Maggie and Levi have been best friends since they were little kids swimming together. Now they are seniors preparing to try and make the Olympic trials, trying to figure out life. Maggie ask Levi to teacher her how to hook up as she has no experience with the opposite sex and he does. What starts out as BFF hooking up, quickly turns into more. Loved how Kenneally shows how much time and dedication is needed for an Olympic level athlete to train.

a perfect summer read!!! Such a sweet book.. very well written!!! will for sure be passing on! Thanks!

Coming Up for Air is the final book in the Hundred Oaks series, so it’s a bit bittersweet. I’ve read and enjoyed all eight books, but Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker are my absolute favorites. With Catching Jordan, it was the humor and wonderful characters – Sam is the man! With Stealing Parker, it was a very emotional read for me. This may not be my favorite book, but it’s still a delightful read.

The series ends with Maggie and Levi, both highly competitive swimmers who have aspirations for the Olympics. They’ve been best friends for years, bonding over their love of swimming and crazy-strict schedule. Maggie realizes there are a few things she wants to do before going to college, including gaining experience in the boy department. How convenient that she has a guy for a best friend whom she feels completely comfortable with. What are friends for, right?

Gotta love a friends-to-lovers romance. I really like that Maggie and Levi’s friendship felt solid and genuine, making it believable and natural when their feelings grew into more. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but they both had to sort through their feelings and learn to bring balance into their lives.

There are a couple things I wish would’ve been hit on a little better, but overall, it carries a really nice sex-positive message. It’s done tastefully, and I hope to see more like it in this genre.

And big awwwwwww for that epilogue! How perfect to have the series end on that note.

Overall, Coming Up for Air is a quick and cute story.

YES!! I agree this is not to be missed!!
The story is cute and interesting and you I fell in love with the author because she let me have a sneak peak on how are the characters after few years! Love it!!

When I saw this book up to request I knew I needed to read it, I have only previously read one other book by Miranda Kenneally but I had really liked that one and I just knew I would like this one as well.

I have always been into swimming, even though I only swam for 2 years myself. Growing up my best friend was a swimmer and I’ve always been obsessed with watching swimming in the Olympics. It’s nice that the author really delves into how much work goes into being an athlete that performs at an Olympic level and also researches to make the sport focused on in her book as realistic as she possibly can. I love how the author also balances the real life aspects of being a teen with the real life aspect of being an elite athlete. I love the romance in this book, I’m always a sucker for friends turned more romances in books and I believe this one handed it quite well. There was the right amount of awkwardness, emotions and confused feelings for it to be realistic.

I also really like Maggie’s group of friends, apart from Levi there is Georgia and Hunter. I love that they all have a routine with each other and that they stand by each other’s sides even though they are all busy with their own separate sports.

Now, I haven’t read the most of the books in this series, in fact I’ve only read “Defending Taylor” in this series but I can see how a lot of longtime fans of this series would appreciate the Sam and Jordan aspects of this story, especially from the epilogue.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

DNF at 48%. This book is about high school students but it's just so juvenile that I can't get behind it. I do read a lot of YA but at times this comes across as almost middle grade and silly. The whole concept just doesn't work for me and while it sounds good in theory, I feel like it's so unbelievable.

3.5 stars!

I adore Miranda Kenneally's writing. Her YA stories are one of my go-to's when I'm hankering for a light, YA romance read.

Coming Up For Air checks all the YA romance boxes, and I enjoyed it. It's a pretty straightforward story. What you read in the blurb is what you get.

Maggie is a competitive swimmer who wants an Olympic tryout spot. Her best friend, Levi already has a spot and Maggie is working overtime to get in as well. Even with that goal, Maggie is still a teenager. Yes, she has dreams about making it into the Olympics but she also wants to experience the full high school experience.

That's where the conflict of this book comes in because to qualify for the Olympics, Maggie would have to sacrifice a lot more of her time to achieve her goal. And her growing feelings for her best friend Levi is not helping. Then there's also the re-appearance of her fiercest rival. So everything is getting overwhelming for Maggie real fast.

