I did not finish this title as the story wasn't as interesting as I was hoping for. Thank you for giving me a chance to try this out though.

As a Miranda Kenneally fan, she didn't disappoint with the complexities of a relationship. The fact that Maggie and Levi were first best friends (who everyone saw as a couple anyway) and how Miranda wrote about how their relationship slowly changed was a fantastic storyline.
I actually would like more from Maggie and Levi.

Miranda Kenneally returns to the world of Tennessee's Hundred Oaks High School with Coming Up for Air, a mature-YA sports romance centered on swimming. Maggie King has never had time for boys; she's totally focused on securing a spot on a top-tier college team, and maybe even snagging an Olympic trial cut, too. While on a visit to Berkeley, she realizes that heading off to college with a total lack of romantic experience might be a mistake. Who better to teach her the lessons of "hooking up" than her best friend and fellow swimming star, Levi? Unsurprisingly, things get complicated when their electric chemistry threatens both their friendship and their focus on training and competing. Throw in bad-girl Roxy, Maggie's rival in the pool who suddenly shows an interest in Levi, and sit back to watch the drama unfold on every page. This sweet-and-steamy romance is so much fun you will want to join Maggie, Levi, and the gang at Jiffy Burger for fries on Friday just to see what happens next!

Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally is a fantastic book in the Hundred Oaks series. This is the 5th book I've read in the series. I love getting lost in the sporty world that Miranda Kenneally has created. I love that each book features a different girl with a different sport.

In Coming Up for Air the main character is Maggie. Maggie is a devoted swimmer. Swimming is her entire life, she is passionate about it. Maggie hopes that one day she'll get into the Olympics. Swimming is not something that is forced rather it is something she loves.

Coming Up for Air is light, funny and cute. Maggie has four great friends, who all have sports that they love more than life itself. Levi is her best friend, and he swims with her. They are great characters, and have a great romance. They are best friends first. They don't let anything come in the way of their friendship; however, when Maggie feels she needs experience in certain areas before she heads off to college, Levi is the one person she feels most comfortable asking for help.

Maggie wanting experience before going to college causes their relationship to go through a period of being a awkward and emotional. Eventually they both begin to see the other in a new way, and to start feeling emotions. The new direction of the friendship does not feel forced; but, rather natural. The strong bond between Maggie and Levi and their friendship was more important than anything else, and that was the one thing they wanted to save.

This book was such a worthy edition to the Hundred Oaks series. I also loved that Jordan Woods got a bigger speaking role as Maggie’s school coach.

Bio:

Swim. Eat. Shower. School. Snack. Swim. Swim. Swim. Dinner. Homework. Bed. Repeat.

All of Maggie’s focus and free time is spent swimming. She’s not only striving to earn scholarships—she’s training to qualify for the Olympics. It helps that her best friend, Levi, is also on the team and cheers her on. But Levi’s already earned an Olympic try out, so she feels even more pressure to succeed. And it’s not until Maggie’s away on a college visit that she realizes how much of the “typical” high school experience she’s missed by being in the pool.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Maggie decides to squeeze the most out of her senior year. First up? Making out with a guy. And Levi could be the perfect candidate. After all, they already spend a lot of time together. But as Maggie slowly starts to uncover new feelings for Levi, how much is she willing to sacrifice in the water to win at love?

Review:

This story was a cute teenage type love story. Maggie and Levi have been best friends forever, and one day Maggie decides she wants him to teach her how to hook up with boys.

Between swimming and her weekly meet up with her friends, she hasn't really had time for boyfriends. But what is supposed to be lessons turns into something more.

Her swimming is put on the line as she tries to figure out where she wants to go in life- in terms of Levi.

This story jumped around a lot. It covered a lot of events and time in one chapter. There were times I was confused on what was happening, but I still wasn't able to put it down and stop reading.

I was happy with the overall story of their love and lives, and I think all in all it was a great book.

