Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally

Coming Up for Air (Hundred Oaks)

by Miranda Kenneally

Source: eARC provided for review. Thank you!

My Rating: 5 stars

Goodreads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

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 try out, so she 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 lose to win? 

*****

 

Oh my, this book made me want to read all the books in The Hundred Oaks series. I feel like I cheated a little because I only read Stealing Parker (I loved it!) and this book would be probably more emotional if I’d read Catching Jordan. 

Anyway, this is the best friends-to-lovers book I’ve read. The shift in the relationship between Maggie and Levi was really smooth and I loved them to pieces.

But my favorite thing about this book was definitely all the knowledge I learned about swimming. I can’t swim and that breaks my heart but that’s my favorite sport to watch in the Olympics and after seeing how much heart these characters poured trying to accomplish their dreams, it made me like the sport even more!

I loved the group of friends, and how they always made time to see each other. I loved their conversations, the humor, and their personalities. 

I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about this book.

Miranda Kenneally’s writing is fast-paced and I loved the settings and the cast of characters she created.

This is definitely one of my fave “light reads”

If you’re looking for something cute, fun and even sexy, you will love this book. I highly recommend it! 

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What's New? Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

 

This book will be published on September, but I've already read a lot of great things about it. I love the cover the synopsis. I can only hope I love it, as well.
Check it out!

Expected publication: September 5th 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire

 

 

Perfect for fantasy fans of Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo, the first book in this new duology features a compelling gender fluid main character, impressive worldbuilding, and fast-paced action.

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class―and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand―the Queen's personal assassins, named after the rings she wears―Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.

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Some Books Ago: Stealing Parker (Hundred Oaks) by Miranda Kenneally

Some Books Ago is a shout out to all those books published some years ago. I don't want you to forget them!

This is the only book by Miranda Kenneally I've read and I don't know why because I loved Stealling Parker. From what I remember, this was darker than Catching Jordan, but it was still funny and cute and... heartbreaking. Parker was an angry character making a lot of mystakes trying to find herself. And Brian was... just absolutely amazing. 

I haven't read her other  Hundred Oaks books and if you haven't read them either, Stealing Parker is a great place to start!

It was published on October 1st 2012 by Sourcebooks Fire

 

GoodReads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

 

 

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This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

This Is Where It Ends

by Marieke Nijkamp

Source: bought

My rating: 4.5 stars

Goodreads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity High School finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve. 

10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class. 

10:03 a.m. The auditorium doors won't open. 

10:05 a.m. Someone starts shooting.

Told from four different perspectives over the span of fifty-four harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

****

I would love to say that this book is beautiful. But it wasn’t. It was beautifully written, but the plot is terrific, is traumatic. It’s so painful and real.

And it was completely different from everything I read before.

This It Where It Ends is about a shooting, about the shooter and about the victims.

When I started reading this book I didn’t know what to expect because it had many POVs, and it made me a little confused. It was a shock when, after a few chapters, I found myself in the middle of the madness. 

This is Where it Ends was so full of action once the shooting started, and even though it was heartbreaking and scary, it also was fast paced and intriguing.

I don’t know what to say about this book because this is such a hard topic, but everything inside this book was so well done that I kinda felt all the feelings: Sadness, terror, anger, fear, love. I even felt pity for Tyler, the shooter, when in real life I’ve never felt such a thing for these kinds of people.

The plot was really well done, but there wasn’t a big character development because almost the whole book takes place in the auditorium of the school. So, I understand and I still like them.

The only thing I didn’t like is that I was really confused with the time ALL THE TIME. Like, I kept wondering “how many minutes passed?” and I kept wondering “WHERE THE HELL IS THE POLICE!?”

I don’t know much about shootings, but I don’t think the police would wait so long.

Anyway, This is Where it Ends is a great, deep story. It’s a wonderful read. I can’t say anymore about it, but I’m sure that if you give it a chance, you will love it!

 

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