As I'm Australian, I love reading books set in Australia. I also love when their descriptions of the landscape, the sounds, the colours and the people are accurate. This book ticked all those boxes - I could FEEL the outback, it's heat, it's quietness, it's vastness, it's loneliness, it's vivid colours that stretch for days.

The characters were well written, the plot unique and interesting, however, the pacing, particularly in the first 40% was a bit slow. I didn't find myself racing to pick it up. And it was only a tad 'nail-biting' right at the end but I felt like it could've been even more of a thriller.

I can see a lot of research went into this book - farming, backpack workers, the pearling industry, underwater techniques, the outback and I appreciated that. It was beautifully written and I enjoyed the story just the beginning was a bit drawn out.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Australia and Harper Collins for the ARC.

I loved this book. I was captivated from the start as Jo stumbles through her past landscapes and lands into the hostile, unforgiving west of Australia which almost claims her life. I felt her pain, her smell, her sweat, her desperation, as she seeks a place that she can call 'home'.
I won't talk about the plot - so many of you write lengthy synopses - but how I enjoyed the satisfying ending. Oh, yes, thanks for that, Anna! Well done!
I'm going to look out for your other books. I enjoyed this one so much.
Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC for an honest review. Such a privilege!

Jo has been living in Australia, after moving from England, but in order to extend her visa, she needs to work for almost three months on a remote farm. Conditions there are not at all ideal and after one final incident, Jo finds herself running. A man named Gabe had told her about the small off grid community he lives in and she’s desperate to join. When she finally arrives, she thinks she may have found the solution to all her problems, and her past traumas.

This is one of those books that was really good...then got really weird. Luckily, it picked up to be really good again before the end! I had concerns my rating was going to be much lower around the halfway point, so I’d suggest pushing on if you feel the same way.

Out of Breath was absolutely the tense ride that was promised (other than the lull in the middle) and the uncovering of Jo’s past was really well done. I was hooked from the beginning, wanting to know each and every characters’ story. I must admit I didn’t quite trust the one who turned out to be the ‘villain’ in this story, so that big twist wasn’t much of a surprise, but getting there along the way provided plenty of other reveals that kept it exciting!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book takes the reader on the magical but treacherous journey to the coastal outback of North West Australia. This vast empty landscape that those from close knit towns of Europe have no concept of and the heat which Josie Ainsley finally discovers for herself with her close to death experience.

How did Josie (Jo...J) Ainsley come to be in this part of the world so far from her safe existence in London? After realising that she was failing art school, not any art school but the Slade School of Fine Art, she decides to dump current boyfriend/teacher Geoffrey and head off to Australia. First stop is Sydney but this is a city like other cities, just warmer than London. However, even with this change in scenery and lifestyle this young woman can't escape her chronic insomnia and continual nightmares. In fact this is a young woman still living with the trauma of her childhood. Due to an extreme change in her family relationships, from living with her mother to living with her father who didn't want to have the burden of fatherhood, Josie has lost out on love and caring. She can't settle even with new friends in Sydney and running a successful game show at a local pub and a boyfriend who is not dissimilar in attitude to the London boyfriend although through her circumstances marriage is mooted. Finally she decides to respond to her initial enquiry regarding work at a mango farm in the outback of North West Australia.

Getting to the mango farm has been quite an eye opener, left in the middle of nowhere by the driver of the bus the landscape like no other, Jo starts to wonder if she has made the right move. It's dark before finally the farm truck arrives. Unbeknown to her, some of these isolated farms have quite bad reputations of poor living arrangements and poor pay. The living quarters at the mango farm, no electricity, no communication facilities and bunk beds in a hot tin shed. Her first day gives Jo a real taste of hard work, picking mangoes she is required to meet the designated quota. It's tough going however she makes new friends and is determined to stick it out but due to her inability to pay attention to her work, mostly as the result of the continual lack of sleep, the nightmares and night terrors returning, a terrible accident occurs which changes the dynamics of her personal relationships with the other workers. After this she decides to set out alone for the utopia described by one of the visitors to the farm, an American who, like the others at this commune, has put the world behind him.