Rating: 👍👍👍👍 - four thumbs up

One of my favorite authors! Fun book with great characters.

My Review is on my blog and here is the link. https://abellafairytale.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/arc-review-coming-up-for-air-hundred-oaks-by-miranda-kenneally/

I love everything by Miranda Kenneally!! This book hit home in particular because of the swimming element. Even though I never competed on such a high level it did give me nice flashbacks to the swim team in high school.

The characters were relatable, the prologue gave me joy, and I loved the overall story.

I was given a free copy via netgalley and this didn't effect my opinion in any way.

Everything Miranda Kenneally writes is pure gold. Coming Up for Air is no exception. So thankful for an author who is writing girl sports books!

Coming up for air by Miranda Kenneally
TITLE: Coming up for air

AUTHOR:Miranda Kenneally

Publishing date: July 1st

Publishing house: sourcebooks fire

This book I received from netgalley & source books fire for an honest review.

Breath in, breath out I can do this. the gun goes off! Splash!!! Just 1-2-3 move arm to swim!! Almost to wall takes a glance to crowd is that a cute guy!!! Nah can't think that just gotta keep swimming beat my old time....

This book is about a girl (Maggie) and all she does is swim night and day since hoping to make the Olympics since she is that good. Only down fall she is in her senior year and has never had a boy friend or even a real kiss so she wants to finally experience that question is to herself how can she do both. Which to say is extremely hard espcially if she only wants to do if comfy. So to help out to learn she asks her best friend to teach her. You can see where this is going wether to even remotely stuff with best friend and prey to god if get along that well is not to make it awkward and ruin what she has with him. Gotta say for a book of sports and romance I really really enjoyed the mix of the two. And things this books shows is competing of swimmers and the first of everything related to guys. It def has its pretty funny moments that some book didn't have like some contemporary's. Only thing that not a down fall to me but some might say is for YA book the details in more hot scenes felt very border line ya and NA. For me not a issue and made me love the book more. So overall no complaints at all amazing book for sports romance and a bit of competition 5/5 stars ~~~~~~JUSTIN

Maggie and Levi were really great characters and I loved seeing the drive, courage and insecurities each of them had. Maggie was funny and her experiences rang true. I only ran into two bits of trouble. The first was when a predictable event happened; although I'm glad isn't wasn't as bad as I was predicting it to be and the second was the epilogue. I know that the characters featured in the epilogue showed up in spots in the book but the switch in perspective was a bit jarring. Perhaps some of that comes from not having read the other books in the series. Having said that, I will recommend this author to the teens in our library.

I was so excited to read this book, as I am a big fan of Miranda Kenneally’s books, and Coming Up for Air did not disappoint. Contemporary YA romance is my go-to genre, and this book just felt so familiar and fun to read. While the book was a bit predictable, what YA romance book isn’t? That’s part of the fun of reading them.

The main character Maggie was so relatable, and I really enjoyed that she wasn’t whiny or overly angsty, like is typical with many teen books. While I know nothing about swimming, I still found the story to be so engaging, and I found myself cheering the characters on. I feel this book is perfect for teens who are looking for a light, quick, teen romance, but also for those who are looking for a sporty contemporary novel.

I really liked that the main character Maggie has healthy attitudes about sex, and relationships. I also really like that the people in her life support her ambitions. I did find the epilogue a bit abrupt or disconnected from the body of the story. Otherwise, I would highly recommend this book for its' healthy portrayal of body image, and relationships.

Miranda kenneally is at it again and doesn't disappoint. Maggie and Levi, like her other characters from 100 oaks, are lovable and relatable. Nobody captures high school experiences and emotions like Miranda. Another great read.

Coming Up for Air (Hundred Oaks)
Miranda Kenneally
Book Review: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I was so excited to gain an ARC of this book, and it didn't disappoint. I couldn't put it down.

