This is the opening to Dawn, the first novel in a series entitled Lilith's Brood. I like the immediacy of every sensation.

Alive!
Still alive.
Alive...again.
Awakening was hard, as always. The ultimate disappointment. It was a struggle to take in enough air to drive off nightmare sensations of asphyxiation. Lilith Iyapo lay gasping, shaking with the force of her effort. Her heart beat too fast, too loud. She curled around it, fetal, helpless. Circulation began to reaturn to her arms and legs in flurries of minute, exquisite pains.
When her body calmed and became reconciled to reanimation, she looked aroun. The room seemed dimly lit, though she had never reawakened to dimness before. She corrected her thinking.