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Review: Breathe, Annie, Breathe

Breathe, Annie, Breathe Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 stars.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. I read it at the perfect time. It's about Annie, who's training to run a marathon. Wow what a coincidence, I so happen to also be a runner, and track season just started last week. She has a boy in her life that clearly wants to get with her--and she may or may not accidentally lead him on some all of the time--but doesn't want to actually start a relationship with him. Wow, holy shit, literally me right now. I was also just generally in the mood for a steamy YA romance.

SAFE TO SAY, I found this book pretty #relatable. I feel like whenever this is the case, one really just can't help but connect to the story and characters more than someone else who can't relate. This is precisely what makes this book hard to review. I loved this book so much just because I had the perfect conditions in order for that to happen. This very well may not happen for everybody else who reads this. Obviously. So let's maybe keep this in mind while reading this review.

This is the first book I've read in this series, or even by this author. Clearly since I got this for free, and it's the fourth book, I didn't want to have to buy three other books before reading this. So I just read it. Cuz I'm wild(e) like that. You could even call me... Oscar. I'll get out. Just kidding you're stuck with me until the end of the review!!!! What were we talking about again? Oh yeah. Well it wasn't actually that wild because each book is actually a standalone. They're just all in the same town so there's some character cameos from past books.

This book had a first for me. Since I haven't read anything else by Ms. Kenneally I don't know if this is how her books usually are, but this is the first book I've ever read that had so much sex in it. Literal sex, implied sex, almost sex, dry sex, talk of sex, thoughts of sex. Holy moly. I've got to say I was surprised this book is only 14+. I didn't find this amazing or terrible, just interesting. Also: it was all super casual. There was zero taboo about it by any of the characters, even moms. It was just, "Hey we banged!" "Yo sweet! You go girl!" Yeah. Kinda weird not gonna lie, but just because I'd never read anything like that before.

SPEAKING OF SEX... How was the romance!? You know what, not bad. Wow would you look at this, this romance was actually another first. In the beginning it seemed like it would be just like every other YA book. The love interest is introduced and you know, you just INSTANTLY KNOW, that they're going to be coupled with the main character by the end of the book. It's just so obvious, and it's usually one of the, if not THE first male character introduced and it just always starts romances on a negative foot, for me at least.

That happened with this book as well. But something happens pretty quickly that derails it and slows it down and it was GREAT. It became just them as friends with maximum sexual tension. Though I was never actually rooting for them to get together or anything, it was nice to read. And yeah, obviously I found it super relatable. I was always interested to see how Annie would handle the situation we've both found ourselves in.

Speaking of the writing in general, I don't think there was anything really special about it. The first "F" bomb gets dropped in the first chapter so you know early on what you're getting into. It's written in present-tense though which is my favourite. The whole thing isn't like super classy literature or anything, which is why I hesitate to rate it so high. It gets its high rating from my enjoyment alone.

I liked Annie and Matt's relationship a lot. Matt is Annie's trainer and I loved their dynamic. Literally ZERO sexual tension, even when he was stretching her. He was just a great trainer, and I loved their friendship. I quite enjoyed reading about Annie's training. It kinda put a bit of fire behind me to go hard in my own workouts, and to remember my own goals and why I run. This aspect also happens to be the one that makes me weary to read the other books in this series.

I love sports. When I say I love sports, I mean I LOVE SPORTS. I love watching sports, I love playing sports, and I love and respect the hell out of people who play sports. This all applies to pretty much every sport. Pretty much. As in there are exceptions. Kenneally somehow managed to write books about every single one of those exceptions. American football, baseball, and horseback riding. American football being the worst. I still respect people who play these, I just generally don't give a flying fuck about these sports. I'm really not interested in reading a book about them, at all. This is what puts me off about reading the rest of the series. Give me soccer, give me tennis, or volleyball, or how about hockey? (Those are my favourites to watch.) I'd even take basketball, or how about literally any winter sport? Sigh. Running was good though. At least she got that right.

(view spoiler)

*Edit*: I wrote up a list of My Top Sports Anime over on my review for The Running Dream, so go check that out if you're looking for some good sports-related shows to watch!

[Disclaimer: I won a free Advance Reader's Copy of this book through the Goodreads giveaway program, and all views expressed in this review are solely my own.]


Click to read my other Hundred Oaks Reviews:
Breathe, Annie, Breathe*
Defending Taylor
Coming Up for Air

*Current review


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