The first part of this book is a memoir and the second part is a how to manual. I preferred the first half where the Author is introduced to swimming and immerses herself into the sport. Dealing with her IVF treatments and life as a newly wed while she tackles a new sport made the narrative flow. The second part has a great chapter on other books about swimming as well as a detailed list of equipment needed that would serve any newcomer well.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

Thank You Net galley for the free ARC.

This was about overcoming an element - in this case, water. The author starts open swimming without having much training and must adapt her thinking, her breathing, her motions in order to conquer the ocean. Short and interesting read.

Open water swimming is one of the fastest growing participation sports and is one of the few where both men and women compete against each other without separate categories. This book by Alexandra Heminsley chronicles her journey to be a competitor in that sport.

Having already conquered running and having written a similar book on that sport, Heminsley shares a story that is at times funny, inspiring, dramatic but most of all a simple feel-good story about what it takes to overcome the fear of trying something new.

The reader will learn much about her personal life as well as her struggles to become an open water swimmer. The best way I can describe the story is like some of the water in which she swam: choppy. The topics seemed to go all over the place, from her discovery that the only way she and her husband could have children was in-vitro to her first open water swim in which she stayed near the end with two other women who were in her swimming classes.

This isn’t to say this book isn’t good, as the story is worth reading, but as a reader who is not a great swimmer, I found the sections on the history of the sport of open water swimming and some of the techniques used to be more interesting than that of her story. Nonetheless, this book is recommended for readers who either read her first book on running and wish to know more about her or for people interested in the sport of open water swimming.

I wish to thank Pegasus Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.