Amy McCulloch's "Breathless" was a page turning thriller. Not only did I Iearn many interesting facts about mountain climbing, but having been in Nepal among the Himalayas, I could transport myself to the very mountains wherein this story took place.
The intrigue begins very early in this story and I was kept guessing about the identity of the killer until he/she was eventually identified. Even though I was reading this book during a very hot summer, some of the descriptions of the cold the climbers endured were done well enough to help me feel cooler! A journalist, the story teller, is to be granted a greatly sought after exclusive interview with the organizer and famously successful climber, but only if she joins his team and makes it to the summit. As members of the group begin to suffer accidents and even death, the journalist is both frightened and determined to hike to the top and find out who and why someone on the team is a murderer. A really good read!

Thank you Netgalley for this ebook in exchange for a review. I had a bit of difficulty getting into this at first but at a certain point really started to enjoy the pacing and trying to figure out what would happen next. I thought the descriptions of the mountain, and climbing in general were really well done and that the mystery was revealed in a pretty exciting way.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a free arc in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. I have been in a mood where I have only been reading romance and then I read this and couldn’t put it down.
I thought it was so good from start to finish and I even went out and bought a physical copy and have been forcing everyone in my family to read it to

Unfortunately this book was not for me.
As someone who reads a lot of thrillers, I found this book to be very slow

This exciting alpine thriller is a much read for fans of the genre. You almost feel like you’re on the mountain with them and the perfect amount of suspense will have you turning pages quicker than you think. A good light entertaining read!

Mountaineering has always been fascinating to me. Realistically, I could never climb a Himalayan peak -- I'm unfit and under 5 feet -- so I live vicariously through books on the subject -- and that's why Breathless caught my eye. It's a murder mystery on Manaslu, the world's 8th highest mountain, and one of the 8000 metre peaks, written by a woman who summited. I got my dose of mountaineering (brb, gotta look up Ranier expeditions), but the murder mystery plot let me down.

We focus on journalist Cecily Wong, an adventure journalist and novice mountaineer recruited by famed alpinist Charles McVeigh to record his ascent of all fourteen peaks without oxygen or fixed ropes. Cecily is not your typical mountaineer -- she's a half-Chinese woman who's never summited a mountain before, and she's definitely on the anxious side. I liked her as a protagonist because of this, and I thought she was a very well fleshed-out character.

What Breathless excels at is the atmosphere. Amy McCulloch's experience with mountaineering really sold me on the feeling of being in the death zone, dying with every breath and too exhausted to do anything but focus on survival, as well as the trepidation of such a challenge ahead. However, I found the murder mystery predictable and fairly routine for a thriller -- the forces of nature was scarier than the whodunnit. Part of this is the extremities of the setting, so I don't know if it could have been helped with stronger characterization and tension with that plot.

If you've read a few thrillers and don't care about the alpinism aspect, Breathless might not stand out, but if you're interested in a mountaineering book set on a lesser-known mountain, then this is definitely an interesting one.

Breathless by Amy McCulloch takes the thriller set in an isolated, snowy setting and cranks it up to eleven. Cecily is a reporter spending her last dollars on the opportunity of a lifetime: to interview climbing legend Charles McVeigh. The catch: she has to make it to the summit of Manaslu with him before he'll agree to an interview. On the way up the mountain, a string of suspicious accidents, unnerving whisting, and a lack of satellite and wi-fi signals isolates the team. If Cecily wants to make it off the mountain alive, she'll have to find a strength she didn't believe she had.

I'll admit, this book is very slow to start, but it does start to speed up around the halfway mark. As a climber herself, McCulloch does an excellent job at describing the terrain and the mental toll such a climb takes. I will say that Cecily took a lot of risks, and some she shouldn't have. Other people also make questionable decisions that tells me they've never read a murder mystery.

The biggest twist in this book was obvious. Honestly, it was my main thought from the first page. If you want to be uttterly co founded and shocked by the twist, this is probably not the thriller for you. But if you like books were people face the elements, where the murderer isn't the only thing that can kill you, you'll probably like this one.

I will say, as much as the big twist didn't surprise me, there was another twist that I didn't see coming, and it was very cleverly hidden throughout the story.

