Breathe, Annie, Breathe is a great YA tale with a sporty focus.

I'm totally impressed that I finally found a book that centers around sports! It is quite a rare find for me, so I'm ridiculously pleased! As a former athlete, I absolutely love being able to locate a book that reflects my life. It's always nice to know that there's more books out there for us athletes. Throw in the fact that it's also a YA novel and you've got me really interested! The YA crowd, specifically, needs some books that reflect their lives that they can sink their teeth into.

That being said, this book was not for me. I normally love a good YA but this one left me rather bored. It's still a fabulous book and it's fabulously written (so don't get me wrong, I'm really impressed) but I was left rather bored. I may be moving away from the YA genre in general, or maybe this wasn't the book I needed right now. Either way, my review reflects my opinion but believe me - this book is good even though I didn't enjoy it.

This story follows Annie training for a marathon, and we find out about her complicated relationship history along the way. She works incredibly hard to make it towards her marathon, which is probably my favourite part of this book. Annie doesn't give up easily and perseveres throughout the novel.

Additionally, this book carries a lot of emotion. There are some scenes that make you really feel for Annie and her situation. I liked how Miranda wrote those scenes and I applaud her for them.

My negatives for this book focus on Annie as a character. Like most YA novels, she seems to have most of life going for her. Yes, she does have some tragic parts of her life but she also gets things her way in the end. It's a hard mix of struggle and perseverance that I felt just wasn't met in this story. It just didn't feel real or right for me.

Overall, I did enjoy the book but it wasn't my favourite of the year. I think it's a great addition to a teenager or young adult lovers bookshelf. If you're looking for a book about sports and running with a good mix of YA drama, pick up this book!

Two out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

When I saw that this was one of my friend's forever favorite books, I decided to stop putting it off. I mean, I've been meaning to read a book in the Hundred Oakes series since forevs-- and now I have!!

I feel like this may have been the perfect book for me to start with because the subject-matter is a lot more serious and lot less romancey-- although, the romance is DEFINITELY there. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed reading about running, considering whenever I have to run in real life all I can think about is the intense pain all over my body, but I liked seeing how Annie progressed.

We follow Annie's training schedule in the 6 months leading up to her first marathon. Annie isn't a runner, so having only 6 months to train to run a full marathon (26.something miles) is tough stuff. I loved reading about her training and learning things about running that I never knew (like eating fish is good for your knees and weird things about Vaseline). I actually loved being in her head, which I usually do not like. When you run, you have A LOT of time to think and for the most part, I liked Annie's thoughts.

Annie is running the marathon in honor of her boyfriend who passed away before he could run in one. It gets complicated when her trainer's brother enters the picture and gives her all kinds of crushworthy-feels. I could see why she didn't feel great about getting with a guy who is involved with something that connects to her boyfriend's memory. It was awkward as all hell.

The thing about Jeremiah (the brother) is that he's an adrenaline junkie, constantly seeking the next high, putting himself in all kinds of unnecessary danger. I felt like Annie was right to be wary-- how could she go through another accidental death of a love interest???

What I liked about the Jeremiah situation: He sounded hot as hell. Boys that don't have fear are hot-- they just are. I liked their chemistry together, and I liked that hooking up wasn't the biggest deal in the world to this author. I thought Jeremiah might have been the most patient college kid on the planet and I respected that.

The part of Jeremiah that made me feel MEH: I didn't care for Jeremiah using Annie as a way to get his new high. What's going to happen when that newness wears off?? It will wear off Jeremiah, I promise you. Also, why was every guy in love with this Annie chick?? She seemed like an everyday girl, I didn't think she needed to be HOTTEST GIRL EVER for me to believe Jeremiah would be interested in her.

I will definitely be reading more Miranda Kenneally books!! I really enjoyed the flow of this book. reading about marathon training, going to college, and awesome families. Thanks to Andi for getting me to read this backlist book that I should’ve read years ago!!

OVERALL: Great mix of serious and cuteness. Props to a book about running that made running actually interesting (it helped that there was a hot guy involved, LOL). This is my first Hundred Oaks book, but I hope it's not my last!!

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I think Breathe, Annie, Breathe may in fact be my favorite Hundred Oaks book yet. Annie and Jeremiah are characters who instantly engage you and have you rooting for a happy ending from the beginning. A must read for me. ( )

I'm disappointed that the more I read the Hundred Oak books the less and less well written I seem to find them. I did like Annie's story and her motivation but I didn't feel any real raw emotion towards any of the characters. Jeremiah got a few smiles from me but I feel like I needed more insight into his life. Maybe his own POV would have helped. This was nice but I don't see myself reading another book from this series unfortunately. ( )

I liked Annie as a character and her determination. She is dealing with a lot of grief and perceived guilt. She feels like if she would have done things differently, her ex, Kyle would still be alive, and they could have still been together.

There was strained family dynamics in this one. Annie and her mom had a big fight and she had projected her guilt on her mom and blamed her that if she didn't push her goals of college on Annie, that she could have said yes to the proposal. At least Annie and her brother is close. She doesn't let any of them talk about her loss, and try to suggest ways to heal or what she should do.

The running was interesting. I am much like Annie in that I hate to run, never done it well or had the desire to do it. But the regimen of it started to appeal to Annie. She didn't have to worry about what to do with her time, and she found herself looking forward to the running, and the challenge of it.

She is very conflicted about a new person, a boy, in her life. She feels guilt for having feelings for someone else and thinks its too soon, and also taking over her reason for running. To finish what Kyle couldn't do but put so much time into the training and goal of completing the marathon, But I did enjoy the exploration of the romantic feelings with Jere, and how he helped her to face some things, to realize more about taking chances even with the chance of loss or getting hurt.

I will mention that while I loved the heat in this one, it is a bit descriptive with foreplay etc, so if you are sensitive to that sort of thing.

I liked how it came together and left the book with a sense of completion but also hope for their happiness and what's next for the characters.

Bottom Line: Another good one from this series