Name: Julie Rubens's review of Breathless by Jennifer Niven
Item: Breathless
Rating: 3
Author: Julie Rubens

Jennifer Niven

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places comes a compulsively readable novel about a young woman determined to write her own story--sex, heartbreak, family dramas, and all. "A coming-of-age story that will make your heart ache." —PopSugar With high school coming to an end, Claudine Henry is focused on four things: sex, starting college, becoming a famous writer, and... sex. But when her parents announce they're splitting up, her entire world begins to fall apart. The epic road trip she planned with her best friend is cancelled, and she finds herself stuck on a remote island off the coast of Georgia with her mom - an island with no WiFi, no cell service and no friends. Until she meets the free spirited, mysterious, and beautiful Jeremiah. He infuriates and intrigues her. Their chemistry takes her by surprise, and when Claude decides he should be her first, she tells herself it's just sex. Exactly what she wanted, right? They both know that what they have can't last forever, but maybe the time they have can be enough.

Breathless

hannah schrefl

Your first love, your first time, your first heartbreak. The new novel from Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places. 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...

Julie Rubens

It pains me to say this, but I honestly expected more. Holding up the Universe and All the Brights Places are such wonderful books and Jennifer Niven is a great writer! Maybe it's because I read it pretty fast, but I just did not really love the story. It was a little shallow and the characters were nice, but not amazing :/

It was a very easy read though and it was definitely not bad, so I would recommend if you don't know what to read or are in a bit of a reading slump.

Kareena Suneja

I love Jeremiah Crew, absolutely love!
His character building was so good and all the emotions felt real. The whole set up of the island and side characters, everything was perfect. This is definitely a cozy Sunday read. The only thing that I didn’t like was it was too wordy for me, it took me time to go through the first 100 pages but I had patience, but even the last 50 something pages were a lot. 
It was a good read, but comparatively to other books of Jennifer Niven, this didn’t live up to the hype :(

From Jennifer Niven, the New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places, comes an unforgettable new novel about a sensitive girl ready to live her bravest life--sex, heartbreak, family dramas, and all. 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.

At first, this book - specifically Claudine - really annoyed me. Whilst the struggle Claude faces is horrible to imagine, the pain from your parents who you thought loved each other divorcing is unimaginable, but this problem seems to consume her. Comparing my own personal grievances to hers, she seemed very shallow and lacked resilience or empathy for her mum. However, after I got over her annoying whining, I loved the relationship that develops between Jeremiah and Claudine. The way Jennifer Niven described their adventures made we feel like I was there. I liked how the story ended most of all; heartbreaking but open-ended.

Charlotte Squire

Joana da Silva

My February pick for the Clube do Livra-te, my podcasts' book club. Wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. Claude was very annoying, yes, but I totally get her, I was exactly the same when I was your age, babe. Jeremiah... What can I say about Jeremiah? So troubled yet so perfect. I am currently on the market for a vacation on a small island.

Love this book so much. So beautiful and such a wonderful escape

Melsriana

Shawna Delellis

A beautiful coming of age story about first love, and the sudden change that comes with graduating high school and divorce.

marta <3

Just freaking read this book. That’s all I’ll say.

I loved it. beautiful in such a simplistic way, my favorite 

Amery Mcmullen

Yasmin H

'Love complicates everything. It makes you hurt and it makes you doubt and it makes you wish you didn't love. It makes you want to be watchful so that nothing bad or surprising ever happens. It makes you never want to love someone again because they'll only hurt you too'

Breathless is a very fast paced and interesting book. I especially loved the setting of this book - a remote island with little connection to the rest of the world and endless beaches stretching along the side. 

In this book, Claudine and Jeremiah meet on this desolate island, both there because of things that had happened in their lives. Jeremiah has lived there during the summer for many years; however, this is Claudine's first time. Together, they explore the island looking for hidden gems and unknown ruins, hoping to find each other along the way. 

My favourite character in this book is Jeremiah because he is so free spirited and adventurous. He loves exploring the ruins that the island possesses and searching the beaches for animal bones and shark teeth and everything weird and wonderful that he can photograph and make into a piece of art.

