Blurb:
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.
My thoughts:
To be completely honest I don't really know where to begin. I loved All The Bright Places and I thought I would enjoy Breathless, however I didn't think it would impress me as much as it did.
The story is mostly based on a small island off the coast of Georgia, just turned 18 year old Claudine Henry moves to an island for the summer with her mum after her dad drops the bombshell that he no longer wants a family. Cue the heartbreak and confusion. Claudine would rather be literally anywhere else but preferably on the road trip she had planned with her best friend Saz.
Not long into her stay Claude makes friends with a few island workers and becomes interested specifically in Jeremiah Crew, who is also eighteen and screams bad boy. Claude and Miah embark on a summer romance, typical in that they both know there is an expiration date, non-typical in that it completely changes the both of them forever. The connection they have is one that stays with you and has you wistfully dreaming to be a teenager again and falling in love for the first time. Of course things aren't simple and don't come easily, both have major issues they have to deal with personally before being in a healthy, functioning relationship. But isn't that always part of the charm, when you find someone who is as broken as you are?
Claude talks a lot about the concept of 'virginity' and what it means to have sex for the first time. I think how Jennifer wrote about having a sexual relationship for the first time and the pressures of that (particularly for girls) brilliantly. I would have loved to read this story as a young adult and be presented with an alternative idea of virginity, rather than it being something you give to someone and taking a piece away from yourself. Obviously first time sexual experiences are different for everyone and mean different things to people but to have a young protagonist talking about it so openly with her peers and her partner was refreshing.
One thing I related to throughout was Claude's struggle to deal with her parent's impending divorce. Although my parents' divorce didn't happen in the way Claude's did and I have a great relationship with both parents, I still felt a comradeship with her and understood the protection she felt towards her mum at different parts of the story. The feeling of partnership they had with each other in their heartbreak was familiar.
I've seen some mixed reviews on Goodreads for Breathless and I'm not sure if they read the same book I did because I adored it. I thoroughly recommend for everyone to read it if they enjoy themes such as coming of age, feminism, family and sex.
While I'm off planning my move to an island off Georgia's coast you can buy Breathless here and learn about Jennifer's other stories here.
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