Coming Up for Air is told entirely in Maggie's POV, and like her previous books, the romance is light and clean. It doesn't take center stage but it's not relegated to the sidelines either. I loved Maggie's relationship with Levi, Hunter and Georgia. And I also enjoyed Parker's cameo in this book as sort of a mentor to Maggie. That was great.

This is clean YA, meaning there's no open sexual encounters between the hero and the heroine. It's there and it happened but it's fade-to-black, which is fine really.

Reading COMING UP FOR AIR gives me mixed feelings, which I'll detail for you later. Overall, it's a breath of fresh air (hah!) that discusses a subject most books shy away from or skirts around the edges: sex. We adults, especially the parents, might not agree at the existence of such a book, but I think teens need to read something like this. Sure, it discusses hookups and its prevalence in society (especially colleges and maybe the older teens in high school, especially athletes) and how it impacts the teens and young adults, but at the same time, through the characters' realizations, they realize that hookups are meaningless, and at the end of it, sex is meaningful because it's with someone you care about. (Okay, that's what my take away from the book, don't beat me if you don't agree).

That said, I think this book is suited only for older teens and beyond.

Maggie, the heroine, is feeling left out, because she hasn't had a relationship and hasn't made out with a guy because all her time is packed with swimming and eating and homework (okay, I added the last one), while all her three friends have had hookups or relationships (or trying to have one). So, she wants to have some experience before college. She wants to make out with a guy! And she targeted best friend Levi for that. In time, she realizes that everyone develops at his/her own pace, and that life experiences come when you're ready for it. I think that's a great message for teens today, who feel the pressure from their friends, etc.

Okay, the mixed feelings. While I think this book is good for older teens to read, I am not so comfortable with reading about heavy teenage make out sessions. There's nothing crass here; the action is not detailed nor are explicit words used, but they still make me uneasy. So, maybe adults shouldn't read this?

Also, there's not much conflict/tension here. Or maybe I just can't relate to teenage situations anymore.

Overall, I think it's worth a read by older teens.

Rating: 4 stars

This book definitely fits my category for a cute, contemporary romance. Going into this book, I thought it was about a girl that spent so much of her life dedicated to swimming that she missed out on a lot of high school experiences and was determined to experience everything with whatever small amount of time she had left before college. Which I believe is still relevant except that instead of her experiencing a lot of things, she pretty much just wants to experience being with a guy. It was a cute story and I enjoyed it but I think it left me wanting due to expecting more based on the synopsis. If I had gone into it knowing that she just wanted to experience dating and being with guys I would have felt better about it. Even still, I definitely liked the characters and felt they didn’t make terrible decisions as far as romances go. It looks as though there are other books in this little book universe the author created and I really like when authors do that…when they continue the story through other character’s eyes…but they’re characters you already know. I honestly don’t know if I’ll pick up the other books but it’s only because they seem to be sports themed too and I’m just not that into sports romance. It has nothing to do with the writer…just my not-love of sports.

I'm a huge fan of Miranda and her sports books, and while it's not by favorite of the series, this book did not disappoint!
Competitive athletes in high school face challenges that the average teen can't comprehend. Maggie and her three best friends have one thing they can count on, their Friday night dinners, come rain or shine. Maggie was incredibly lucky to have found such profound friendships in Levi (another swimmer with Olympic hopes,) Georgia (a gymnast turned cheerleader,) and Hunter (baseball).
The first quarter of the book takes awhile to find it's rhythm but the rest of the book is great. I love the depth of detail the author gives with the competitive swimming and tough schedules. And I loved that Maggie was bold enough to pursue what she wanted, despite how awkward it had to be, and asking it of Levi. A really good best friends to lovers story.
And the epilogue took me by surprise as I didn't realize that this book was the last book (at least for a while) in the Hundred Oaks series.