Maggie's life revolves around swim. Eat, sleep, swim and swim some more. She wants to be one of the best, and that means practice, practice and more practice. She hasn't had time to enjoy the normal high school experience. She decides she needs help from her best friend, so Maggie isn't a complete novice by the time she goes to college. Her best friend is also a swimming champion and doesn't have time for a girlfriend, but he likes to hook up. She gets him to give her a few pointers, but the lines become blurred. Her best friend becomes more, and they become unstable. Can they go back? Is there even a forward solution?

This book has a lot of swimming in it obviously and shows the dedication needed.

I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended. Thanks, NetGalley. 5 stars out of 5. One to add to the must read pile.


Paperback £10.99, 320 pages
Expected publication: July 1st 2017

~3.7/5~
Nice, easy, and predictable read, although I was a tad bit surprised about Maggie's forwardness and lack of foresight, particularly in endangering her friendship with her BEST FRIEND of all people. I enjoyed reading Coming Up for Air, though I can't say that this is one of those books I'll remember to save my life.

I have to say, I may be somewhat biased toward this book, because, for one, I adored Jordan and Sam, so I had a nice and pleasant surprise when they asked Maggie's parents to plan their wedding and showed up in the epilogue, and two, I'm a semi-competitive swimmer myself, meaning that I found myself relating to the swim aspect of the book more than the actual plot itself, which is disappointing in hindsight because it wasn't even the main focus of the story.

Okay, that sounded kind of harsh, but it was true.

Some character analysis.

Maggie has her heart set on getting some...experience from early on in the book, and I find it sad how she feels the need to do what she does. She's funny at times and pretty immature, but relatable in the aspect that it's hard to stay focused and try to achieve goals that are miles (or milliseconds) away.

Levi is the typical "experienced" player-type guy that manages to show little interest in Maggie in general before screwing up majorly, although they do have a couple of moments.

Their friends as individuals sort of faded into the background, and I don't really remember much of them other than the fact that they were athletic and one had relationship issues.

Sure. Why not.

Don't get me started on Roxy. I really wish her character would've been more developed, but I get that this is focused on Magpie and Leaves, so I'll take it, grudgingly.

Finally, clichés are nice, but I felt as if the book had little depth in terms of the characters and hardly any character development. Coming Up for Air was a teen fiction book. That's it. Nothing particularly special, nothing heart-wrenching, and just light in of itself. Similarly, Miranda Kenneally's writing style is simple, but charming in its own way.


Thank you Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Coming Up for Air.

I have enjoyed all of Kenneally's books and this is no different. I will purchase a copy for my library.

This is not my first time reading one of Miranda Kenneally's books. She kills the game every single time with these books. I've read Catching Jordan, Stealing Parker, Defending Taylor, and Racing Savannah before this one and I've loved every single one. The idea of every one of these novels revolving around the same town/high school is so clever. It makes reading this kind of series so much fun. Every time I recognize a character from a previous book, I get so happy and nostalgic. I especially love this novel because the characters have real life situations to deal with while still having a humor to it. I love how Maggie gets anxiety while driving because I do too. It makes me feel less small and like my anxiety is not something to be ashamed about. This novel also demonstrates a great way of looking at safe and consensual sex which I believe is important since not a lot of young adult novels covers sex like The Hundred Oaks series does. It let's young girls realize that sex is ok and not shameful which is so important. This book is empowering and smart. I highly recommend not only this novel but this series to so many other girls.

I've yet to come across a YA author who writes book boys so well every single time like Miranda Kenneally does! Each one is awesome in his own right, but none of them ever sound the same. (Levi has joined the others on my Kenneally Book Boy Shelf) Neither do the girls.

All of them have been strong, determined, and inspiring in her own right, and I have enjoyed watching them grow and flourish across the series.

I loved the friendship-lovers dynamic between Maggie and Levi; it felt realistic and relateable, The tension was great, too, in AND out of the pool. As were the make-out sessions! I felt Maggie's feelings of insecurity and self-doubt right along with her, and found her determination inspiring.

And that Epilogue is PERFECTION!