99 Days

This book was one of the most realistic books I've read. A girl stuck between two brothers, trying to figure out who she loves and trying to deal with making mistakes that lands her into the spotlight. Mistakes that hurts everyone. Every time something happened, I winced for her. People will say that she's just dumb. I think differently. She's a girl who truly loved the brothers, but it was just either horrible timing or they weren't quite grown up enough to deal with the real problems within the relationship. For instance, the younger brother she was with for years and years. It seemed inevitable to them that they would be together forever. But the minute she said she wanted to go to college far away, that's when he breaks away. He didn't give her space to explore the possiblity or support her dreams. How can you stay with someone who is too desperate for you to stay with him at all times? That's not healthy. The other brother, it was just the wrong timing and much more that you'll find out for yourself. But, it was at a time that she was trying to resolve things with the first brother. So it's such a mess. I felt horribly more for Tess. I didn't want her to lose Tess because she seemed like a great friend. As well as the Donnelly brothers' sister. That just stunk in my opinion. I felt like defending her to Tess because I felt that it was more complicated than it looked. Man what a great book. I didn't expect the ending. I'm used to there being a happily ever after of a certain kind. This one was totally different. There's no "bad" ending, but just a satisfying conclusion. Although, I do have to admit that I would love to see a sequel to this book to see how the main character evolves in a new city. I really do hope the author shows us a HEA for her in a second book, no matter who she ends up with. Even if it's not any of the brothers.

I was a big fan of Katie's previous book How To Love, so when I received a copy of 99 days to review I was over the moon. I was drawn to the plot of this book immediately, while I'm not a fan of books that feature cheating the idea that the main protagonist Molly cheated on her boyfriend Patrick with his older brother Gabe intrigued me enough to want to pick it up and give it a go. The one thing I really disliked about the story was the slut shaming, it's like they forgot that it takes two to tango, the amount of harassment and name calling amongst other things was enough to have Molly up and leave for boarding school while Gabe seems to get off scot free, Molly was left to endure all of the lewd and cruel comments alone. When Molly arrives home the summer before college she counts down the 99 days until she leaves, off to begin her college years, with the relationship with her Mother who is a famous author strained after she wrote a book about the whole Molly, Patrick and Gabe situation, and through an article written about the book everybody in town discovered the secret she and Gabe had hidden, the extremely awkward encounters with Patrick and the hateful attitude directed towards her from her former best-friend and Patrick's twin sister Julia, Molly is left alone, depressed and lonely so she shuts herself away in her room, that is until Gabe arrives home from college, they tentatively begin a romantic relationship and although she finds herself developing feelings for Gabe, she can't stop her thoughts drifting towards Patrick. But will history repeat itself, will Molly make a serious mistake again and lose the trust of the people she's just started to get to trust her again, torn between two brothers this is one decision that Molly must make once and for all. A very thought provoking story about the double standards women are still subjected to in society today, a very enjoyable story, I still love How To Love more but I await the next book Katie releases, I really like her writing style and story ideas.

“99 Days” by Katie Cotugno is a book that drove my crazy. Let me start by reviewing all the good things and then I will tell you why “99 Days” drove me crazy. I loved the way the chapters are set up in this book. there are 99 chapters for the 99 days that we follow our main character Molly. Molly is returning home for the summer from boarding school. She is dreading it like crazy because she didn’t leave town on good terms. As soon as she got back the rumors started flying again along with the egging of her house and crude notes and whispers. As the story goes on the reader finds out day by day what happened to make Molly run away to boarding school and then what is currently happening now in the present. I love how Molly is able to tell her story. No one seems to care about Molly’s side of things. Then when Gabe the older brother of Molly’s ex-boyfriend becomes the only person to talk to her in town. Rumors really start to fly. It was something that happened between Molly, Patrick, and Gabe last year. I don’t want to spill too much, so I am going to talk more about my reaction. I was listening to the audiobook which was good. I loved the narrator and I thought she was really good at narrating the story. The narration kept me entertained to keep up with the book. To be completely honest, the heroine was driving me crazy. Allyson Ryan is so great. She makes the book a lot of fun. Let’s talk about Molly. I really liked Molly in the beginning of the book. I actually felt really bad for her. I wish that people would treat her differently. Every human makes mistakes and well I didn’t feel like Molly’s peers should keep punishing her. She didn’t deserve what she was getting. BUT…then Molly started making mistakes and this time she knows that what she is doing is wrong. The whole time I am saying “SERIOUSLY MOLLY!!!” Why can’t she figure out that what she is doing is bad. I was so frustrated with her. Even with all of that, I still wanted Molly to end up with a happy ending and I don’t really know if that really happened too her. I hope that Molly grows up while she is in college. I hope that she makes better choices and I do hope she ends up with the perfect guy. I really want her to have a happy life. I was just disappointed with how the character was written.

