A very sweet and slow-burning coming of age story, with a believable, well-imagined (and therefore occasionally infuriating!) teenage protagonist. Although the love story is the focus, it was actually the descriptions of the island that I found most effective - the suffocating heat and dense forest seemed to tie in really well with the adolescent senses of frustration and wanting to escape.

There were things I liked about this book but having loved Niven's previous two novels a lot, I found this one just didn't really do it for me. I just found it hard to connect to the main character. That said its very well written and plotted and its entirely possible I am just too old for teen books (I hope not though!!!)

I really enjoyed reading this story of Miah and Claude based on the author’s own experiences. Claude has to deal with her parents’ marriage breakup, growing up and dealing with change. She meets Miah on the island and he helps her to face her challenges and learn how to build a real relationship. It is a beautifully written coming of age story - challenging in its own way but also equally delightful.

It’s content is too old for my library users but I will be recommending it to my friends with older teenagers.

Definitely one of my highlights of 2020.

I didn't finish this book because the story didn't interest me and I didn't like the characters. Claudine constantly talks about how her father doesn't fit into their family, even before her parents split up. It seemed strange that she would completely isolate her father out of the family unit before anything even happens. Claudine's crush on Wyatt was not convincing, either, although I do think the book does a good job at talking about sexuality.

I liked the setting of the island that Claudine and her mother go to. The descriptions of the island are really vivid and beautifully written. Saz was my favourite character; I'd have preferred to hear more about the road trip her and Claudine wanted to go on.

Another amazing young adult book by Jennifer Niven. I just don’t know how she does it, she gets right inside the heads of people and her books live out their tale. For many, this for will be a tiny bit familiar, we’ve all had those summer romances- right? Or have all fallen headlong in to a relationship we knew had no future - right? But the way this book hangs together is just poetic. I loved every minute of this story. I would highly recommend if for people of all ages.

Claude Henry leaves her home after her Mum and Dad announce that they are to separate and goes to stay with her mum on an island. She's not too happy to start with as she had plans with her best friend for the summer. The story takes us through a summer of falling in love, first time sex and discovery of life and indeed herself.

Very real topics covered here, divorce, first loves, and affairs. You can very much feel the teenage angst and confusion of what is happening in the main characters life and her turmoil. I loved the exchanges between Claude and Saz her best friend were true to life and completely absorbing, exactly how I remember life at 18 to be and how two best friends act.

The ending was heartbreaking but again very real, kind of the only way it could end. It has left me missing the characters and wondering how the next chapter of Claude and her Mums life would be. I also think of Miah and how he would have started a new life and would they ever see each other again.

All in all I loved this book, I would definitely recommend to a young adult or my own 18 year old daughter...

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Having just watched the film adaption of Jennifer Niven’s devastating bestseller All the Bright Places, I was very excited to read Breathless, her new YA novel about friendship, love, sex and everything in-between.
Claudine Llewelyn Henry is a girl navigating two worlds: the teenage world of her childhood home, best friends and high school crush and a new, adult world of preparing for college, her parents’ divorce and her first love.

A week before graduating high school, Claude’s world is turned upside down when her dad tells her that her parents are separating. Shell-shocked and hurt, Claude and her mother travel to an island off the coast of Georgia for the summer. Initially, Claude is desperate to leave the island and return to her former life. But when she meets the charming but elusive Jeremiah Crew, she finds a reason to stay.

This novel provides the perfect dose of escapism, as Niven captures the wilderness and beauty of the natural landscape of the island. From sunsets to secluded beaches, Breathless will leave you wishing you could disappear to a remote island.

While I loved Niven’s descriptions of life on the paradise island, I found some of the plot points and characterisation a little clichéd. The rugged, charming boy with the mysterious past and a scene in which he ‘saves’ her from drowning felt like familiar territory for a YA novel.

What this novel does brilliantly, however, is delving into topics which YA novels can often overlook. Diversity is woven into the narrative, with characters from a wide range of backgrounds. I particularly enjoyed Niven’s sensitive portrayal of members of the Geechee community. Diversity is also to be found within the sexualities of the characters; from a pansexual character named Wednesday to Claude’s best friend Saz, who is a lesbian, the characters are comfortable and open about their sexuality in a refreshing way.

Niven also raises important discussions around virginity and consent. “It’s like crossing this invisible threshold that only you can see. You decide it. I decide it. We decide it,” says Wednesday. The novel breaks down misconceptions about virginity, and the female characters, particularly Claude, feel in control and respected in their sexual experiences. Consent is portrayed in the novel not as something which kills the mood or slows things down, but as an important and valid part of sex.

Breathless is a novel that breaks down barriers, diving into areas that have previously been avoided in YA fiction. From female masturbation to debunking myths about the hymen, the novel is informative and honest, as well as depicting a poignant and passionate experience of first love.

