I really enjoyed this magical story about friendships, relationships and life transitions. I am a Jennifer Niven fan after reading her first two books and this one is my favourite of the three. Probably due to the locations and descriptions.
I will promote this book in my Library to KS4 & KS5 (age15+)

This beautifully written coming of age story is a perfect read for those who have yet to be eighteen, those who are right now and those for whom it is a well stored memory. The story takes place over a short period of time in the main characters life but is able to touch on many different themes and issues such as ,friendship, sexuality, first love, virginity, loss, family, -themes which readers will be able to relate to in different ways. The setting of the story has romance attached to it, the idea of an island separated from the mainland with no wifi, and in this space the reader is able to go with the main character, Claude, and become her friend and confidante as she shares her deepest feelings. The book is life affirming and a thoroughly good read.

A teenage girl goes away for the summer with her mother, following the revelation that her parents are separating. This happens just before she is due to go to college so deals with familiar tropes of starting a new life, end of high school, discovering her identity/sexuality and changing childhood friendships and expectations The somewhat overwrought & intense summer romance quickly overshadows some of the other interesting plot elements like her family dynamic, the changing relationship with her closest friend and her family history they are researching on the island. The lead character does grate at times but really this because the author absolutely captured the intensity of being eighteen and having these seismic life events all happening at the time you might be trying to figure out who you are, so her intense love affair and self absorption are perhaps only iirritating as just too accurate! (this reviewer being 40!!) The story doesn’t really go anywhere and meanders at times but this again does fit the ‘last summer’ feeling and the characters will be relatable to angsting teens! Some drawn out and detailed sex scenes place it firmly as older teen.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!

I did not enjoy this book at all. The start of the book is just too much, all over the place. There's some very heavy-handed moralistic conversations between the friends regarding virginity being patriarchal and heteronormative, different sexualities being ok and a random thought shoe-horned in about hating our bodies and how we shouldn't. These could have been approached in a far more natural way.
I also found it hard to believe all the adults in her life could be *this* selfish. Instead of waiting two weeks to tell her about splitting up, her parents ruin her last week of school, tell her she's not allowed to talk about it and then continue living together anyway and keeping it a secret until after she's graduated! How selfish. Then her maternal grandparents and aunt don't come to her graduation because of her father, I mean seriously. And she's taken away from her friend and their road trip, because her mother can't cope without her and then the mother spends her entire time on the island in the library anyway. And don't get me started on the past relative who allows her 5 year old to find her after shooting herself. This is constantly referred to throughout for seemingly no reason, plus an obsession with the bullet hole in the door surround, which I'm sure everyone would have filled in so they no longer had to see it every day, but ok. And the mother tells the MC she needs to see a counsellor, bloody cheek.
There's further heavy handedness later on between the MC and her love interest when he asks her for her consent to have sex, in those words and she has to respond in kind. He's then telling her he's STD free and practises safe sex while putting on a condom, do people really do this in these words right as they're about to have sex?
There's also some pointless conflict added later where the MC kisses another boy for spurious reasons and is forgotten within a day or so.
I also utterly hated the ending where her now boyfriend leaves without saying goodbye, even though he said he would and this is made into some romantic thing, because he can't imagine saying goodbye to her or some such nonsense.
The history of the island seemed to come to nothing in the end, the MC was an absolute doormat and the scene where she stands up to her mum the most she ever had made her seem more like a 14 year old, not an 18 year old. This book seemed like it was trying to be really 'deep' the whole time and it really fell flat for me. The romance was sweet, but that's about it. Honestly, I think the anger I felt at all the adults in the beginning just ruined the rest of the book for me.

I loved this book, just as I loved all the bright places. I didn't necessarily like the main character, but that is because they are so well written, and raw, that you see them as a real person. Highly recommended

Breathless is honest, heartbreaking and packed full of love. It's a book you will feel compelled to lend to your friends once you've finished.

Jennifer Niven has done it again. She manages to create such vivid characters its like you know these people. A simple but captivating story of a young adults first love.