2015 RONE AWARDS (Honorable Mention in Women’s Fiction)

The Next Breath: A Robin Bricker Novel

“I kiss him, choosing love over honesty, which is a choice nobody should ever have to make…”

Robin loves sweet, responsible Nick, with his penchant for Beethoven and Ben Folds Five. But she also still loves her college boyfriend Jed, an irreverent playwright plagued with cystic fibrosis. Now Robin is struggling to reveal her secrets and confront her past, as she finally performs in the play that Jed wrote for her, eleven years ago. Will Robin have the strength to keep her promise and stay true to her heart?

Alternating between present-day scenes, college flashbacks, and segments from Jed’s play, this tear-jerking yet uplifting tale illustrates how life is finite but love is infinite, and the road to recovery begins with the next breath.

Laurel Osterkamp has written several award-winning/highly acclaimed novels. The Next Breath is a follow-up to rave-reviewed The Holdout, but they can be read in either order.

“Osterkamp’s latest novel combines romance with issues of life and death.” – San Francisco Book Review (5 Stars)