Thais Souza Passos

This book is so lyrical and well-written, as in, the descriptions, the feelings, the realness of life and possibilities, finding yourself in a unlikely place and rebuilding after everything. The ending was really abrupt and left me wondering if there was something else, but seeing in the acknowledgements that Jeremiah Crew IS real and is actually part of the author’s life... man, there’s one more tear in my eye *sings the entire song in a sad voice*

Ellie B

This book made me want to run off to a small island! Despite the book being fairly lengthy compared to what I usually read, I was hooked the whole way through and thoroughly enjoyed it! This is my favourite book by Jennifer Niven which I have read so far. It felt very honest as to what it is like to be a teenager and having to learn to deal with lifechanging events. Claude felt very real and was relatable.

im crying. i can't even put a full review because oh my god my heart has been shattered. amazing book. didn't realise it had such a sad ending. i don't read sad books because of how emotional i get. my friend didn't tell me that they didn't end up together. i feel like i can't breathe holy fuck. i thought of so many theories as to why he left and if you're interested in hearing and crying about them w me dm me :). but man, im never getting over this book. ever

nara davies

im crying. i can't even put a full review because oh my god my heart has been shattered. amazing book. didn't realise it had such a sad ending. i don't read sad books because of how emotional i get. my friend didn't tell me that they didn't end up together. i feel like i can't breathe holy fuck. i thought of so many theories as to why he left and if you're interested in hearing and crying about them w me dm me :). but man, im never getting over this book. ever



Hannah Hoskins

Archita Birla

WOW. This book is so good. Jennifer Niven’s writing is SO beautiful, especially when she pulls from these deeply personal places. This story is similar to All The Bright Places in the way that it makes you feel EVERYTHING, and it pulls you in, so instantaneously. The characters are deep and complex, they are intricate and complicated and a joy to get to know. Claude was a dream of a protagonist, and the way that she is written: that 18 year old, wanting to be everything and nothing, life is changing and how do I deal with it feeling is captured so authentically. 

I would HIGHLY recommend it, this book is a definite favorite.

Flora Nátura

Summer romance story to make you laugh and cry. You can feel that this is inspired by Jennifer Niven’s life which was so Good and I really enjoyed it

Ashling Brown

A beautiful story that left me wanting more.

Laura Mitchell Hutchinson

I loved this book more than oreos and cinemas and sunsets.

This is the story I needed at 18 years old, and I think I benefited just as much at 26! Such a beautiful book, I really felt like I was on an island, re-living that awkward yet magical few months between graduation from high school and Whatever Comes Next.

4.5 stars from me. The only reason I had to deduct half a star from the otherwise flawless rating is that the main love interest... doesn't wear shoes! I get that he's all fancy-free but I am not a fan of feet and it creeped me out, held me back from truly loving Jeremiah Crew. So petty of me, I know, but that's the honest truth! Haha.

I want to gift this to my bestie – my own Saz! – who was there for me in my own Jeremiah-and-Claude moments, as well as anyone I know who is currently in that 17–22yo bubble of wonder and chaos.

Celli Guiang 

** spoiler alert **
           1. Claude has a very normal, not-much life; she has loving parents, a trusting best friend, an okay boyfriend. Until her parent's separation suddenly take the floor out of her. She and her mother are sent to a remote island to heal their wounds and discover something new and explore - to find stories. Claude loses touch with her best friend and father, who she now can't help but hate. She eventually meets friends who also have wounds to heal. Everyone came to the island for the same reason; to escape. But she feels trapped. Until she meets Jeremiah Crew, this mysterious island boy who gives of Tarzan vibes, and well, she finds herself falling in love with him. She tells this boy more things in 24 hours than what she told her best friend, Saz, in their 10-year friendship. They go on adventures filled with high hills and low slopes, and when they find a steady road, they want to be more than a summer fling. She wants more than 28 days with him. So while the future is uncertain, she wants to spend the whole time with him and nurture that. While on the island, she learns truths of the island, truths of her father, and truths of her best friend. The 28 days have passed and he says goodbye.
2. summer beach read, love, finding who you are
3. This story seemed very personal to Jennifer Niven (and I was right, she said it herself in the acknowledgments) and I could feel her heart in every word. And I always love characters with diaries/journals. BUT I didn't love Jeremiah Crew, I didn't care about him as much as I do toward Claude. I honestly liked Jared more (another male side character) because I felt like he had secrets in him that I really wanted to know, he was melancholic and there were so many interesting things to unbox in him, like his friend's suicide. 
4. fav characters; Claude, Jared, Wednesday 
5. "I'd like to fall in love." - Jared

Jawahir M

I would to thank PRH Global for provding me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my personal opinion.