Rating: 4 stars

I am so sorry for the inconvenience but I will not able to review this book any longer. I was having trouble with my e-reader and before I could get it sorted out and read the book it had archived. Again I am so sorry for the inconvenience and will likely be picking the book up at my local bookstore in the future.

Thank you to the publisher, and Netgalley, for providing an advanced copy of Breathless in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book that Netgalley was promoting and the first 200 members could read it instantly. I'm usually a 100% romance reader, but the synposis of Breathless really intrigued me. I don't know what I'm scared of more: deep space, wide open oceans, or people dying on mountaintops and never being able to be recovered. Some of the Everest documentaries I watched really scarred me for life.

It's been a while since I've read a thriller, or thriller-esque novel, but I did enjoy this book. I found it easy to read, I liked the characters and the story, but I did find it predictable. That put a damper on the read for me, as I like to get to the climax and be totally shook with the big reveal. But when I already know where the book is going, it's a little disappointing for me. There was something missing here for me (but again, I read mainly romance) so I think it was a me problem and not a book problem.

Breathless really makes me miss the mountains, though. But I'll admire them from the ground and not venture up to the peaks.

I wanted to love this one, but gave up after 110 pages because of I felt like I was reading a how-to guide for climbing large mountains, mixed with a bit of mystery. I recommend borrowing this one from your local library to test the waters, as you might love the things that I did not enjoy.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for my advanced review copy of this book!

It caught my interest right from the start. Cecily, a climbing novice is selected by expert Charles McVeigh on an expedition to climb Manaslu. However, things turn suspenseful as it turns out that Cecily and her fellow climbers don’t just have to battle the mountain and the conditions but a murder in their midst. The tension builds as one by one her fellow climbers die. I loved this book, I thought that the setting and characters were unique and the plot reminded me of the Agatha Christie novels I loved when I was younger.

BREATHLESS had all the elements of a nail-biting thriller:
- A unique, isolated setting? CHECK
- A treacherous environment? CHECK
- An unreliable narrator? CHECK
- A murderer among us? CHECK

Cecily Wong is a journalist with a career-making opportunity to write an exclusive interview on renowned mountaineer, Charles McVeigh, if only she summits Mount Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world. She is the least experienced in the group and comes from a complicated climbing background, so when the climbers start being picked off one by one, she is not only facing a death defying mountain, but a murderer.

I was hooked from the start. The unique, mountain setting, the eclectic group of characters, and the potential for major suspense. I love a locked room mystery, and I enjoyed that Breathless offered elements of one. It moved throughout the character’s journey up the mountain, of course, and brought a few characters in, but we were trying to discover what was going on among a relatively small group and in basically one location. It was also fascinating to find out the author is also a mountaineer! I also liked that it was a twist on an unreliable narrator, as Cecily began to question herself due to the lack of oxygen the further she got up the mountain.

Breathless was entertaining and I enjoyed learning about mountaineering, but ultimately I found the thriller element lacking. There was one twist I didn’t expect but ultimately it played out as I suspected. I felt invested in Cecily’s journey, but I wish we could have dug a little deeper into some of the side characters. Some of the writing felt a bit confusing and underdeveloped.

Overall, this was a 3.5/5 star read for me. Rounded up to 4 for Goodreads. I would recommend it if you are looking for a fast-paced thriller set in a dangerous location.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada, Viking for the digital ARC.

After reading Breathless it’s safe to say I won’t be mountaineering anytime soon! This book was amazing and had me guessing until the end!

Cecily has been given the big break she needed in her life, to climb to the top of the worlds eight highest peak and an exclusive interview with Charles McVeigh, the world class mountaineer. Only issue she has to summit the mountain in order to get the interview. As her and her team start to climb, things start to go wrong. Gear is being destroyed, lies are being told and bodies are being found. Can Cecily solve the mystery while also trying to survive the mountain?

I was so excited to get an ARC of this book! I loved the pacing and writing style of it. The plot was great and I really enjoyed the twists and turns. Overall I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thriller!

