I love Miranda Kenneally, and this has her signature writing style and memorable characters, but I didn't love that so much of the book focused on sexual stuff.

Maggie and Levi have been best friends for a very long time. Both very focused on their swimming and trying to make it to the Olympic trials, not leaving much time for anything else like romantic relationships. Levi actually being experienced seems like the perfect person for Maggie to ask to give her lessons on hooking up. I really liked reading this book. Seeing if Levi would actually help Maggie? If they develop deeper feelings for each? Finding out if it would affect their friendship? And discovering if they would ever qualify for the Olympic trials they worked so hard for? This is a good reminder working hard and staying focused can payoff. I really liked reading this book. It was sweet and fun and a little sad in a few parts. This was a journey I really enjoyed taking with Maggie and Levi!

When I first requested this book I was in the mood for something cute and a high school story seemed like the perfect way to go.

I was very excited to read Coming Up for Air, because the description made it sound like fun and an easy read. I cannot say it wasn't easy or fun to read, but it wasn't totally what I was expecting.

I don't know if I've already outgrown YA and it just doesn't click as it used to before, but for some reason I could not get invested in the book as much as I would have like.

Still the book story line was good, there were multiple things working for the story and I think if I would have read this book a few years back I would probably been obsessed with Levi. I liked Levi he was nice character to read, I liked him in the story, and it was a very good high school story, but it just didn't captive me.

I felt it a little generic, and sort of cliche, but I still like it. There were some good parts of the story and like I said I would probably had like it better if I was younger. So if you are looking for a light read that has romance and cute and awkward high school moments, then Coming Up for Air is so for you!

The sex-positive attitude for Maggie is what really sold this one for me,..Girls are often pressured to feel like they can't want to explore and she does healthily! I didn't like Catching Jordan as much but this one I feel showcased the passion she has for swimming, and also wanting to be normal. I liked the reference to previous characters also!

As an elite swimmer with Olympic aspirations, Maggie's life is pretty much filled to the brim with swimming. After a college visit, she feels like she is missing out on many of the typical high school experiences. She has only been kissed once during a game, and has never had an actual boyfriend. She is hoping to remedy at least one of these situations by propositioning her best friend to "teach" her how to hook up.

"We can't. That's swimcest."

So, my initial reaction to this book: "It's so fluffy!"

And I mean "fluffy" in the best possible way. This book just hit the spot. It was sweet and fun with a low level of drama, and it left me with an ear to ear grin.

I really liked Maggie. This is a girl, who dedicated her life almost exclusively to her sport, and the remainder of her free time was spent with her family or her small group of friends. I admired her dedication on all fronts. She may have been immature when it came to physical relationships, but she was faithful to swimming like it was her job. She understood that her dream came at a cost, and she was willing to give up her days to the pool with no regrets or complaints.

"Even though I'm technically almost an adult, I feel like I haven't had any truly adult experiences. ... To be honest, I haven't had many life experiences at all."

I can still remember a little bit about high school (it was a very long time ago), and I remember feeling like I was being left behind as far a physical relationships go. Therefore, I could relate to Maggie's frustrations. I thought the messages that Kenneally wove in there with respect to sexuality were positive, healthy, and nonjudgmental. She did not impose a one-size-fits-all opinion regarding teen sexuality, as this is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Rather, many different ideas are presented, with the overarching idea being that it's a personal choice. Kenneally even addresses the double standard that is prevalent in society when it come girls versus boys, and I say - bravo!

"I get what she's saying. There's definitely a double standard. It seems guys can do whatever they want sexually, because boys will be boys. But girls have every right to experiment too. Can't girls be girls?"

I adored the friendship between Maggie and Levi. They had so much history together, and were quite a support system for each other. They had this higher level of understanding, not just because of years and years of friendship, but also because of their shared Olympic goal. I was rooting for this friendship to evolve from the very beginning. I just saw them as perfect for each other, and I experienced a whole lot of different emotions throughout this story overtime their relationship changed.

I have not been involved in any sports since my own high school days, but I love reading sports romances. I especially like, when there are actual sports sequences included, as there are in Coming Up for Air. Miranda Kenneally gave me a great look at what it takes to chase a swimming dream. All the laps, the weight lifting, the carb loading, all the sacrifices - the amount of time that an elite level athlete dedicates to their sport is daunting. She also did a great job getting us inside Maggie's head, including a rival, who was a thorn in her side and a hinderance to her gold medal dreams.

I was already a Hundred Oak fan prior to Coming Up for Air, and I was so excited when I spotted the first cameo from Jordan Wood (book 1). Then, Jordan and Sam pop up again. But, I really lost it all with their appearance in the epilogue. What a gift for the fans! Kenneally deftly brought this series full circle, by giving us a fantastic update on the very first Hundred Oak couple, as well as filling us in on what happened "after" with Maggie and Levi. I won't tell you much, but a few happy tears may have escaped from my eyes.

Overall: A solid addition to the Hundred Oak series. A wonderful friends to lovers story, which is sort of fluffy and left me with a happy heart.

I found this novel very interesting. It was a great choice. A very pleasant lecture.

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!

So interesting to learn how hard kids work on their swimming throughout their childhood to get even close to Olympics or even just college swimming. Maggie and Levi and their friends are pretty great kids. It's a great story with lots of quick humor...Jason seems to swat Maggie's butt with foam swim board after swim practice scenes everytime!!!

It's mostly about being the best you can be and improve a little.

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.