Book: Breathless
Author: Jennifer Niven
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 390
Read On: Kindle
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Plot Summary: You were my first. Not just sex, although that was part of it, but the first to look past everything else into me. Some of the names and places have been changed, but the story is true.
Before: With graduation on the horizon, budding writer Claudine Henry is making plans: college in the fall, become a famous author, and maybe--finally--have sex. She doesn't even need to be in love. Then her dad drops a bombshell: he's leaving Claude's mother. Suddenly, Claude's entire world feels like a lie, and her future anything but under control.
After: Claude's mom whisks them away to the last place Claude could imagine nursing a broken heart: a remote, mosquito-infested island off the coast of Georgia. But then Jeremiah Crew happens. Miah is a local trail guide with a passion for photography--and a past he doesn't like to talk about. He's brash and enigmatic, and even more infuriatingly, he's the only one who seems to see Claude for who she wants to be. So when Claude decides to sleep with Miah, she tells herself it's just sex, nothing more. There's not enough time to fall in love, especially if it means putting her already broken heart at risk.
Compulsively readable and impossible to forget, Jennifer Niven's luminous new novel is an insightful portrait of a young woman ready to write her own story.
Claudine Henry was not supposed to spend her summer on this remote island off the coast of Georgia.
She was supposed to be on a road trip with her best friend, spending every last minute together before they go to college.
But after her father makes a shock announcement, she is exiled with her shaken mother, with no phone service and no one she knows. She is completely cut off.
Until she meets Jeremiah. Free spirited, mysterious and beautiful, their chemistry is immediate and irresistible.
They both know that whatever they have can only last the summer, but maybe one summer is enough.
Things I Liked:
1. I read All The Bright Places back in 2015 and it moved me and broke my heart and has stayed with me, like it has for millions of other readers. It's a wonderful book and since then I've read all of Niven's books. Her second book, Holding up the Universe was different and heart felt too. So when this book came out, I knew I wanted to read it too and my hopes were quite high.
2. Jennifer Niven is a gifted writer. She always does good job of bringing her characters to life and making their journey and their struggles palpable and relatable. Her people are special and wonderful and this book is no different.
3. The aftermath of a broken marriage, a couple drifting apart and the toll it takes on not just couple but also any children involved in this marriage, has been shown with such sincerity and sensitivity here and I am sure for people who've been through it, it will resonate deeply.
4. One of my favourite things about this book has to be the friendship between Claude and her best friend Saz. This girl gang of two was everything that friendships in your late teens are like. Also the angst that comes with the end of one phase of your life, the end of high school and the start of the rest of your life seems so real and took me back to when I was in that phase of my life.
5. This is an imminently readable and easy book to lose yourself in. Summer love, coming of age and an island with an interesting backstory all make for a fun and engrossing read.
6. The love story was so much fun to read. And I am not a big romance fan, not by a long shot. There is something special and dreamy about summer love, and when written well, like it is here, it is a pleasure to read.
7. The island bits of the story were my favourite bits in this book. The eclectic mix of people and the island life was fun to read. Plus, given we've all been homebound for months now, the island was a good way to virtually travel.
8. The book, even if though it's largely a romance, is very realistic, especially the end.
Rating: 3.5/5
Thank-you, Penguin India for the review copy.
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