Review: Coming Up for Air - Miranda Kenneally

Coming Up for Air 
Miranda Kenneally
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

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 tryout, so Maggie 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 sacrifice in the water to win at love?

As an elite swimmer with Olympic aspirations, Maggie's life is pretty much filled to the brim with swimming. After a college visit, she feels like she is missing out on many of the typical high school experiences. She has only been kissed once during a game, and has never had an actual boyfriend. She is hoping to remedy at least one of these situations by propositioning her best friend to "teach" her how to hook up.

"We can't. That's swimcest."

So, my initial reaction to this book:

And I mean "fluffy" in the best possible way. This book just hit the spot. It was sweet and fun with a low level of drama, and it left me with an ear to ear grin.

I really liked Maggie. This is a girl, who dedicated her life almost exclusively to her sport, and the remainder of her free time was spent with her family or her small group of friends. I admired her dedication on all fronts. She may have been immature when it came to physical relationships, but she was faithful to swimming like it was her job. She understood that her dream came at a cost, and she was willing to give up her days to the pool with no regrets or complaints.

"Even though I'm technically almost an adult, I feel like I haven't had any truly adult experiences. ... To be honest, I haven't had many life experiences at all."

I can still remember a little bit about high school (it was a very long time ago), and I remember feeling like I was being left behind as far a physical relationships go. Therefore, I could relate to Maggie's frustrations. I thought the messages that Kenneally wove in there with respect to sexuality were positive, healthy, and nonjudgmental. She did not impose a one-size-fits-all opinion regarding teen sexuality, as this is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Rather, many different ideas are presented, with the overarching idea being that it's a personal choice. Kenneally even addresses the double standard that is prevalent in society when it come girls versus boys, and I say - bravo!

"I get what she's saying. There's definitely a double standard. It seems guys can do whatever they want sexually, because boys will be boys. But girls have every right to experiment too. Can't girls be girls?"

I adored the friendship between Maggie and Levi. They had so much history together, and were quite a support system for each other. They had this higher level of understanding, not just because of years and years of friendship, but also because of their shared Olympic goal. I was rooting for this friendship to evolve from the very beginning. I just saw them as perfect for each other, and I experienced a whole lot of different emotions throughout this story overtime their relationship changed.

I have not been involved in any sports since my own high school days, but I love reading sports romances. I especially like, when there are actual sports sequences included, as there are in Coming Up for Air. Miranda Kenneally gave me a great look at what it takes to chase a swimming dream. All the laps, the weight lifting, the carb loading, all the sacrifices - the amount of time that an elite level athlete dedicates to their sport is daunting. She also did a great job getting us inside Maggie's head, including a rival, who was a thorn in her side and a hinderance to her gold medal dreams.

I was already a Hundred Oak fan prior to Coming Up for Air, and I was so excited when I spotted the first cameo from Jordan Wood (book 1). Then, Jordan and Sam pop up again. But, I really lost it all with their appearance in the epilogue. What a gift for the fans! Kenneally deftly brought this series full circle, by giving us a fantastic update on the very first Hundred Oak couple, as well as filling us in on what happened "after" with Maggie and Levi. I won't tell you much, but a few happy tears may have escaped from my eyes.

Overall: A solid addition to the Hundred Oak series. A wonderful friends to lovers story, which is sort of fluffy and left me with a happy heart.

**I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy of this book

Do you like to swim?

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