Book Nerds Across America: breathe annie breathe

Friday, July 31, 2015

Jesse's Girl by Miranda Kenneally

Jacque's Review

This is the first book by Miranda Kenneally that I have read and I absolutely loved it. Jesse is an eighteen year old country music star and Maya is a high school senior who is an aspiring musician. Her musical taste is more towards the 80's, so getting paired with Jesse for a job shadowing assignment by her principal was not nearly as appealing as it would have been for most girls her age.

Jesse and Maya have a very awkward first encounter, but their day of shadowing turned out to be one of the best days of either of their lives. Picture Ferris Bueller's Day Off... Nashville style. Maya realizes how talented Jesse is and begins to really appreciate the musical advice he gives her. For Jesse...Maya is a breath of fresh air that he has desperately been needing. Life in the music business has caused him to isolate himself from everyone except his immediate family and managers. He has been burned so many times by his supposed "friends" that he has a hard time trusting anyone. Maya manages to show him that he can still have a life while maintaining his career.

I haven't given a book 5 stars in a while, but this one was definitely worthy. I was completely engaged and actually finished the entire book during a lengthy travel day with my family. My husband even commented that I needed to get my head out of the book. Once I was finished...I still couldn't put it down. I was flipping back through to reread some of my favorite scenes and quotes.

Flo's Review

Jesse's Girl was on my "Must Get" list at ALA Midwinter earlier this year. I loved Breathe, Annie, Breathe and was looking forward to this one. Well, Jacque and I have both agreed that we need to take a trip to Nashville because of Jesse Scott. It's been awhile since I've met a boy worthy to add to my Book Boyfriend List, and I feel like Jesse definitely earns a spot. This was a quick and breezy read -- I read the whole thing over the course of a few flights. It also made me want to read Miranda's first book that takes place in the same town, Catching Jordan.

I had an interesting relationship with this book. I didn't love Maya because I thought, "Okay, she wants to be a singer, but she doesn't want to sing in front of anybody?! How does that make any kind of sense?!?" But then I realized why I was so perturbed by this: because I am doing the exact same thing. I bet even my fellow Book Nerds don't know that I am currently writing a book. It's a YA contemporary and I'm in love with my main characters. It's about halfway done right now. But I don't really talk about it, and no one else has even read parts of it. Maybe I need Jesse Scott to come to my house and threaten to fail me if I don't finish it and give it to my friends to get their feedback. Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea...

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally

Book Summary
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.

Flo's Review
I loved this story so much, for so many different reasons. First of all was the way I could relate to Annie. I hate running, too! So the idea that she couldn't even do two laps around her school track at the beginning of the book, yet she is training to run a marathon was fascinating to me. As I was reading, I found myself thinking that her program with Matt sounded really cool. If I could find a Matt, I might consider doing it. Might. But on the flip side, I loved this story because I couldn't relate to it. Annie grew up without a lot of money, but this is not the focus of the story -- and I love that. Because she never sees herself as a victim. It's just a fact of life that she lives in a trailer and her mother never graduated high school because she got pregnant. But Annie is working hard for her dream of going to college. And while she is madly in love with Kyle, when he proposes and asks her to give that all up, so does not. I really admire that.

Another reason I loved the story was because I grew up in Tennessee. Not a town like the one Annie is in, but close enough where the scenery she describes reminds me of home. And I had friends that went to MTSU, so it was really cool to read about that. I loved Annie's personality -- Miranda Kenneally wrote this story to where Annie's voice is so distinctive -- you feel like you're just sitting down with her over a beer and she is telling you this story. She has a sense of humor and I really enjoyed her thoughts and interactions with the other characters. I loved that this is kind of the fifth book in a series, but is also a stand alone. I haven't read any of Miranda's other books, but I did not feel like I was coming into the middle of the story or that I was lost about what was going on in any way at any time.

In case you missed it, I loved this story. There are a few components, though, that I didn't necessarily love. First of all, Annie deals with a sense of guilt throughout the book -- she feels like it it her fault that Kyle died. I can certainly understand why she feels like that, but that is never really resolved -- for lack of a better word. I don't think she tells anyone that she thinks Kyle's death is her fault, so no other character can offer her absolution. And she does not ever give it to herself. Similarly, I don't know how I feel that Jere has Annie go ziplining and then she's like, "Okay, I understand why you're an adrenaline junkie." And she starts to equate Jere being an adrenaline junkie to how she should take risks in her life and such. It's almost like she now thinks it's okay...and I don't know if I do. I know it would be unrealistic for Jere to end the book with agreeing to never take any risks again, but maybe a middle ground between the extremes of Annie condoning versus Jere never doing anything risky again. Finally, there is something that happens to Annie and Jere near the beginning of the book that I don't think needs to be part of their story at that point in order for their story to be what it was.

I loved the multiple meanings of the title: Breathe, Annie, Breathe. What an amazing title! Because on one level it is referring to her remembering to breathe while she runs. On another level, it's about her needing to remember do things to move her forward in life and out of being stuck in grief. It can also refer to her having to remember not to snap at her Mom every time she mentions Kyle, to slow down her heart rate when physical contact with Jere speeds it up, to make it gracefully through an awkward situation like with her friends or Kyle's family or at the Roadhouse. Basically, it's like a call of, "You can do this!" Which brings us back to why I love this book. 5 of out 5 stars!