Review: Breathe, Annie, Breathe (Hundred Oak) by Miranda Kenneally

Breathe, Annie, Breathe

Author: Miranda Kenneally

Series: Hundred Oak

Pages: 306

Release date: 7^th April 2015

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Amazon

Synopsis (Goodreads):

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.

"Breathe, Annie, Breathe is an emotional, heartfelt, and beautiful story about finding yourself after loss and learning to love. It gave me so many feels. Her best book yet." — Jennifer Armentrout, New York Times bestselling author of Wait for You 

Review: 4 out of 5 stars

I have only read one book in the Hundred Oak series but I’ll definitely be picking up more after reading this little gem.

Annie Winters is a girl dealing with heartache and blame after her long-term boyfriend, Kyle passed away, he was the person she would eventually marry, he was her best friend and the one she was planning a future with. As a way to honor him, she is training for a Country Music Marathon that he intended to race. We get a good glimpse into Annie’s pain, we see her push herself to achieve success, she goes through agony but she moves forward never losing sight of her goal despite hating running herself.

When Annie meets Jeremiah Brown, her trainers little brother he slowly brings her out of her slump but she is wary of this adrenalin junkie; she doesn’t want to lose anyone again but she can’t avoid his charm and his kindness, I adored their interactions and call me a perv but I thought that their smexy times were done really well! The chemistry between Annie and Jere was off the charts so I loved all of their interactions together – it was rushed initially and then slowed to a more believable pace that I loved reading about, they complimented each other well.

I loved the sporting aspect, I'm not a runner at all - I'd trip over my own feet and it was gruelling to read about what they go through to achieve their goals; I was cheering Annie on as she trained daily so that she could honour Kyle and it was great to see everyone support her along the way. It was nice to see family play an important role in this book.

Breathe, Annie, Breathe is filled with wonderful, engaging writing and relatable characters that you can’t help but cheer for. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Annie’s progress and finding herself through her grief, it wasn’t easy for her but I admired her dedication – she was a fabulous character that I could really relate to.

I did struggle in the initial stages of this book because of my Netgalley copy – it was missing certain letters which skewed words, I found it hard to get used to but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the overall book. I also found the ending to be a little anti-climactic, all the preparations were over with in a brief moment; I would have loved more.

Overall, a highly recommended, well written sporting romance. Thank you kindly to Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review Breathe, Annie, Breathe.

About the author: 

Growing up in Tennessee, Miranda Kenneally dreamed of becoming an Atlanta Brave, a country singer (cliché!), or a UN interpreter. Instead she writes, and works for the State Department in Washington, D.C., where George W. Bush once used her shoulder as an armrest. Miranda loves Twitter, Star Trek and her husband.