**3.5 stars**

I love mysteries set in settings I’ve never been to and Breathless definitely fit that bill. I am never ever going mountain climbing especially at 8000 feet. While I feel like the pacing during the first half was a bit slow overall I enjoyed this one. I kind of guessed part of the ending but not all. Cecily was a little annoying but this was a good adventure-mystery. Loved the ending.

Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I love this book and the main character is quite believable. If you haven’t read this book you really should give it a try. Thanks for writing such a great story!

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

The first half was very slow paced and mainly focused on the climb and all the steps involved to reach the summit. I did learn a lot about mountain climbing though and how cutthroat it can be. How hard it is to tell reality from hallucinations due to lack of oxygen. The second half picked up just enough to get me more invested, but not enough to win me over.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this eARC.

Wow, I love a natural closed environment thriller, and this one was immersive and entertaining with great character development. I was clenching my teeth and feeling the chill throughout. I didn’t know anything about mountaineering, but felt like I learned a lot through this book. I was googling terms and sites on the side, trying to imagine where this novel was taking place. Definitely a type of thriller I’d love to read again.

A heart pounding thriller! Breathless is a story of redemption, overcoming fear and chasing down a killer. Cecily has a strong set of demons to banish as she takes on the story of a lifetime. She can interview a world renowned climber, only if she reaches the summit and as she'll learn as the expedition goes on, only if she can survive what lurks in the wild. A great, fast paced read.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. A truly thrilling thriller (no pun intended). Thoroughly enjoyed this novel. A woman chasing her career, leaving everything behind, only for the path ahead to lie with fear and the unknown. Truly an enjoyable read.

If you are looking for a twisty, slow paced thriller, this book is for you. I read this during a snow storm. This book is not to be missed. I was on the edge of my seat and could not stop reading it. I recommend this one.
Many thanks to the author, Knopf and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

I chose to read Breathless on a quiet snowy day. In the comfort of my nice warm home, I felt I could live vicariously through the main character Cecily who is a sports journalist and has been promised an interview if she makes the climb. Mountain climber, Charles McVeigh, is on the hunt for a record number high altitude climbs over 8,000 feet without oxygen. Charles is also known for saving many climbers.

My experience with high altitudes producing altitude sickness happened while on Lake Titicaca in the Andes of Peru. It was not fun! I faced my fears to read this book. In the middle of the descriptions of this climb, author Amy McCulloch has also created a tense thriller. I did thoroughly enjoy this book on multiple levels. It was a perfect read for me while in the comfort of my home while snow was flying around outside my window.

I thought this would be a fast paced thriller but it was unfourtnatley too slow for me. But if you're looking for a slow paced thriller this is the book for you!

For me. Breathless reads more like an adventure story than a mystery/thriller. Readers who enjoy a good man vs. nature survival story will likely enjoy this book. Readers who are expecting a strong mystery or thriller element may be disappointed. The mountaineering descriptions are very detailed and are much more realistic/believable than the murder mystery aspects. I found the villain’s motives and identity too predictable.

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you for the copy of this! I did enjoy aspects of it, but do think I set myself an incorrect expectation on expecting something a little more fast paced like Shiver. Completely my fault as I was judging a book by its cover and storyline in comparison to a recent read. While it was very slow building, it did feel like you were on the mountain as well which speaks to the talent of the author! The descriptions were so well researched but for my personal preferences could have been cut back a bit to get more storyline in.

The main character, Cecily, was relatable and genuine. I thought the paranoia hit a bit early, but it built steadily and was worth continuing the reads.

This book wasn’t bad yet it wasn’t good. I’m kind of torn because it had a lot of build up only to be let down. Being stranded on a icy mountain with rescue being all but impossible and being stranded at a elevation that’s going to make it hard for you to breathe. I’ll pass.

I have never really understood why anyone would want to submit themselves to the physical punishment of climbing icy mountain peaks under the imminent threat of falling into the abyss, slipping into an icy crevasse, being buried under an avalanche, or losing some or all their appendages to frostbite. Never-the-less, there appear to be many who are exhilarated by the challenge, and to those rugged extreme-sport enthusiasts who also have a penchant for murder mysteries, I recommend this book. And for those who don’t (rise to the challenge), I recommend the book for the black humor that the descriptive tedium it invokes throughout.