Actual rating: 3.75 stars

I read the synopsis for Coming Up for Air and knew that I wanted…needed…to read it. Some books you read to help you escape, but others you read because you know you will relate. This was the latter. I grew up a competitive swimmer, coached club swimming, and have a brother-in-law who has coached swimming at multiple recent Olympic games. This was my world, once upon a time, and I was very excited to dive into this read.

Coming Up for Air was my first experience with a Miranda Kenneally book. It seems I might have to change that! This book was exactly what I had hoped it would be; relatable. Being a serious, focused athlete is not always easy. Being a high schooler is equally not as easy. I have a feeling that quite a few girls can find a bit of themselves in Maggie who was trying to balance school, sports, and a social life. More specifically here, she was attempting to get her Olympic trials cut in swimming while trying to scrape up some shred of normalcy for her high school experience.

Miranda had a very responsive writing style. She wrote, and I reacted on an emotional level. I read this book in under 24-hours because it was an easy book to read, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next with the characters. There were a few times when I thought concepts or phrases were repeated more often than necessary (not going to lie, repeatedly hearing about Maggie’s “urges” kind-of weirded me out), but overall I found her writing light and colloquial.

I loved the small, tight-knit group of friends, particularly our protagonists. Maggie, Levi, Hunter, and Georgia all understand one another because of their commitment to being high-level athletes, but their Friday night tradition helps provide a bit of reprieve, not only from their sports, but from other stresses in their lives. These scenes are some of my faves! I also love how their friendship shifts as their lives do. Is it me or does Hunter seem to be jones-ing a little for Georgia?! At the very least, he has a protective big brother thing, but, either way, it was sweet!

So, the “friends to something more” trope…I thought it was so good (and, truth be told, it is probably my favorite literary trope)! I know some people probably won’t like it, but readers are all different, and we all have our own preferences. The way Miranda wrote the plot premise, though, made this trope tolerable. Levi is such a good guy. Maggie is so innocent. Without giving away spoilers, I felt like the story played out much more modern-day than other stories I have read, which is probably why I am so okay with it. I will be interested to see others’ thoughts on this. Tropes always make me curious!

Overall, I really enjoyed Coming Up for Air. If you are looking for a quick, cute read, I definitely recommend this book. And, if you like it (the YA contemporary romance with a sports tie), check out the rest of the Hundred Oaks Series!

Loved reading more of Miranda Kineally's books! I love the best friend turned romance relationship and loved the chemistry between Maggie and Levi.

I’m never the sporty type but if someone asks me what’s my favorite sport, it’s more likely that my answer would be ‘swimming.’ There’s just something fulfilling about being in the water and feeling it splash against your skin as you swim. And that is why I immediately picked up and read this book. And wow, Kenneally delivered. Keneally’s world of swimming was intricate, competitive and realistic.

Just like Kenneally’s characters in the previous books, Coming Up For Air has a bunch of lovable and goal-oriented characters. Though there’s something that bothered me about Maggie, I still liked her because she never got sidetracked by her longing to experience the ordinary teenage life from achieving her goals. And I could say the same for Maggie’s longtime male bestfriend, the straightforward Levi, who’s always there for her.

Basically, Coming Up for Air is more of a self-discovery story than romance. But for whatever its worth, the romance between Maggie and Levi was worth following even if it’s the usual bestfriends-turned-to-lovers kind of thing.

All in all, Coming Up for Air was certainly a winner and definitely one of my best reads this 2017. It’s very relatable even for adults like me. So you better stop what you’re doing right now and read this.

**Thanks so much to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!**

what i liked
There's athletics in this book! I'm a dual sport athlete, so I really loved that aspect of this book.
Maggie seemed really mature. It's not often that a contemporary protagonist seems mature! I was quite impressed by that.
It's another hit by Miranda Kenneally! I'm a sucker for her books. They're so great and such a breeze to get through.
LEVI. He was really my favorite character.
I loved how close-knit all of the friends in this group were. Levi, Maggie, Hunter, and Georgia. They even all went out to eat to always catch up. I loved it!

