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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I've really cut back on my YA reading over the last few months, but I can't resist a new Miranda Kenneally book. I love her writing style, her characters and, perhaps most of all, the sex-positive vibe she brings to the table. It's been a long time since I've been a teen, but somehow her books make it easy to put myself back in those shoes. Her characters are real and flawed and I love rooting for them as they really come into their own.

Coming Up for Air was delightful. Of course, I am total sucker for friends first books. Throw in a friends with benefits/tutor storyline and I'm all over it. Maggie and Levi were just wonderful, both separately and together. I loved their friendship, so I was a little conflicted when things started moving in another direction for them. I loved the idea of them as a couple — if it ever got that far — but I was also worried about one or both of them getting hurt and their friendship suffering. I also understood where Maggie was coming from and why she would turn to Levi for, uh help. Getting personal for a minute, I wasn't the most experienced girl amongst my friends while I was in high school. I can remember how I felt when I thought about going off to college as an innocent. Of course, that's exactly what I did and it worked out pretty well... but I applaud Maggie for taking the steps she did. It worked out pretty well for her, too, as Levi was super swoony.

I was hopelessly addicted to this book and these characters from the very start. I loved how important swimming was to these two and it was really enjoyable to read about from the perspective of an athlete. (Or two.) When it came to friendship and then everything that came after, I was all in. It was a fun read, but it wasn't without depth and feels — good and bad. But it was all good in the end and I enjoyed the ride, even through the bumpy parts. I mean, it's those bumps that makes Miranda's books so realistic to me. I loved this one so, so much.

I can't believe this is the end of the Hundred Oaks series! I've loved it since I discovered Catching Jordan — and that book and those characters have a special place in my heart — so it really was fitting that the epilogue revisited Jordan and Sam. Boy, did that ever cause a few feels (and tears). It was the perfect wrap up to a YA series that will forever be one of my favorites. Safe to say I'll be rereading these books in the (relatively) near future.

FAVORITE QUOTES

"I like this. But you're the best thing in my life. The only thing in my life."

"There has to be some way we can swimming and us."

"You're the best kisser I've ever had. The best hugger. The best hand holder. The best everything. It's because of you—because we're right for each other."

This was a fitting close to the Hundred Oaks series, which I have really enjoyed reading over the last few years. I loved that Maggie - like all the Hundred Oaks heroines before her - had an honest struggle with growing up and navigating the inevitability of change and how it affects her relationships and/or the other ones around her. I loved the romance in this, and I thought the book was funny, sweet, and thoroughly enjoyable. *Note: I did read the digital ARC of this on Kindle, and the formatting was pretty funky, which made the story feel a little difficult in terms of flow and just pure readability. But the story and writing itself was great.* 3.5/5

This book is more for older teens. There's a lot of cussing, and some sexually explicit scenes. Older-more-towards-adult teens would enjoy this much better.

This book is more for older teens. There's a lot of cussing, and some sexually explicit scenes. Older-more-towards-adult teens would enjoy this much better.

Although this was my first read in the Hundred Oaks series, Coming Up for Air absolutely read wonderfully as a standalone. Since it combined two of my favorite tropes, friends-to-lovers and sports romance, I enjoyed this book so much! Both Maggie and Levi were well-written, well-developed characters and I felt their dialog and interactions were so realistic. Although I am far from an expert on the sport of swimming, Miranda Kenneally did a great job explaining the intricacies of the sport so a newbie like me could follow and understand. A great YA read!

Plot • Maggie has always been focused on swimming–whether it's to earn a college scholarship or to qualify for the Olympics. It's the type of dedication not many people understand but luckily for her, her best friend Levi is swimmer too. They're each other's biggest cheerleader and their friendship has always been platonic. But when Maggie goes away for a college weekend visit, she realizes just how much of the normal high school experience she's missed out on due to the pressure of all her training and the swim team. She decides that she's going to have some fun her senior year, namely to make out with cute boys, and she feels Levi is the boy she should be kissing. (For the record, I completely agreed with this!) But what starts off as a "no strings attached" kind of deal immediately becomes complicated for all parties involved.

Characters • Maggie is the type of character I would love to become friends with. I admired her dedication to swimming and her straightforwardness to approach Levi with what she wanted. But I also related to her more vulnerable moments as she realized her feelings were changing and when she was psyched out by another person or an upcoming meet. She just felt so real. Likewise, Levi is officially one of my top three favorite Hundred Oaks guys. He's just as a dedicated to swimming and flawed but he's also a sweetheart who loves to read YA (dream guy right there) and cares deeply for his relationship with Maggie.