Cecily is a young and moderately successful sport magazine journalist (meaning that some months she can afford to pay the rent). She met her ex, a mounting climbing colleague, while working on the rag and he introduced her to the thrilling sport of tackling a dangerous climb with no experience, no proper equipment, and no common sense (love will do that to some). It didn’t take long to figure out that she was in way over her head. She suffered a terrifying accident, the death of a fellow climber, and wrote a widely read article about her failure to reach the summit.

Now, some time later, an inexplicable opportunity has been thrown her way – she is to be granted an exclusive interview with Charles McVeigh, the world’s most (in)famous climber, on the final leg of his current death defying challenge to climb the fourteen tallest summits in the world in 80 days (oh, wait a minute, am I confusing this with a similar challenge in a book by Jules Verne?- scratch the 80 days!). The challenge is to complete the mission, aided by neither oxygen nor safety ropes (I think there was a better technical term for that, but you get the message, right?). In what appears to be an act of jealousy, her boyfriend James makes his ex-it and she is left holding the bag (unlikely to cover the rent).

So now Cecily is in Nepal preparing to climb Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world (I might have goofed on that one, since it went in one ear/eye and out the other), so that she can get the scoop of a lifetime. Charles promises to expose all in an exclusive interview – but only if she succeeds in reaching the Summit.

While acclimating to the altitudes, Cecily fills in her spare time shooting the breeze with a team of blowhards bragging about their conquests with only a cursory glance backwards at the fellow climbers who dropped (dead) along the way. This is excellent background material for her anticipated article and hopefully will gain her some small income from her blogs of the experience. She soon discovers that some of the drop-dead climbers met their deaths prematurely and for reasons unrelated to the sport (collateral damage). Although Cecily seems more like a bumbling idiot, as opposed to an ambitious sharp journalist, she manages to fumble along, stepping on toes everywhere while indiscreetly and indiscriminately vocalizing her suspicions into the ears of anyone willing to listen (including those of a murderer).

What you can expect to happen, happens, and although at times eye-rolling and predictable, this book is an enjoyable read. I had fun reading it.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Anchor for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed. 3.5 stars

Good thriller. Not sure I could be stuck on a snowy mountain especially that elevation. It was a decent story

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I'm between ehhh and it's okay, which honestly those two could be the same thing.

Cecily Wong is given a chance of a lifetime to go on a dangerous climb in Manaslu. During this climb she is going to be climbing with world famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh. Charles isn't at the beginning of the climbs and comes in at the end to climb to the peak. However, during Cecily's journey up there are many people that end up dead or are they murdered? Cecily is determined to find out what is going on and if there is a killer on the climb.

Again I go back to ehhh. It was a slow burn and Cecily seemed to have some issues in her past that she hasn't dealt with. I have a hard time with main characters whining about situations that happened instead of accepting what they have done and moving forward. If I could give it 2.5 stars I probably would.

Thank you #NetGalley for the advance read

Journalist Cecily Wong has the chance of a lifetime, to both conquer her fears and interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last climb of a record-breaking series of summits. She has come to Manaslu, one of the highest peaks in the world, giving up her life savings and her boyfriend. When a climber dies in what looks like a freak accident, Cecily's apprehensions come roaring back. After another death, will Cecily have to conquer more than just the elements?

Breathless did have promise, especially at the beginning. The author did a good job of describing both the elements of climbing and the harrowing circumstances that individuals could face on a mountain. At times, I could feel the frigid air and palpitating fear. At others, I did not believe that the circumstances or dialogue was genuine or realistic. The novel was a little too repetitive and had too much going on at once. I did like the twists at the ending, but it was not enough to resurrect the novel for me. Readers who like survival fiction and mystery thrillers might like Breathless.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this novel was entirely my own.

I did not get to this book and as a result am removing from my list. I ended up selecting other books to read instead. This review is not a reflection of the story, but rather shows that this was not high on my TBR list, which is a factor in itself.

Breathless started a little slow and there was some tedium with the explanations of climbing, but I understand the need for that.

It picked up the pace toward the middle and overall was an enjoyable read. 3.75 rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!