Coming Up For Air by Miranda Kenneally

To be published by Sourcebooks on June 27, 2017

Source: eARC from publisher for review

Plot Summary of Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally

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?

Review of Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally

I think the thing I love the most about Miranda Kenneally's YA writing is her fearlessness. 

She's never afraid to tackle subjects that many YA authors shy away from: abortion, coming out as gay, class differences, and sex. (Yes, there are plenty of YA books with sex, but many of those feature romance novel sex, the kind of sex where everything is effortlessly perfect and wonderful.) 

This book tackles two other tricky subjects: female friendship and female ambition. And, again, I loved the way this book took on those topics in a fearless and non-airbrushed way.

Maggie is a competitive swimmer who has little time for anything besides schoolwork and swimming. 

She's headed to Berkeley in the fall and she's curious about sex. After a disastrous (and completely hilarious) encounter with a random guy, she convinces her close friend Levi to agree to hook up with her for practice. 

I've seen this trope before in Regency Romance, where the spinster gets the rake to give her lessons in love and of course they fall for each other. I liked the trope here; it reminded me a little of Jordan and Sam and the way they transitioned from friendship to romance.

I also loved the way the book looked at a trope that isn't always represented in YA:female friends-to-frenemies. 

Maggie has a former friend and now rival, Roxy. At first Maggie supported Roxy, but now they're fierce competitors and Roxy isn't all that nice. In fact, she's pretty mean. I'd like to say that women aren't like that but ... I can't.  I've had these weird friendships gone bad myself, and I still can't figure out what happened and if I could have done anything differently.

Finally, I loved the way this book looked at ambition. Maggie wants to be the best swimmer she can and doesn't want anything to stand in the way of that. But she also wants a full, balanced life. Isn't that the eternal female dilemma - how to have time for the relationships (romantic, friendship, family) that give our lives meaning without giving up on our dreams.

This book was a wonderful ending to the Hundred Oaks series - loved the cameos by Jordan and Sam and the mentions of Jesse and the mentions of the Racing Savannah characters. And the epilogue of this book was the icing on the cake!

If you haven't read these companion books, I highly recommend trying them! 

If you are looking for a list of YA books about Female Athletes, you should check this one out on Jen Ryland Reviews!