Cover Image: Breathless

Breathless

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Member Reviews

This book is beautiful. The characters are relatable and feel very real. I could connect with them and I expect many students will also connect with the personalities and struggles of the characters. I will likely buy this book as it was good and this author is already on student's radars.

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Jennifer Niven is one of my must read authors. All the Bright Places is one of my favorite books of all time. It took me a little time to get into the book but once I did I loved it. At first Claude rewriting conversations in her head was confusing, but I eventually go used to that part of the book.

I thought the setting of this book was excellent. I loved the progression of Claude and Miah's relationship and their adventures. I thought the ending was not satisfying but necessary. I'd love to know what happens with Claude and Miah in the future.

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Claude and her mom are spending the summer on an island off the coast of Georgia after her parents' sudden separation. Claude has just graduated high school, and feels like her world is turned upside down for multiple reasons. Her parents dissolved marriage, her best friend's new relationship, and thoughts of her impending future all cause Claude great stress. When she meets a mysterious boy on the island, Claude is sure that a summer fling will help her forget about everything that's bothering her.

Breathless is a story about growing up and moving forward. Claude's character learns a lot about herself throughout the story, and her relationship with her mom is important. Ultimately, though, Breathless is a romance. Claude spends the beginning of the book thinking about what it will be like to have sex for the first time, and then focuses on who that boy will be. Her relationship with Miah is described as love, but seems superficial. I didn't like Breathless as much as Niven's other works.

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My first book by Jennifer Niven, but definitely not my last!

Breathless is the story of Claude, a girl who thought she had everything under control as she graduated from high school and turned toward college. Sure, her creative writing teacher found her writing to be a bit superficial ("You have to put it all out re so that we can feel what you feel. You always seem to be holding back, Claudine"), but she's got a plan. She's got a stellar summer trip planned with her bestie, a cute guy she likes, a college waiting for her in the fall, and a bright future after that as a writer. She's already working on her first novel!

(OK, so she does admit up front that the novel is probably "bad and overly long," but still...she's writing! First drafts are always crap, right? To paraphrase a dead white male author...)

But back to Claude :) Just when she thinks she knows who she is and where she's going, the rug--or the floor, as she puts it--is pulled out from under her. Her parents are separating; Claude, her mom, and their cat are going to Georgia for the summer while her dog and dad (the one who is asking for the separation) are staying in Ohio; and all of her immediate plans for the future are suddenly in shambles around her. Oh, and her parents ask her not to talk about any of this with anyone, effectively ruining her last few days at home. Even worse, her best friend has also been keeping something from her, and oh, by the way--the island which she and her mom are going to? Barely even has wi-fi or cell service. I mean, things could maybe be worse. Probably. But right then? Claude's definitely not feeling that way.

So it's a very angry, hurt, and lost Claude who shows up on the remote Georgia island for the summer, where she meets Jeremiah Crew, the boy who initially annoys her but eventually manages to see her like no one else has. And though she may or may not finally lose her virginity this summer (yes, it's definitely a big part of the story, but as someone else who was in some very similar shoes at that stage of life, it felt 100% realistic and was handled very well--I enjoyed reading this as an adult, and wouldn't hesitate it hand it to my daughter to read as well), she will definitely find a strength she didn't know she had.

The ending is a bit bittersweet (again, very realistic) but reading the acknowledgments at the end gave me all the happy feels. Do yourself a favor and don't skip them <3

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start planning my future trip to a remote island off the coast of Georgia...

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

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I don't read a lot of "young adult" or "teen" books, but I loved Niven's previous novel All the Bright Places. I decided to give this one a chance in the hopes that I would love it as I did the last one... unfortunately it wasn't my favorite. Still a great addition to any teen collection.

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I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A family in crisis during the summer before a young woman departs for college. Mistakes are made, people are forgiven, and life goes forward. This novel is both inspiring and heartwarming.

I love the characters. Thry are flawed and real.