4.25 stars. This debut novel is aptly named. I truly became breathless as I was propelled through the story, securing my own carabiner as the suspense and thrills escalated. In Breathless, the protagonist Cecily Wong is a journalist who must summit one of the 8-thousander mountains to get a high-profile interview and story that is critical for her career and her independence, As the story progresses, you feel Cecily’s desperation in achieving the climb, while sinister things seem to unfold around her. I truly enjoyed how the author pulls the reader into the story, and transports one so completely into the mechanics and the experience of a challenging summit. From gear to base camps, to vital nourishment and the dependence on a team. Cooperation is imperative in an unpredictable environment where one faulty plan or one misstep can mean the difference between life or death, but when doubts begin to surface over who Cecily can trust, tension builds. Where McCulloch shines is her talent in ascending the adventure to a heart pounding, palm sweating experience by adding murder and suspicion into the mix. The twists and turns along the way have you flipping the pages, racing to the end.

I will never scale a mountain that requires supplementary oxygen, but Breathless gave me a really good idea of what it must be like. Knowing that the author is a climber added to the excitement of this novel and it offers a thrilling glimpse into the climbing world. Add to that the thriller aspect of an unknown killer and intensifying tension, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, Viking, and NetGalley for the electronic advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I struggled writing a review for this one because I have mixed emotions. Overall, I give BREATHLESS two stars, but if you asked me during the first half, I probably would've said something higher. The more I read, the more I got frustrated and my star rating continued to drop.

What did I love? First, the author is Canadian - I'm always happy supporting Canadian authors. Second, the amount of information I learned about summiting a mountain is actually shocking. I did not think I*d remember half the stuff I read about, but when I'm watching a movie or tv or even reading another book and it's brought up, I recognize the verbiage that goes along with it and I know what is going on! I also have a list of movies/documentaries that this reminded me of, so send me a message if you have read this book and want the list!

What didn't I love? At times I felt the writing was a bit hard to follow. Not that I couldn't understand it, just that it wasn't written well. Juvenile, maybe? I felt the ending was a copout, I would've liked to see something more complex rather than it being the obvious choice, I guess. Also not sure if that's a spoiler or not, so sorry if it is!

A young journalist, Cecily, gets a once in a lifetime chance to climb an extreme altitude mountain. To report on the final leg of a world acclaimed mountaineer, Charles record breaking summits. Cecily soon discovers things are not what they seem and the mountain may not be the deadliest part of the adventure.
Good read. Recommended for all lovers of mystery and adventure.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

A mountaineering adventure story with mysterious or accidental deaths, a flawed main character sometimes plucky, sometimes lacking will power and a man with a god complex being the center point of this climb. A very entertaining and engaging read. I really enjoyed the dispatches Cecily wrote up for her editor. It lent an ear of authenticity to what Cecily was seeing and going through and very much reminded me of reading high mountain adventures from outdoor magazines. I was even more impressed upon reading the acknowledgments of Amy’s climbing background and that Amy had indeed climbed Manaslu.
The inherent dangers of high altitude climbing combined with an injection of flawed or malignant characters is surely a recipe for the perfect storm of mayhem and death. 4 1/2 stars

This was a good book. It seemed a little young for me and was a little drawn out. I enjoyed the story but it won’t be one that stays with me. It was a easy read but I didn’t find it thrilling.

Wow!

This book was not at all what I expected. It has been a while since I read a book that I picked up and had trouble putting down. This was it. I was sp engrossed on this story. It makes so much sense that of the mountaineering information comes from real life experience, because that is how it felt. I was up there on the mountain freezing and experiencing the breathless-ness right along with the characters.

This author spectacularly set the scene with details of the experience but also built these relationships with the characters. I felt bonded Cecily and I loved Galden. I couldn't help but become invested in their relationships and their journey to the summit. All the characters were fleshed out. Again the detail is impecable.

I loved the red herrings. I kept thinking I had it figured out but the story would shift and I would be wrong again. I was guessing till the very end.

Honestly, I loved everything about this book. I am so grateful for the opportunity to read it.

I will be recommending this to anyone and everyone.

Kudos!! Can't wait to read more from this author!!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a really different read for me, which is why I requested it. I’ve never read a book about mountain climbing, I found it very interesting because I learned a lot about climbing, but I did not really find it suspenseful/thrilling. The fact that the main character, Cecily, was so unprepared in such extreme conditions just gave me anxiety. There were also some scary things that happened during the adventure that were stressful. The characters also lacked depth.

I think the author put a lot of research into it and I didn’t mind the writing of the book, I think maybe the subject matter just wasn’t the best for me, personally.