One of the characters in Breathless asks, 'What does it feel like to be in love.?' Eighteen-year-old Claude would not have been able to answer that question at the beginning of this book, but by the story's end she is an expert.
Claude and Miah. Miah and Claude. Here are two young people who dare to look past everything else and into each other. It's romantic and yes, a bit swoony at times, but it's also vigilant. First love isn't always chocolates and roses - it can challenge you and hurt you too. Jennifer Niven gets this completely. She writes with such honesty about love - not just romantic love either, but the kind we have for friends and family. It's messy in the real world and this book explores that whilst never losing hope. Beware - it's addictive!

Claude's parents get divorced and she has to spend the summer away from her life, Dad and friends. There she meets Jeremiah and suddenly summer is looking up.

I loved Jennifer's previous two novels but really struggled to get into this one.

~ I received an ARC of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Massive thanks to the publishers for the opportunity!~

~~~

There are some books out there that can really speak to you on a personal level. This book was just one of those books for me. The entire time I read this book I was swept away in a kind of nostalgic whirlwind of a story. A story that was honest, real, poignant, heartbreaking and felt like a true recollection of those moments that make up a life, those moments that touch us the most and make us realise we are alive, for good or for worse.

Breathless is about Claude and her experiences one summer before she is due to start her first year at college. One minute her mind’s full of road trip plans with her best friend and the possibility of having sex for the first time with the boy she likes and the next her whole world crumbles to pieces when her Dad tells her he’s leaving her Mum. In the aftermath of her life changing forever, Claude goes with her Mum to a remote island. There, while her Mum busies herself with writing, Claude tries desperately to stop herself from falling apart. She meets Jeremiah Crew, an infuriatingly charming boy her age who might be the only thing that can give her all she dreams of, at the risk of her heart completely breaking into a million more pieces.

One of the things that really made me love this book is the way Jennifer Niven’s writing captured moments in life at their rawest, saddest, fleeting and most beautiful. Claude’s life and her experiences as a teenager at a moment when her world is completely changing with her family breaking apart, not to mention when she is already on the cusp of a complete life change what with going to college, was something I could really relate to. My parents split up when I was little and then my parents and my step-parents on both sides split up at different times when I was older. So yeah, I really get how difficult it can be to grasp what that means and how it changes everything for everyone. Claude is also dealing with the possibility of losing her best friend, who has a new girlfriend and is going to college far away from Claude. Loss and change are such big, inevitable things in life and I just felt that Jennifer Niven did such a wonderful job putting the anxiety and fear we all feel about both into words.

I truly loved Jeremiah’s part of the story and how Claude’s relationship with him developed throughout the book. While it was undoubtedly heartbreaking, I came away from the book with the feeling that falling in love for the first time is such a beautiful, rewarding experience and also with a sense of hope. I loved Claude and Jeremiah’s adventures on the island and how all their moments together were all about enjoying the present and trying not to think about the ending. Which is impossible, obviously, but such is life and I could really relate to this aspect of their love story, as it was something I went through when I first met my now-husband (we were lucky enough to be in a later stage in life when we could decide to make those sacrifices and compromises that let us be together).

Claude experiences a lot of firsts with Jeremiah and yes, that does include her first experience of sex. I liked Claude’s personal opinions about the whole “losing your virginity” thing and feel like how the book depicts something we all go through one way or another was really relatable. There were times I forgot Claude and Jeremiah are only eighteen, though, as sometimes I felt they were voicing ideas about sex and exploring sex in a way I certainly didn’t until I was well into my twenties. That’s not at all a criticism about the book, though, as I completely agreed with all the sex-related discussions in the book and hope that more teens have these views and also have the courage to talk about them!

I loved the relationship between Claude and her Mum. While I would have loved more of their relationship, I loved what we did get, especially as they enjoyed exploring their family history on the island and taking the time to talk to each other about their real feelings, all secrets aside. Their relationship by the end of the book reminded me in some ways of how close I am to my Mum, which is something really special to me as she is my hero. One of my favourite things about this book was the fact that Claude’s Mum is a writer and that Claude dreams of being one. This is something I can completely relate to as I spent my teenage years filling notebooks and word documents with thoughts, poems and stories. Something I should be doing more of now in my adult life and definitely mean to! Claude’s relationship with her Dad was more complicated and while she spent much of the book feeling betrayed by him, I really enjoyed the depiction of their relationship because it was just so real and felt very much like how most teenagers would react in the same situation. I also loved Claude’s friendship with her bestie Saz and how the changes in their friendship due to being apart and becoming new people were explored. They were so cute and there for each other even when everything was changing. I would have loved to see more of their friendship, actually!