The summary of this book was what drew me in, and everything about the plot sounded like something I would love. And indeed, the plot line itself was exactly what I want in a contemporary, and the characters were even endearing (Levi is totally yum). However, the writing style was lackluster and amateurish. I was actually shocked to see this was NOT a debut novel. If I had to hear the MC talk about how she "wanted to learn to hook up" and her "urges" one more time, I was going to stop reading. We get it. She's a horny teen with no experience. It's not necessary to put that into the same paragraph 4 times. No ones inner monologue actually sounds like that. I firmly think that, with a solid editor to polish this up, it would be a great and wonderful contemporary read. But it will need a lot of love to turn this rock into a gem.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Fire via Netgalley for the free review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Another winner from Miranda Kenneally! This one has all the elements you know and love from her Hundred Oaks series: a strong, feisty heroine working through an internal struggle, great friendships, cameos from some of the well-loved characters we've met earlier in the series, and an amazingly swoony love interest. What more could a fan ask for?

I loved Maggie's struggles in this book. (Oh yeah, and the seriously embarrassing moments she has put a huge grin on my face while reading!) She's got a few things weighing on her mind, including but not limited to:

an intense rivalry with an ex-teammate and the online bullying she's subjected to
occasionally driving a car, which she is extremely horrible at!
college, mainly how she's going to miss her friends when they all go to different schools
getting some experience with boys, and how to do such a thing when she has no time to start a relationship
trying to improve her times so she can get herself to the Olympic trials, and
dealing with her changing feelings for her best friend, Levi.
I absolutely loved Maggie's friendship with Levi! It was somewhat reminiscent of Jordan and Sam from "Catching Jordan", which is further emphasized when Jordan, or Coach Woods as she's now known at Hundred Oaks High, gives Maggie some advice about balancing her heavy training schedule with a social life, namely, dating. Maggie and Levi spend almost all of their time together, and have since they were little kids, so they're super comfortable with each other. Honestly, there's not much I would have changed about their relationship or their story. If anything, I just wanted more!

If you're not already a Kenneally reader, then you seriously need to remedy that right away. All of her books are great, and I'd be hard pressed to pick a favourite, but "Coming Up for Air" is definitely one of my top picks!

My rating: 4.5 stars

This title was archived before I had a chance to access it and therefore I was unable to download it. I'm really sad about this because this was a book I really wanted to read, Unfortunately I was away on vacation and had no access to my computer to check emails.

Coming Up For Air will tuck well into the summer tote or backpack with swimming, competing, and coming of age mixed with a friends to lovers YA romance.

Coming Up For Air could do alright standalone as can all the books in the Hundred Oaks series, I suspect. I've only read three and each were not in order though I did just fine. Now that said, the first couple and their friends and family play roles in the later books so you can see how the past teens turn out as adults.

Coming Up For Air is not particularly angsty or complex. It flows nice and easy, but read fast for me. It reads almost like a journal though not dry and boring, at all. It's told first person from Maggie's perspective.

Maggie is the narrator and so the reader learns what life as a teen Olympic hopeful is like as well as how Maggie learns to deal with a close friend's betrayal and subsequent rivalry in the pool, to understand and accept herself and that life happens at its own pace, and to navigate the world of competition sports balanced with the rest of life.

Maggie can get stuck inside her head, which usually annoys me to high heaven when reading 1st Person POV, but it really worked for me this time. She overthinks things and has the idea that everything is about planning, training, and executing like it is in the pool and doesn't get that you can't push attraction or relationships or control whether someone will like you and be your friend or not.

Speaking of disappointment with friends, if I had a niggle with this book it was that mean girl thing Roxy was doing that seemed bigger than trying to be the top female state high school swimmer. It was never explained and just sort of faded away. Maybe that's the point- sometimes the loss of friendships and people acting ugly never get explained or resolved.

