The Next Breath

July 22, 2025July 22, 2025 by onemoreexclamation

Welcome to The Next Breath by Laurel Osterkamp book tour hosted by Author Marketing Experts.

About The Next Breath

Title: The Next Breath

Author: Laurel Osterkamp

Released: May 24, 2024

Find it: Amazon – Goodreads

Some stories stay with you forever—especially when they’re not finished.

Robin is trying to live in the present, with a new love in her life and a future finally taking shape. But her past keeps calling her back. Ten years ago, her first love Jed died unexpectedly, leaving her shattered and grieving. He also left behind a final act of devotion: a play he wrote for her before he passed.

When Robin agrees to perform in that play, the emotions she thought she’d buried return. Complicating matters, she’s falling for Nick—a sweet, grounded guy who doesn’t know he’s competing with a ghost. As Jed reappears in her dreams and the lines between memory and reality blur, Robin has to choose: Is it possible to move forward while still honoring the past?

The Next Breath is a poignant, romantic, and soul-searching story about grief, healing, and second chances. With a touch of theatrical flair, it’s perfect for fans of Carley Fortune, Jo Jo Moyes, and emotional women’s fiction with a beating heart at its center.

About the Author

Laurel Osterkamp is the award-winning author of The Side Project, Favorite Daughters, and the Amazon #1 bestseller Beautiful Little Furies. She writes emotionally intelligent fiction that explores the tender collision between ambition, loss, and love. Her characters are complex, her stories are layered, and her themes—resilience, reinvention, and hope—resonate long after the final page. Laurel lives in Minneapolis with her family, teaches writing and ESL, and considers ‘90s pop culture a second language.

Find her: Website – Instagram

Author’s Q&A

Your book is set in Des Moines, Iowa. Have you ever been there?

I have been there many times because my best friend lives in Kansas City and I live in Minneapolis. At least once a year, we drive a few hours either north or south, and meet in Des Moines. I love that city because there are many fun memories connected to it.

What is your next project?

Currently, I’m working on a novel titled My Winter Song to You. It’s a fake dating, friends-to-lovers, holiday romance inspired Shakespeare’s “problem” play, The Winter’s Tale. And it takes place in Sugar Pine, Colorado, where I also set my novella, I Bet You Think About Me. (You can download that novella FREE when visiting laurellit.com)

What is the last great book you’ve read?

I just finished Emma Grey’s Pictures of You. I was riveted! She does a great job with the dual-POV, flashback/flash forward structure. Such a great job, that she makes it seem easy, but it’s anything but. And, the story captures the feelings of love young while also dealing with some very serious topics with care.

What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing The Next Breath?

While writing The Next Breath, I wanted to make sure I wrote about cystic fibrosis in a realistic way, so I did a lot of research. Same is true for feelings of loss and grief. But, both my biggest reward and challenge was writing Jed’s play within a novel. I started writing plays before I ever began writing novels, so it wasn’t completely out of my comfort zone. However, I was kinda dumb, to set it up in the novel that Jed’s play is REALLY GOOD. I put a lot of pressure on myself. And, it’s while performing Jed’s play that Robin finally confronts her grief. This was definitely the most difficult scene I’ve ever had to write, ever, in any book of mine. But also the most rewarding.

Review for The Next Breath

Whew—grab a blanket, a cozy spot, and definitely a jumbo box of tissues for this one. This book is an emotional ride through love, loss, and the messy journey of finding yourself when life decides to play hardball. Robin’s story is raw, real, and totally absorbing. I was rooting for her the whole way, even when things got complicated (and oh, they do get complicated).

The love triangle here is unlike anything I’ve read before—one of the three is no longer living, but still very much present, haunting Robin’s heart and casting a long shadow over her relationship with Nick. It’s beautiful, it’s tragic, and it’s completely captivating.

Claire Duncan’s narration in the audiobook adds even more depth—like someone gently holding your heart while also twisting it a little (in a good way, I swear). The writing is gorgeous, the emotions are intense, and by the end, I wasn’t even sure how to feel—except that I wanted to start it all over again.