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I am such a huge fan of Niven's All the Bright Places, but this one just missed the mark for me. I did not find the romance to be all that believable, and Claude annoyed me as a protagonist. I understand that she was going through a lot of life changes during this book, but at the same time, she just rubbed me the wrong way. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope, which was prevalent in this book. Overall, I really wanted to love this because I was so excited to receive an e-arc, but it just wasn't the book for me.

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BREATHLESS by Jennifer Niven (All the Bright Places) is a very personal story of an 18-year-old girl, Claudine (Claude) Henry learning to deal with some life challenges. She writes at the very beginning of this novel, "You were my first. Not just sex, although that was part of it, but the first to look past everything else into me. ... I don't want to forget what I went through, what I thought, what I felt, who I was. I don't want to forget you. But most of all, I don't want to forget me." This coming of age novel reflects the teen's self-absorption – after all, it begins about a week before her high school graduation in Ohio when she is already thinking about the transition to college and planning a celebratory road trip with her best friend. That is all up-ended when her father announces that he and her mom are separating. Claude ends up spending the summer on an island (no wi-fi) near Georgia with her Mom as they try to come to terms with the new family structure. There, Claude meets Jeremiah (Miah). He is a kid with a troubled past, but he helps her to cope and truly cares for her (similar to the rebellious daughter's boyfriend in Netflix's Away with Hilary Swank). Throughout, Niven deftly conveys Claude's range of emotions (confusion, heartbreak, anger, caring) as she struggles (sabotaging and nurturing) in relationships with her best friend (Saz), with her parents, and with Miah. BREATHLESS received a starred review from School Library Journal.

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This was a coming of age story about dealing with rearranging who your parents are, discovering your roots and falling in love. I really liked this book.

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When all you have known is a stable family unit and one day it is just gone? How can you trust again? How can you risk love again when you know the odds are that you could lose everything? Claude has one summer to figure out whether it is worth the risk to love again. Jennifer Niven wins again. I love all of her books.

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you might recognize jennifer niven because she’s the author of all the bright places (netflix movie). I liked this much better than that

breathless (YA romance): ★★★★

what a beautiful coming of age novel. this book had so many beautiful quotable lines about first love that I tested up at certain points. it’s so dang relatable that it hurts.

claude is about to enter that dreadful yet exciting period that is the summer after senior year of college, where you’re looking forward to everything the future holds while mourning letting go of everything familiar. it doesn’t help that her parents decide to separate, which means that instead of going on a road trip with her best friend, she has to go to a tiny island in georgia with her mom.

except, on this island, she meets a boy. and the boy changes everything. and she feels all the feels of first love while knowing there’s an approaching deadline at the end of the summer that will separate them forever. and it’s achingly beautiful.

niven knocked it out of the park with this one (although I do think it would be more enjoyable as a summer read)

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I love Jennifer Niven! Her previous books All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe were wonderful, so I had high expectations. I think Breathless met and even surpassed those expectations. This book could have been just an ordinary book about a teen and the anxiety she feels over her parents' separation, her best friend's new relationship, and the loss of her virginity, but it is anything but ordinary.

The first chapter could be a bit off-putting for some. There is some very frank talk about teen sex (all the characters are seniors in high school) and a pretty graphic sex scene. This chapter, however, is very important for setting the stage for what comes after. Claude (Claudine) is looking forward to graduation with some trepidation. While she is excited about graduating, she & her best friend are going to different colleges and she's still a virgin. Although she and her steady boyfriend have done "other things", sexual intercourse is still a mystery and Claude isn't sure she wants to "lose" her virginity to him. (BTW: there's a hilarious & very insightful conversation among Claude & her friends about phrases like "lose her virginity" and what they mean about being female in today's society.) When her parents announce their separation, Claude & her mother take off for an island in Georgia for the summer where Claude meets Jeremiah. And so it begins!

I was so impressed with this story and the beautiful language Niven uses to create a sense of time and place, and the way Niven puts the reader into Claude's mind revealing her thoughts and feelings with emotion and heart but without melodrama. Although I'm sure some will quibble with Claude's mature look at life and her ability to express herself thoughtfully and with insight, but she is an only child, an aspiring writer and the daughter of a professor and a writer, so it made perfect sense to me.