With only a few bottles of water and some bruised mangoes Jo starts off into the desolate wasteland with only vague instructions of a westward destination. Almost succumbing to dehydration and sunstroke she is discovered by chance by the matriarch of the commune travelling with the American Gabe, where she finally wakes to find herself at the commune. The matriarch Ally has a beguiling personality and in no time Jo finds herself taken in by her. Ally's past professional life has given her the tools to get into someone's mind and for which Jo, like the others, succumbs to her, revealing things about herself that she has never told anyone. However, in an incident with Gabe her hidden memories are awakened and the truth of her childhood actions revealed. The discovery of Ally's real purpose with everyone eventually comes to light as does the deceit by Gabe. Unbeknown to Jo those from the outside world have put actions into motion for which eventually reaches her mother in London.

I love a good book about a closed community with a decent dose of suspense and drama. Throw in an Aussie outback setting and I'm in for the ride. There was plenty going on and the storytelling was vivid and engaging.

I liked the shifting nature of who the "bad guy" was and the resolution at the end which still left enough speculation for the reader to fill in some gaps.

I feel there was too much background story leading up to the main focus although I never became bored. I just don't think it was all entirely necessary. And I don't like the cover. Still a four star read for me and I'm a tough audience.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

The plot is fantastic, the writing descriptive the characters enthralling but, I struggled to keep hold of the story between reads. I lost myself in it at the start but as time went on I struggled to remember what had happened before I'd finished reading the previous evening. This is a book to read in one sitting to fully appreciate it.

Jo has been running for most of her life from a tragic childhood, each time taking further and further away from her childhood home and eventually to Australia, where she works on a farm picking mangoes. There we are introduced to a colourful cast of characters, and as more tragedy unfolds, Jo continues to do what she has done her whole life.. run. This time to a strange community of people living off grid in the outback.

I struggled to get into this story, and found the main character, and her choices a little difficult to relate to. But the story did pick up about a third of the way in, and the pace picked up and I found myself becoming more invested in the story and learning just what was really going on in the community, to the point it was hard to put it down. I was less of a fan of how it wrapped up, and felt like the last two chapters were a bit of a let down, and while the story behind what was really going on was engaging... I found the way it was told was less so in the final few chapters. It felt rushed?

Another Aussie thriller and I was down for it! Jo came to Australia from England to start fresh and try something new, she ended up in the remote outback near Broome and I’m pretty sure she got way more than she bargained for. I could not stop reading, I had to know what was going to happen next and how it was all going to pan out. I loved the ending, how Anna wrapped it up like that 🤭👌🏻 definitely recommend this one.

First time trying Anna Snoekstra and as someone that actually lives near Broome this book had me. The description and story was captivating.
Great job!

What a great book! I loved it.

From the very first page I was engaged and the story moved along nicely.
One minute we were in Sydney, the next in Broome.

Moving back and forward between timelines in Jo's life, there was plenty of mystery to keep you guessing, suspense to keep you intrigued and I loved the ending which had (for me) a little added surprise.

The description was well drawn and I was on the edge of my seat several times.
I will certainly be seeking out other books by this author.
Well done.

3.5 rounded up
Out of Breath is my first read by author, Anna Snoekstra. This one is a standalone psychological drama/thriller. The story follows UK-born, Jo as she travels to Western Australia where she first works on a farm picking fruit and then later joins a community of people living off the grid. The best part of this book is the outback Australian setting and richly drawn complex characters. Being from Western Australia myself, I could easily understand the tourist backpacker culture described in the book. The character of Jo is multi-layered, complex, flawed and her sense of wanting to connect relatable. My biggest dislike for the book was the pace. The story for me didn't really get interesting until around 40% of the way in when she got to the community. I found this part really engaging and I was invested in wanting to know more about these people and their motivations. What were their secrets, was it all too good to be true?

