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Breathless
Breathless
Aug 3, 2025 9:45 AM

Author:Jennifer Niven

Breathless

Your first love, your first time, your first heartbreak. The new novel from Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places.

You were my first. Not just sex, although that was part of it, but the first to look past everything else into me. Some of the names and places have been changed, but the story is true.

Claudine Henry was not supposed to spend her summer on this remote island off the coast of Georgia.

She was supposed to be on a road trip with her best friend, spending every last minute together before they go to college.

But after her father makes a shock announcement, she is exiled with her shaken mother, with no phone service and no one she knows. She is completely cut off.

Until she meets Jeremiah. Free spirited, mysterious and beautiful, their chemistry is immediate and irresistible.

They both know that whatever they have can only last the summer, but maybe one summer is enough...

Reviews

A great shout of life and individuality.

—— Justine Jordan , Guardian

The book I'll be pressing into people's hands forever is Lolly Willowes [. . .] Starting as a straightforward, albeit beautifully written family saga, it tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness

—— Helen Macdonald , The New York Times Book Review

Sylvia Townsend Warner moves with sombre confidence into the realm of the supernatural, and her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it

—— John Updike

My comfort read

—— Tracey Thorn

[A] glorious novel.

—— Helen Macdonald , Guardian

Written in lyrical, beautiful prose that makes even waking up seem like a poetic event, The End of the Day makes sense of the events of a single day in a compelling work of fiction.

—— GMA.com

A moody, atmospheric domestic drama with a mystery novel somewhere in its family tree.

—— Kirkus Reviews

Clegg delivers a thoughtful, well-observed story... The splendid prose and orchestrated maneuvering will keep readers turning the pages and send them back to the beginning, to read it all over again.

—— Publishers Weekly

A declining heiress returns home for the first time in decades, but can't remember why. Her former maid's daughter runs a taxi company in Hawaii. Her aunt is left with a baby whose parents have vanished. Leave it to Clegg to brilliantly bind these threads.

—— Entertainment Weekly

Clegg tantalisingly reveals the clues that connect the characters to each other. A gripping read.

—— Psychologies

Arresting and impressive.

—— Ethan Croft , Literary Review

Superb ... The stories move from breathtakingly vulnerable to extraordinarily funny, and all with such skill and lightness of touch. I loved it

—— Louise O'Neill

I don't know another writer who could balance poignancy and hilarity with such grace ... Goosebumps! Guffaws! It's got it all. I love this book

—— Doireann Ní Ghríofa , via Twitter

Guffaw-out-loud funny

—— Business Post

A riotous read from the get-go ... An absolute tonic for our times

—— RTÉ Guide

F*cking fantastic. Patrick is a brilliant writer

—— Blindboy Boatclub , via Twitter

Lovely ... It's very worth reading

—— Dara Ó Briain , via Twitter

A wonderful book ... done with a gorgeous twist of humour and great emotional insight ... One of my books of the year

—— Ryan Tubridy , RTÉ Radio 1

Exquisite ... One of the funniest writers in Ireland

—— Irish Examiner

Immensely readable, warm, human and very, very funny

—— Irish Daily Star

Pixies were loud-quiet-loud. Patrick Freyne is funny-sad-funny. I really loved his new book

—— Ed O'Loughlin , via Twitter

Readers are sure to find themselves touched by Freyne's writing ... Delightful

—— Journal.ie

Freyne's thoroughly entertaining debut is a flash of warmth and wit in the darkness

—— Totally Dublin

Genuinely moving ... [It] will evoke warmth in anyone who isn't totally sociopathic

—— Hot Press

A delightful insight into the mind of the hilarious Patrick Freyne

—— Irish Country Magazine

So honest, so funny, and most importantly, 11/10 for self-deprecation

—— Sarah Breen

Brilliant ... An absolute mind hug

—— Niall Breslin

Freyne's radar is precision-honed to find the madness within the mundane

—— Sunday Independent

More moving that I ever expected and somehow funnier than I assumed

—— Emer McLysaght , Irish Times, Best Books of 2020

Captivating and moving.

—— Tablet, *Summer Reads of 2021*

Moving... Beneath the attention-seeking is a well-loved author who has gone through his cupboards, giving us all that he has.

—— Johanna Thomas-Corr , Sunday Times

A defiant and witty testimony to mortality and a tender remembrance of his friends and literary heroes… I’ve been reading and re-reading it this year

—— Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year*

Continues in the same superior vein as Restoration… The fusion of such an engrossing character, and the minutiae of another time, remains a marvel

—— Daily Telegraph

In this evocative and beautifully drawn novel of family and loyalty in the face of an uncertain future Tremain continues the story of a wonderfully unique character

—— Hannah Britt , Daily Express

Hugely enjoyable

—— Reader's Digest

Merivel’s hapless charm remains intact in this tour de force of literary technique

—— Sunday Telegraph (Seven)

A sequel that looks back to the earlier novel without ever quite recapturing its spirit is the perfect form in which to evoke that feeling of having to carry on, and of trying to make yourself have fun even with it eventually begins to hurt

—— Colin Burrow , Guardian

A marvelllously rollicking good read, and it is such a pleasure to meet Robert Merivel again. Rose Tremain brings the character to life in a way that makes you want to find out even more about the period. Enormously skilled and deft

—— Good Book Guide
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