I'm an older woman, far away from my teen years and first love, but I can still remember how it all felt. Niven captures those feelings -- the good and the bad -- in a way we don't see very often in YA fiction. I would compare it to Judy Blume's Forever -- first love, first sex, first loss can pull the floor out from under you. Niven uses this analogy several times, and it is very apropos. This is NOT a sappy teen romance, nor is the love/sex treated as a throw-away moment. This is a close look at first love, and Niven hits a homerun! This is a wonderful book!!!

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This book was definitely personal and a coming of age novel. The characters of Miah and Claude were likeable and well developed. I’m concerned about the sex portrayed in the book. It is more graphic than most of the YA books currently in my HS library. Although I haven’t read every book in the collection so I may be surprised. Enjoyed the story!

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I love this story of Claude and how she handles so many heartbreaking things in her 18th year of life. After her loving parents inform her that they are splitting up, she is whisked away to an island to stay with her mom for the summer. Away from her best friend, away from her possible new love interest, to a place of strangers and new beginnings. The story is heartbreaking but also so very beautiful. It is the story of first love and friendship, family and forgiveness. It's my favorite Jennifer Niven book yet. I love that it's based loosely on what happened to Jennifer Niven when she was 18 and that she also met her own Jeremiah Crew when she went to the island to research and write this book. How wonderful.

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3.5 stars.
I loved All the Bright Places so I was eager to read this novel. As I began reading, I found myself getting annoyed by Claude's character - she is so self-absorbed - and I was irritated by some of her behaviors! The more I read however, the novel (and Claude) grew on me and I did enjoy it in the end. I think teenagers (she seems quite young for 18) are self-absorbed by nature and often see the world only through their own eyes, so Jennifer Niven's Claude is quite realistic. As the relationships are explored and described in more detail, I appreciated the way Niven shows Claude's connections to both of her parents. The romance was also handled in a realistic and modern way. The frank dialogue between Claude and Miah is refreshing. I think a lot of young teenagers who are curious about love and sex would enjoy reading this. I can't say that I loved this novel, but it was well crafted and handles a lot of issues that face adolescents.

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This book just wasn't for me. Maybe it was the wrong time, maybe the wrong reader... I had a hard time investing in the story and I have learned that I need to like the characters in order to be moved by the story. That being said, I feel like I can review this book in a way that lets readers know that it is a coming of age story that talks about real teen troubles and deals with authentic teen angst. Sex and virginity are topics at the book's forefront.

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Breathless by Jennifer Niven is a wonderful novel to pass along to any teen or pre-teen. Claudine, the main character, is your basic teenager, trying to navigate a rocky world full of emotions and desires. Her mother, while trying to protect her by moving them to a remote area for a fresh start challenges Claudine to grow into her own person and learn some important love lessons faster than expected.

I would absolutely recommend this novel to high school book groups, or library clubs!

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While all of the components of a good coming of age story are present in this novel, from plot arc, to character, to writing style, this book never completely won me over. I felt the main character's voice was off. It vacillated between feeling too young and too removed, as if told in a flashback. The setting had potential to be a character of its own, but never truly achieved that level. I think this would have worked better if it was told through Miah's perspective because he was the more interesting character.

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That's the thing about a Jennifer Niven book . . . as much as you unpack from first reading, there are more souvenirs to display after a second read. And the third. And then you'll probably read it again after that, looking through for your favorite parts like you scroll back to those vacation photos in an album. The first read is for the primal; the absolute thrill of a life unfolding. But then you hit that next layer and realize Breathless is offering up all the tropes of female companionship, the digging deep to find yourself, the moments that guide us to who we want to become. From a mother's love for her daughter, to friendship, to the women we look up to as we flip through the pages of time, to the first person who makes you want to go further than you've been before . . . these are the relationships that coax us from one path to the next, reminding us that life has no roadmap, no guarantees.

