Breathless by Jessica Warman, Too Good to Miss
Breathless by Jessica Warman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I added this book to my Goodreads queue because I needed to add a debut novel and someone mentioned it was interesting. I don't even remember who recommended it, and that's a shame because this is a wonderful YA book.
Katie Kittrel has a lot going for her. She's smart, pretty, and an incredible swimmer. Unfortunately, her family is totally screwed up. In fact, her parents basically give-up on trying to be parents and ship Katie off to boarding school in West Virginia while they try to piece her crazy brother, Will, back together again.
At boarding school, Katie has the opportunity to create a new life for herself, but soon realizes that she can only keep her family secrets hidden for so long.
Many of the scenes in Breathless were so real and so poignant, it hurt to read them. Jessica Warman captures dysfunctional family dynamics and nasty power struggles between women perfectly without going overboard. Even though Breathless tackles issues of classism, religion, homophobia and friendship with brutal honesty, the story is so compelling, it's impossible to look away.
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