There is also the interesting element that this is about kids who must sacrifice for their sport because they want to be the best and compete at the highest levels. It was interesting getting an inside look at that side of things. Maggie and her athlete friends never get a normal high school life whether it is school schedule, social life, or even food choices. They always have to decide if they really want it bad enough and other kids and people don't understand
And, I'm just guessing, but I think the world of swimming was depicted rather well both at the competitions and behind the scenes in practice.

Incidentally, Coming Up For Air was a great handling of parents and other adults. Maggie's dad and mom both got some good scenes with her. Two scenes with her dad jumped out at me- one hilarious (dads and condom shopping make for an utterly humiliating experience) and one poignant (talking life, competitions, and love). Levi's family was very different, but like Maggie, he could count on them. His dad left his mom, but he lives with his mom and his Dutch grandparents. And it is so fun that Jordan Woods the heroine from book one is Maggie's high school health teacher and an athlete mentor for her.

As to the romance, it is a big part of the story since Maggie naively propositioned her best friend, Levi, who has been sexually active to teach her about getting with guys. It had all the awkwardness to make it authentic and the right amount of stops and starts to provide a solid conflict and developed romance. While Maggie is learning and maturing, Levi is as well. They are good together as friends, but I enjoyed seeing it grow into more.

YA Warnings: Language n/a, Violence n/a, Sex moderate. Recommend to mid- older teens and adults.

All in all, it was another fantastic outing into the Hundred Oaks sporty YA contemporary romance series. Definitely a great choice for a good coming of age.

The premise of this story is so cringe to me. Our main character doesn’t want to go to college inexperienced, so she turns to her best guy friend to help her get some “experience”. I feel so awkward just typing that sentence. And they kept using this term “swimcest” to describe two people on the same swim team dating…so cringe. For the record, it’s not the worst thing in the world to go to college without having kissed someone–I would know. (P.S. I turned out fine. I’m even married now! Funny how that happens). That’s kind of my main issue with this book I guess… I feel like it promotes an incorrect message that everyone going into their freshman year of college has had sex. This is so far from the truth! Do we really want teenage girls reading this book to feel defective if they haven’t had much experience with boys? Or feel pressured to get some kind of experience before college? That’s definitely NOT the message I’d want my daughters to receive. Every girl is on her own time table and that’s OKAY.

With all that in mind, I really think it’s about time that I cut this series loose. Looking at my Goodreads, I’ve realized that I haven’t given any of these books over three stars. Yikes. I think the only reason I keep reading these books is because I like finding the easter eggs–but that’s definitely not a good enough reason to keep reading.

But anyway, on to the actual book. I thought Maggie was completely immature in almost all of her interactions with other people. Perhaps I shouldn’t judge her so harshly since she’s only in high school, but I found myself rolling my eyes at her. A lot. Levi was a weird character who was nice enough, but didn’t have a ton of depth in my opinion. And then I guess there were other characters? But they were seriously so inconsequential that I can’t remember any of them.

The plot was completely predictable and had a ton of manufactured drama. That’s pretty much all I have to say about that.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book. I wouldn’t recommend this series. While I appreciate seeing female main characters in prominent sports roles, that doesn’t outweigh all of the negatives that have accumulated from each of the books throughout the years.

Overall Rating: 2
Language: Moderate
Violence: None
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate
Sexual Content: Heavy

Note: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's just something about Miranda Kenneally's books. They are easy to read and they grab your attention and refuse to let go. Once you start, you NEED to finish. I read most of the Hundred Oaks books in one sitting. I would finish one and jump right into the next one. These books can 100% be read as standalones but specially for this one, the epilogue will matter so much more if you've read Catching Jordan. I love the way these stories uniquely interconnect. They're not the story of all the best friends in a friend group and I loved finding the connections to prior books.

I absolutely fell in love with Maggie and Levi. I loved their friendship and the growth of that friendship into more. I also could not get over the fact that Levi is just always reading. You cannot go wrong with a swimming/ Harry Potter reading main character. Maggie and Levi are precious and I loved them.

They also had an incredible support system in their family, their coach, their friends and that's always nice to see. I love to see YA where adults actually exist and support the characters.