Writing • What's to say about Miranda Kenneally's writing that I haven't said before? It's compulsively readable. I immediately cared for the characters and the relationships. As always, her plots are sex positive and focus on these young women making choices about their bodies. I love that her characters are flawed but innately good people. Basically, if it's written by Kenneally I'm going to read it.

Overall feelings • Loved it! It honestly made me want to go back and re-read every book in Hundred Oaks

Cute and a quick read.

Maggie lives and breathes swim, but she feels like she is missing out on what it's like to be a teenager-like kissing and having an orgasm. So she asks a friend for help. But will it get in the way of swimming and ruin their chances of an Olympic bid?

I did enjoy this book, and loved the details on swimming. I have never read any of the other books in this series, but I liked that I didn't need to read them to follow along.

No one writes more realistic, sex positive contemporary YA than Miranda Kenneally. And her abilities in this area are a huge reason why I not only love her Hundred Oaks series but why I think this series is a must read, especially for teenage and adult women. She always manages to capture what it was like to be in high school, at least what I felt like in high school, and her latest book, Coming Up for Air, is no exception. I immediately connected with Maggie - she's driven and dedicated to swimming but she also has normal feelings and curiosities like every teenager. The friendships she had were such a highlight in this book, both with Levi but also with her core group who meets every Friday. I found these weekly meetings so endearing and reminiscent of being in high school. I also loved the descriptions of swimming -- the practices, the competitions, the traveling. This book was just so well developed in its plot and characters that I couldn't put it down. I am sad to see this series end (this is the last book) but this book contains an amazing epilogue and I can't wait to see what Miranda writes next! I can't recommend this series enough and I know I will re-read all of these books often.

Coming Up For Air comes out tomorrow on July 4, 2017, you can purchase HERE. I cannot stress enough how amazing and important this series is - it is a must read for teens and adults alike.

What if fooling around with Levi is fueling stronger emotion that may or may not be real? Once it happened, feelings started blooming, as if I threw a bunch of seeds over my shoulder, and a month later, wildflowers were all over my yard. They are beautiful, but not what I had planned. Is that okay? Or will it all grow out of control and mess up our friendship?

I actually didn't realize when I started reading that this was the final Hundred Oaks book. In fact, it wasn't until I got to the epilogue and read an update on many of our favorite past characters that I realized that Kenneally was wrapping the series up with this one. I'm sad to see the series go, but I'm glad that I had the opportunity to read these books! (By the way, they can all be read as standalones, so if you haven't dived into the series yet, feel free to jump in anywhere.)

What Fed My Addiction:

Feel-good reading.
This is one of those romances that just makes me happy, you know? Kenneally always manages to tug at my heartstrings and make me swoon, and the book feels like perfect summer reading when you just need a little pick-me-up! There are all sorts of little details that Kenneally handles so well (one example---I love that she casually throws church into her book without making the story revolve around religious tensions).

Friends who become more.
I've always loved the trope of best friends who eventually become something more, and this book was no exception. Levi and Maggie are perfect together because they know each other so well and they already love and respect each other. The romance is almost secondary to the connection that they already have (which isn't to say that it's not swoonworthy---it is!). Of course, this also means that when things go a bit sour (which, of course, they do for a while), the hurt is that much deeper. I kind of wanted to strangle Levi at one point in the book, but once Maggie forgave him I managed to do it too. :-)

Swimming!
Swimming is the one sport that I kind of, sort of get because two of my kids are on a club team. Even though they're both new to the sport and they're nowhere close to the competitive level of the characters, I still felt like I could relate to the swimming talk a bit more than I usually can to other sports talk in books. And I feel like lots of people at least have some frame of reference when they're talking about Olympic trials, etc, since we just had the Olympics last summer.

Take It Or Leave It:

Casual Sex?
So, at first I was a little bit worried that this book was going to be a little too liberal when it comes to sex for me---that maybe the idea would be that Maggie actually needed to practice hooking up and having sex in order to fit in with her peers or at college. I find that message a little off-putting. But that really wasn't the central theme at all---in fact, Maggie comes to realize that she doesn't want to experience those things with just anyone. She wants a connection with the person. So while Maggie's overall attitude about sex is a bit more casual than I thought I'd appreciate at first, in the end, I felt like there was a healthy balance---the idea that a girl can choose what she wants for herself but that she certainly shouldn't feel pressured to go at any certain pace or have a certain level of "acceptable" experience.

As always, Kenneally had me hooked from almost the first page with this book. With complex characters that are easy to love, this is the type of romance that leaves me smiling. I give it an easy 4/5 stars.