman -- he can fly.

AP: Wow . . . I hope you don't judge all book characters by those parameters. *looks at blog readers* I mean . . . oh dear, I think I've said too much.:) Okay Cheryl, give us one line from your book. You don't even have to give it context.

CRH: "I know it's only dreaming. But I reckon if you go on and act like something is real, sometimes it just believes you."

AP: Awwww, I love that! Seriously, this is a book to watch for. I know I'm picking it up on my next bookstore trip . . . along with about ten others. *whistles* (I know, I know! I have a problem!)

Okay, if you want to visit Chery's WAY fun website, you can find it here! Thanks so much for joining us today, Cheryl!!

Ciao!