I honestly don’t know how to capture my feelings about this book and my reading experience beyond what I have already said. I just really loved it and found it so moving, refreshing and relatable. I would definitely recommend giving this book a try when it comes out as I really feel it has a little something for everyone, especially if you happen to be a teenager going through some big, inevitable changes in your life. It’s a book that made me remember moments in my own life, made me think about how much we should all treasure life and the people we love, and also made me want to find the energy to write again. Breathless is dreamy, inspiring, full of feeling and, in Claude and Jeremiah’s shoes, will take you on an adventure you never expected.

Breathless by Jennifer Niven is a coming of age novel following 18-year-old Claude. She has her whole summer already planned out with her best friend Saz before they move to different places for college, however, just before her graduation Claude’s dad drops a bombshell on their family and she has to travel with her mum to a remote/deserted island for the summer instead.
This novel centres around a lot of different dynamics experienced by a teenager; first loves, family problems, moving away from friends and growing up. It also centres a lot around virginity and the pressures set on them for a perfect “first time”.
When Claude moves to the island with her mum, she feels like her whole life has fallen apart, she has no way of contacting her best friend as she can’t get any cell service and all she wants is someone to talk to. As she spends more time on the island, she begins to enjoy the history and scenery, as well as making new friends, including Jeremiah Crew who changes her whole island experience. It was great to hear about the beautiful parts of the island and how she explored this with Jeremiah and I really loved their relationship together.
On the contrary, I feel like the book would have benefitted from hearing more about Claude’s relationship with her mum, as the scenes which included the two of them, I loved. I also would have liked an epilogue to see how she ended up at college and after the whole island experience as I was routing for things to work out for Claude in terms of college and family life after separation.
I did really like this book but feel like I would have liked it even more reading it at a younger age as it would have been a lot more relatable and I would have been able to connect more with the characters and their issues. I read both of Jennifer Niven’s other two novels as a young adult and adored them, I think her writing style is beautiful. I recommend Breathless and all of Jennifer’s other books, check them out!

A beautiful coming of age novel about family ties and first love. Jennifer Niven has done a masterful job of creating vivid characters who leap off the page.

I have read and enjoyed Jennifer Niven's other two YA titles. I thought that Breathless was, for me personally, better than All The Bright Places but not quite as good as Holding Up The Universe. Niven's characterisation and portrayal of relationships was once again just on point, especially the complex feelings that Claude has over the changes occurring in two of her closest relationships - that with her dad and with her best friend. I will admit I found Claude as a character annoying and self-centred at first, more worried about the impact of her parents' divorce on her life than anything else, however on reflection I understand that this is the way that most people would react in this situation. I found the relationship with Jeremiah sweet, but unbelievable. The portrayal of first sex was realistic, but not graphic, and I definitely wanted to high five Claude when she went to talk to Miah after and took him down a peg or two! My main issue though with the romance between the two of them was that it kind of took away from the story of Claude trying to come to terms with her parents' separation, her dad's betrayal and refusal of their family dynamic and her relationship with her mum almost fades into the background at times. It's just there, not explored or taken further with how it will have changed due to the family dynamic change. I really felt that Claude's romance with Miah became a crutch and took over the show. In fact, the whole drama of the changing relationship with her best friend just disappeared from the story!

Overall, a beautifully written and obviously very personal story for young people about coping with change and learning to accept that life will throw things at you which will shock you and disrupt your plans but you do have the ability to get through them. It is not without its flaws though, presents an almost unbelievable first romance and uses said romance to help the damsel in distress.

This book really got me. I was transported back to being 18 and experiencing so many feelings at the same time: when every experience is amplified and feels extraordinary or devastating, when everything is confusing and makes you doubt your choices, the next steps in your life, how you are seen by others and, in heart-wrenching clarity, how you see yourself. - "Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm too much. Or maybe I'm not enough."

Just before her graduation, Claude's father drops a bombshell and things fall apart. She travels with her mother to a remote island off the coast of Georgia. The island "has this way of giving you what you need" and, with each day, Claude begins to learn about the harsh and beautiful realities of life. Sex, friendships, family relationships and self-discovery are all worked through during Claude's stay on the island, and all are approached in a careful and honest way. Topics of sexuality and consent are touched on without feeling forced and the novel feels like a true modern day coming-of-age tale.

As a teacher, I would recommend this book to some of my older students. As the novel deals with sex and virginity as key themes, it would require a certain level of maturity from younger readers but it is a YA novel that I wish had been written back when I was battling my own teenage feelings and confusion. Niven acknowledges how personal this book is to her, "a book I never thought I'd write", and I felt that in the character of Claude and how her experiences are so wonderfully crafted and explained.

Thank you @netgalley I've had some AMAZING books this year and @jenniferniven 'Breathless' is no exception.
A powerful coming of age story about first love.
