Rowena’s review of Breathe, Annie, Breathe (Hundred Oaks #5) by Miranda Kenneally.
Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honor his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race.
But the training is even more grueling than Annie could have imagined. Despite her coaching, she’s at war with her body, her mind—and her heart. With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows more conflicted. She wants to run into his arms…and sprint in the opposite direction. For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more of a challenge than crossing the finish line.
This is Book 5 in the Hundred Oaks series and it follows Annie Winters as she prepares to run a 26 mile marathon, in honor of her dead boyfriend Kyle. Kyle was training to run this marathon but died before he could get it done and even though Annie has never run anything longer than a mile (which she did because she had to in order to pass P.E.), she’s vowed to get it done.
Annie is feeling a lot of guilt for Kyle’s death. She loved Kyle more than anything but she wanted things out of life, things that didn’t exactly go hand in hand with what Kyle wanted. Kyle wanted to get married, he wanted to be with Annie for the rest of their lives but Annie wanted to go to college first. She wanted to be young before it was too late and when Kyle died, Annie is feeling a lot of that teenage angst that comes with teenage grief…they put a lot on themselves, when they shouldn’t.
Annie hires a trainer to help her get ready for the marathon (her trainer just so happens to be a familiar face from previous Hundred Oaks books, Matt from Things I Can’t Forget) and it is during her training that she starts to change…and grow. She meets Matt’s younger brother, Jeremiah and he starts to become more than just a friend. Of course, Annie’s not ready for anything more than a hook up and Jeremiah wants her in his life so they become friends…which is a good thing since Annie doesn’t have any friends. Her life revolved around Kyle and the things they did but with Kyle gone, she’s been a lone star at school.
I really liked this book.
I thought Kenneally did a fabulous job of taking us on Annie’s journey to growing up and dealing with the death of a loved one. Everything she felt, I felt it too and as the story progresses, I fell in with everything that she went through. It’s one of those satisfying reads that gets you every time.
What I like most about this series is that each book can be read as as stand-alone but you don’t get the full effect of all the squeeing when recurring characters pop up. And quite a few recurring characters pop up in this book. I loved all of that…if I had to list a gripe, I would have wanted a little (okay, a lot) more Jeremiah but that’s just me being greedy.
This is a book that I will most definitely be recommending to anyone who will listen to me.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Sourcebooks Fire. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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