I'd recommend this book to fans of complex and dramatic mysteries/thrillers. The setting and tourist culture makes this one unique and fun to read. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for a review.

Cover: ⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Character Building: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ending: ⭐⭐⭐
Overall Rating:⭐⭐⭐

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Australia HQ & MIRA for the opportunity to read this arc.

Jose's character is very unique. She travels to Australia on a self discovery mission, picking Mangoes on a farm. So much happens in this book and it takes you on a journey of twists and turns.

Although not my favourite, it was still a good solid read.

A great read pet me intrigued all the way through. Didn't see the twists and turns specially at the end.
A great book well done to the author

(3.5 stars)
"It had taken Jo a while to get used to people's skin in Australia. Even for the average person, it is more weathered, it tells more of a story." There' s a lot to like about Anna Snoekstra's novel, Out of Breath. Firstly it's a quintessentially Australian novel with a lot of the action focused around Broome, an outback coastal setting in the remote northwestern region of Australia. Secondly, by being told from the perspective of an outsider, Jo Ainsley, who is a British working visa holder, it gives Australian readers a chance to look at ourselves and our governments' policies.

"She never thought much about her nationality when she was in England, now it's her defining characteristic." How we treat outsiders is a key point of inquiry of the novel, and here in Australia we have a record for abusing temporary visa holders. This novel depicts cruelty and disrespect, unfair conditions like housing employees in an unlit, uncooled shed, employers withholding employee entitlements like payslips, and poor workplace safety: all things we should be ashamed of.

"Truth is, people round here wander off sometimes. Usually they don't want to be found." Out of Breath also looks at some of the reasons people travel to remote locations, to leave who they were behind, with the main protagonist shedding parts of her name—Josephine, Josie, Jo, J—with each subsequent escape. It addresses why communities of outsiders might be attractive to such people, and how charlatans can operate and use those feelings of non-belonging to lure in the unsuspecting for their own personal gain. It's all communicated up in a mystery that was decently told, if a little short and thin in places.

What an excellent novel. Starting in London and then journeys to the outback in Australia. Firstly, to an isolated mango farm to pick fruit with other backpackers and then onto a 'loving' commune of isolated men and women who live in a desolate area and support each other. The novel also ventures into deep diving and how the community supports the 'family'. The overall story of Jo Ainsley , the protagonist, is so well captured in the novel that it leaves you breathless and excited at the same time. All of the members of the commune have a story that joins Jo's journey and keeps the reader glued to the pages waiting for the wonderful final chapters. Well done Anna Snoekstra and thanks for a brilliant novel. A well-deserved five (5) stars.

An enthralling novel about a woman trying to find a place to belong by leaving her dysfunctional relationships in England to work in Australia. She is fruit-picking in a remote farm near Broome when she is attracted to an off-the-grid community in the area. Its charismatic leader helps her face some of her past but she soon finds that all is not as utopian as she wanted it to be. Great plot twists and the description of the landscape and characters brought the story to life. I read it in one sitting and really enjoyed it.

Absolutely brilliant from the first page to the last, could not put this book down, the description of our aussie outback was magical makes the reader realise what a desolate harsh place the Australian outback can be, The characters in this book were so realistic thanks for allowing me to read

After living her life in small town England, Jo feels nothing is presently going right in her life.
She escapes to Sydney, Australia, where life appears brighter. Jo must do fruit picking on an outback farm in Western Australia as part of her visa agreement. Gabe occasionally calls into the farm and Jo is very attracted to him but it is also a mystery why he is there.

A captivating suspense novel that I could not put down until the last page.

What an unputdownable book. I was hooked from the first chapter and read the whole thing in one sitting, finishing at 4am.
Completely unexpected plot twists kept me reading.
Josie is such a different character to others I’ve read.
The scene setting was excellent. The research that went into this book is solid.
I just reviewed Out of Breath by Anna Snoekstra. #OutofBreath #NetGalley