Description Summary:A letdown of a YA book that touched on great familial themes but was ultimately not a great book.

Score: 2

Let's say I'm disappointed, Niven has wrote All the Bright Places which is one of my favorite books of all time. So I can't wrap my head that this book is written by the same person.

Here's what Nevin got right: her portrayal of family, separation, divorce, and the loss of identity that the child or teen feels after. The parts where these themes are pervalent are my favorite parts of the book. Then comes the love interest, the coming of age, and the whole teenage dramatics of falling in love; and here where she misses the point and I feel spaced out of the book. It's just comparing it to her other work, it's not a great book.

The ending was poor in my opinion. I felt it was cop out and an easy way out, though I understand why it happened I just didn't like it. 

Quite frankly, I do not understand this obsession with sex that Niven has throughout the entirety of the book. Claude comes across to me as self obsessed, sex obsessed, and sometimes too into herself.

While her melodramatic writing worked in All the Bright Places, here it had the opposite effect. Instead of having that melachonly feeling you over dramatic writing that is sometimes unnecessary. 

Do I recommend? No

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Jenna Abraham

A book I didn’t know I needed in my life. Love, laughter, sadness, and heartbreak. All perfectly written together to form a beautiful book. Another wonderful book by Jennifer Niven and I honestly cannot wait for the next one.

The much anticipated new novel from international bestselling author Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places.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. It's all here because one day this will be the past, and I don't want to forget what I went through, what I thought, what I felt, who I was. I don't want to forget you. But most of all, I don't want to forget me.For her last summer before college, Claudine Henry and her mother head to a remote island off the Georgia coast. There, amidst the wild beauty of the place, she meets the free spirited Jeremiah Crew. Their chemistry is immediate and irresistible, and even though they both know that whatever they have can only last the summer, maybe one summer is enough . . .

Hope Lenzen

I really struggled to get into this at first. It felt disjointed and a little hard to follow but I grew to enjoy the style.

Nette Latré

Normally I don't read books only with romance, but I don't regret that I did it. It was a beautiful story and I absolutely loved the romance. But sometimes I was bored and the family history of the main character didn't interest me at all. The ending also quite dissapointed me. But overall it was a good book!

Joanna Rosenwink 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this book in return for an honest review. 

Note - This book deals with some difficult topics - suicide, miscarriage, a child drowning, parental separation among others. 

Claude feels like the floor has disappeared from under her when a few days before her high school graduation she learns that her parents are separating and she and her mother are going to spend their summer on a tiny island a long way away.

But during the summer she comes to learn a great deal, about the world and about herself. 

This book really moved me. I am a lot older than many readers of this book are likely to be, so I have a different perspective. My husband and I separated when our daughter was 16. I felt the rawness of Claude’s emotions and experiences. It felt very honest to me, and reading the acknowledgements I found out it is based on the author’s own experiences.

I know many people really connected with All the Bright Places, but this book spoke more to me personally. Maybe it because several of the characters are writers and this resonated with me. It’s made me want to write again and for that I am very thankful.

Kate

This is my first book by Jennifer Niven and having picked it up on a whim, I'm so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's filled with raw, messy character figuring out life and all the hardships, changes and challenges that come with it. It's about grief and first love and family and heartbreak.

I instantly warmed to the cast of imperfect but loveable characters and the multiple complex and individual relationships between them. The plot was endearing, heartfelt, honest and the setting was wonderfully immersive and added everything I'd hoped it would to this remote island/small town story. The discussions surrounding sex and virginity was overall pretty great in its feminist message and clearly tried to be inclusive towards non-hetero relationships which, for the most part it was. However, there was unfortunately quite a few moments of, (I'm sure unintentional but never the less present) asexual erasure but honestly? I think that was my only qualm with this book. 

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable, warm, honest and easy read and one I'm so glad I decided to pick up. (Also the audiobook narration is fab.)

TW: discussion of suicide

hannah schrefl &
Breathless by Jennifer Niven

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