18 year old Claude despite her protests is whisked away to a remote island with her mother when her parents marriage breaks down. And there she meets Jeremiah who sweeps her off her feet and shows her how to love again when the floors been taken from underneath her.
Find yourself rolling your eyes at typical teenage behaviour we all know we did as Claude navigates this strange island, betrayal, her heart, friendships and her parents divorce. Beautifully written story from start to finish. And what I loved the most is issues addressed in the book. Sex with consent, representation for the lgbtq+ community in the form of her best friend saz, and also how it feels to grow up, figuring yourself out and feeling like you're being left behind. Definitely a must read for 2020, and I will be buying it to go with my other Jennifer niven books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

After adoring Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places as a teenager, I was hoping to love Breathless... but I wasn't too sure how I would feel reading it as an adult. I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed Claudine's character and her flaws. The complexity of her family is something I'm sure many readers can relate too and she dealt with the theme of divorce so delicately. I also loved the discussion of virginity and how it is a social construct and ideas around 'your first time.' However, I wish we saw more of the relationship between Claudine and her mum, as well as the friends Claudine made on the island.
I would have loved this book a lot more reading this as a teenager and my age definitely influenced my disconnect to the story.

“The floor was there and now it’s not.”

This was such an interesting read for me. Jennifer Niven has been on my radar ever since she emotionally scarred me with To All The Bright Places. So, when this book was announced I was instantly curious and knew I had to read it.

The novel centres around the wanna-be writer Claudine Henry, who is making road trip plans with her best friend and getting ready to embark on her college journey. Only, when her dad announces that he’s leaving, the floor disappears from under Claudine and all her plans fall through as her mom whisks her away to an island off the coast of Georgia.

Here, Claudine meets Miah. Girl meets boy, and together they teach each other how to be, how to heal.

Jennifer Niven is one of those authors who is very good at getting into your head. Every sentence she writes is personal, raw and relatable.

A sad, yet utterly moving read that teaches you to appreciate solid ground when you’re walking on it— because who knows when the floor might just disappear.

Thank you so much NetGallery and Penguin Random House Children's UK Publisher’s for this early readers copy!

Read. Be happy. Stay Safe.

I’m a big fan of Jennifer Niven and I wasn’t disappointed. This is not just a novel about Claudine losing her virginity, it’s about first losses generally and that love changes and it hurts but it doesn’t make it less important. The parents are not flat/2D characters and have faults and quirks which is great. Highly recommended.

If you are about to read Breathless, you need to save some time because once you start reading there’s no putting it down. Feel warned. Clade’s parents are getting divorce, to make it even worse her mum takes her to an island in Georgia, far away from home and friends. But the island gives you exactly what you need and it perfectly works for both Claude and her mum. Claude meets Miah, and even though they are about to spend there only 30 days they fall madly in love with each other. They learn more about themselves than they ever did and that’s an amazing development of characters. I must admit that from start to finish Breathless is increadibly swoony! And it’s the best book by Jennifer Niven so far. Loved it!!!

I received an ARC of this book via Penguin (Penguin Random House Children’s UK) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Description


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.

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…

My thoughts

I have a soft spot for Jennifer Niven’s books. Since I read All The Bright Places (a lifetime ago, it must be now!), I knew I’d discovered a writer that gets you interested from the word go and leaves you breathless once the story comes to an end. Whilst Holding up The Universe didn’t interest me as much as Niven’s debut, I’m happy to report that (for the most part) Breathless didn’t disappoint.

Whilst I’m long past my teenage days, the main character Claudine is still a relatable character. She’s struggling with the changing family dynamic, adjusting to a new place and finding out that love is a terrifying, confusing, exciting thing. Though she definitely did her annoying moments, and I just wished she’d say how she felt instead of leaving other characters (and the reader) hanging, there’s something about her that pulled me in and I took her in like a big sister as I read on.

Though restrictions in the U.K. have lifted somewhat, I feel like I’ve forgotten what places look like. Until I visited the city centre the other day – at my own peril – I didn’t realise how much I had forgotten about it! Niven writes about places in such vivid, rich detail I almost felt like I wasn’t in my house in the northwest of England but I was running through forests with Claudine and Miah, soaking in the sea at the beach, getting lost in rich family history.

Niven’s narrative about sex and relationships is so honest, raw and necessary. So many YA books sugar coat sex, brush over it or don’t really acknowledge that it isn’t just about what’s happening. It’s about bodies, people, their thoughts and their feelings. Breathless definitely doesn’t do this, and I think more books need to follow Niven’s lead.

My only problem with the book was, whilst I liked Claudine for the most part, I didn’t gel with Miah. He embodies YA novel teenage boy. Mysterious, cocky but sensitive, sweet. There was nothing wrong with his character, really, but I just didn’t gel with him as much as I did other characters. This meant it took me a lot longer than usual to get involved with the romance taking place in the book.

Even so, Breathless is a bit of escapism I think everyone needs with a romance that might just leave you breathless.

Breathless will be published on 29th September 2020.