Breathe, Annie, Breathe

May 5, 2014
Graduated senior Annie Winters is training for the Country Music Marathon in Nashville for one reason: to honor the boyfriend she recently lost. She’s certain that Kyle, who was training for his first marathon when he died, would still be alive if she hadn’t gotten cold feet when he proposed to her. Her training plan, however, leads her to Jeremiah, an extreme-sports junkie, who makes life complicated with his easy smile and gorgeous body. Kenneally (Things I Can’t Forget) realistically unfolds the rigors of marathon training while building the friendship, lust, and tension between Annie and Jeremiah. Annie’s grief and longing for Kyle are portrayed with poignant sincerity, and with just the right amount of guilt and uncertainty to make her relationship with Jeremiah justifiably complicated: “People usually say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ and I get so sick of hearing that.... Living with a hole in my life blows.” The final pages won’t surprise anyone, but they are heartfelt, uplifting, and quite possibly enough motivation to make readers reach for their running shoes. Ages 13–up. Agent: Sara Megibow, Nelson Literary Agency.

June 1, 2014
Running the marathon that her boyfriend can't will change Annie's life-and not just for 26 miles.It's been months since her boyfriend, Kyle, was killed in a car accident, right after he and Annie had reconciled from a fight about their futures. To deal with her grief, Annie resolves to run the Music City Marathon, the race Kyle was training for when he died. The training doesn't come easily to her-she's slow, her knees hurt, her stomach is sensitive, and there's even some embarrassing chafing. But her coach, Matt, and her new running friends keep cheering her on, not to mention Matt's brother, Jeremiah, a daredevil who makes Annie feel so many things: fear, guilt, lust...and maybe love? But to move on with Jere, Annie will have to make peace with the loss of Kyle, while adjusting to leaving home and starting college. If she keeps breathing, she might just make it. While experienced runners might question pitfalls that don't seem to negatively affect Annie's running times, most readers will be more frustrated with the stop-and-start progress of her relationship with Jere. More importantly, though, Annie's grieving and growth are realistic, and she makes it to the starting line in the best shape-physical and emotional-to tackle the challenges ahead.Despite the racing theme, a pleasingly deliberate look at grief and healing. (Fiction. 14-18)

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June 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Despite her intense dislike of running, Annie hopes to complete Nashville's Music City Marathon to honor her track boyfriend, Kyle, who died in an accident. The six months of intense training leading up to the event are transformative for her. She connects with her trainer's brother, Jeremiah, a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie. Despite knowing that she "needs white bread, not hot sauce," the feelings between Annie and Jere are something that neither of them can resist. And while she will always hold a special place in her heart for Kyle, through reflection she begins to relieve herself of guilt surrounding his death and come to terms with the fact that "life is one big what-if" and "anything can happen, anything, anytime, to anyone, [so] we have to live now." Kenneally does a good job of building readers' curiosity surrounding the circumstances of Kyle's death, not providing the exact details of the accident until the very end. As word of Annie's marathon ambitions becomes known around town, more and more people begin to voice their support and she is able to mend her relationship with her mother and reconnect with friends she had lost touch with during her relationship with Kyle. The protagonist's drive and commitment to finish the race despite various physical and emotional setbacks as well as her ability to push past tragedy and "feel again" will prove to be inspirational and motivational for readers.-Nicole Knott, Watertown High School, CT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Grades 10-1 *Starred Review* Annie's longtime boyfriend and almost fianc', Kyle, died, and this story picks up six months later, when she's still feeling the fresh pangs of loss and heartache as well as the urge to take steps forward. In memory of the track star, she decides to take up running and enter the Music City Marathon as a kind of final farewell and her last chance to feel close to his memory again. She doesn't want to forget, but she does want to move on. She enters a training camp, run by a trainer with a 100 percent success rate, and she struggles to wait tables to pay for her classes and her upcoming college career, all while dealing with blisters and shin splints and falling for her trainer's possibly unstable, adrenaline-junkie brother. As we follow Annie's trainingwith helpful guides to track her progress inserted every few chaptersreaders can feel the burn of running, the ache of her grief for Kyle, and the hopeful beginnings of something new with surprisingly sexy Jeremiah. In this expertly paced and realistic romance, Kenneally gives Annie's sorrow a palpable weight, but she writes with such ease that Annie becomes exceedingly likable and familiar and never overwrought.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)