ARC Review: Coming Up For Air by Miranda Keneally

Book: Coming Up For Air, Miranda Kenneally

Series: Hundred Oaks series #8

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: July 1^st, 2017

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 lose to win?

I have said this about every review of a book in this series, but I don’t care. I love when a new book comes out and I can sit down and binge-read for hours, getting lost in the fantastic, sporty world that Miranda Kenneally has created. I also love that each book features a different girl who’s obsessed with a sport. I’m not a sporty girl at all, so it’s great to get a sense of how dedicated and strong you have to be to swim, play soccer, football, play softball or train horses.

In this book, our main character is Maggie, who is a swimmer. It is her entire life. She breathes, eats, sleeps swimming, because she one day wants to get into the Olympics and that is not done by doing something in halves. I loved seeing how much she adored swimming and didn’t mind waking up at four am to train before school, and just how passionate she was about it. I have a new sense of respect for people competing in the Olympics, competing in any sport, after this book.

This whole novel was light and funny and so 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 were both such great characters, and had such a great romance. They’re best friends first and foremost, and they won’t let anything stand in the way of that. But 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.

This causes their once stable and steady friendship to get a little awkward and a lot emotional, and they both begin to see the other in a new way, and to start feeling emotions neither ever expected to feel in the other. But Miranda handles this new direction in their friendship in such a great way and it felt so real. There was no magic recovery, but their strong bond and 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, and there was even a special epilogue that I wasn’t expected but adored. 

Until next time, Hundred Oaks. 

*special thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC copy of this book to review*