As Claude prepares to graduate from high school, she's looking forward to the freedom of summer with her best friend, Saz, before they go their separate ways for college. But there's no planning in life as it will find a way to leave you speechless. But first comes the breakup of her parents marriage. And then a trip with her mom who is struggling to deal with loving a man who is leaving. them. And then the people you meet along the way . . . like Jeremiah Crew. And then . . . yup. But don't let that distract you from what's really going on here. This is Claude's story. And it is a good one.

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My thoughts are still a bit messy on this book as I am not too sure on how I feel about it I must admit, but let me try to get my thoughts straight. Let's start with the main characters in this book, Claude and Jeremiah (also Miah), who both confuse me a lot, more than I thought they would. I just cannot connect with Claude, from the beginning on I just did not feel her vibe and she just does not sound like a very interesting person to me. She has a lot going on in her mind, and I really like this full insight on everything she thinks about, but at some point I got annoyed. She very often refrains from saying how she really feels and just makes matter even more complicated than they already are. She prefers to stay quiet and dwell on her problems than to just talk about them with others, and this bottling-up of emotions does not help her at all. She is also a very jealous person who just cannot stop thinking of other scenarios and making up new possible ones in her head and just making everything in her life worse. As you may be able to see, she is just not my type of main character.

Then there's Miah, who is just one big question mark to me. He has these "free-spirit" vibes, running around shoe- and shirtless, and that just did not fit my picture of this cute guy that Claude meets on this island. To me he was just very weird and I just do not really get Claude's and his connection. As Niven focuses on Miah and Claude, the reader does not get to see a lot of Claude's friendships with the other adolescents on the island who become her friends. This leads to the side characters being very shallow and depthless, and having no real importance to the storyline. But I have to say that Claude and Miah also do not have too much depth themselves: Claude is just the girl who badly wants to have sex whose parents are separating and Miah is just this island boy who walks around barely clothed and who is a bit of a mystery and somewhat dangerous. Nothing more.

Furthermore there are some parts of the book where I am unsure why they even are in the book, as they do in my eyes not contribute to the plot at all. One is the talk about turtles. Turtles? Yes, turtles. I have no idea where this is coming from, but at some point Claude researches some facts about turtles and then there are some turtles on the island on the beach but that was it. Not really any importance there. And then the whole thing with the Blackwood family, Claude's ancestors on her mother's side. They basically are some *strong* and *independent* women who lived on the island some centuries ago. Claude's mother is there to research further about them and everything screams such pretentious and superficial *feminism* that I could have done perfectly without all of that talk about those women. Bored me. A lot.

Okay, I know how this sounds, I can be quite critical when reading, but let's get to the nice parts! I really like the adventures or small trips that Claudette and Miah do, and they do have some cute scenes together. Another part that I liked a lot and already mentioned a bit in this review is the realness of Claude: I really like her insightful and accurate thoughts and feelings when learning about her parents' separation. Niven portrayed this aspect very well and I can imagine a bit better what it's like going through a time like that through reading what's going on in Claude's head at the time.

I just have some minor problem with this book being on sex and virginity. I think that it is super hard in general to write a young adult book on this topic, because it can be a very big hit-or-miss. You have to be educational but still not make it sound like a textbook, because you want to educate teens but still have it packed in a nice story so that they stay interested. I like the conversations that Claude has with her friend group and her best friend on the topic, but sometimes they come over a bit forced and "too much". In addition to that, after a while the topic just gets forgotten and is not as present as in the beginning of the book. In the middle of it the focus of the book switches and zooms out of the topic of virginity and sex and zooms into the relationship that is establishing.

All in all, I find it a cute book to read between books, but sadly not more than that. Niven could not convince me with her characters and the plot was also a bit uneventful and boring in my eyes. For me this is not a book that I wish I had read earlier or that I would suggest to teens, as the topic of sex and virginity is not as present as it is claimed to be. Nevertheless the book depicts very accurate thoughts of a teen on parents separating and also different thoughts and views on sex and virginity on a whole. Despite the uneventful and anticlimactic ending, the book is still cute.

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