I came into this book with no idea what the plot was. I’m not super picky about contemporary YA (I read and love a lot) so I picked it up based on the buzz surrounding it. So the story of Molly’s 99 days back home before she left her small town for college unfolded slowly for me. “Love triangle” isn’t generally a trope I seek out, but I was obsessed with this book while reading it. I loved the best selling Mom character, I loved the Donnely boys, and I especially loved the relationship Molly had with her best friend, Imogen. I loved Tess! I loved Penn! No stone is unturned when it comes to character development. This story is so emotionally rich, so captivating. Contemporary novels aren’t always page turners, but I raced to the end of this book, and regretted it as soon as I realized that meant it was over. I’m so excited for 9 Days and 9 Nights to come out, so I can spend some more time with my girl Molly Barlow.

This book is very fast paced and addicting. While it isn’t exactly a butterflies-in-your-tummy, feel all the feels type contemporary, it definitely has its emotional moments. While all the characters are morally questionable, I believe that is what the author was going for: shining a light on topics that are so rarely discussed in YA/contemporary. There are also aspects that people can relate to whether it be figuring out what you want to do after high school, dealing with “mean girls” or family issues. There is just something about this book that will draw you in and hook you – but if you like your romance nice and neat with a ribbon tied around it, don’t read this.

It's been a couple of days since I finished 99 Days, which I read in less than 24 hours, and I cannot stop thinking about this book. It just took me and held onto me in a way that I will not forget it. I am thinking about Gabe, Patrick, Molly, even the secondary characters like Julia and Imogen, even Tess as if they are real people and wondering what happened to them all after that summer. I know that Katie Cotugno has left it completely plausible to write a sequel, which I hope she does NOT, and while the book might not have ended all wrapped up in a perfect little bow, it ended realistically and perfectly. But I just cannot stop thinking about these characters and it's driving me crazy, and I read a ton of books. I do think the same thing happened to me when I read HOW TO LOVE (I'll have to go back and see if I wrote an amazon review for that one), but this book was so well-written, one of those where I wanted to pluck sentences out and write them down because they were so beautiful. Such a great love story, and even though Molly did some very wrong things, as a reader, I could not hate her. I could see how she did what she did. Katie Cotugno made Molly flawed yet perfectly understandable as an 18 year old with confused feelings. The scenery of Star Lake just added to the story as well, and 99 Days was just a beautiful read, one that I will not soon forget, and one that I will definitely remember as one of my most favorite YAs for a long time coming. I look forward to reading what Katie has next!

Katie Cotugno is an amazing author! I really loved the passionate dynamic between all the characters. I loved how she built the story up between past and present. I really truly loved the characters individually as well. This book is so different from any other coming-of-age story I've ever read. Maybe that is what made me want to keep reading it to be honest. I love a good scandal, but this was something that was too unrelatable. At the end of it, I came away really thinking what have I just read? But also appreciating such raw story telling and raw characters. I will probably eventually read the sequel just to see if there's any kind of resolution like what I was looking for.

**Note: This review contains some minor spoilers** To say I'm bummed after reading 99 Days is a massive understatement. I really liked Cotugno's debut novel How to Love and couldn't wait to see what she came out with next. Unfortunately, 99 Days just didn't work for me. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of love triangles - they rate right up there with instalove. However, sometimes love triangles aren't bad if handled in the right way. I was hopeful I'd be pleasantly surprised especially considering how much I liked Cotugno's first book, but alas that was not the case. Molly is torn between two brothers - Gabe and Patrick. Patrick is her first love while Gabe is the guy she lost her virginity to. She escapes town her senior year of high school due to the flack she received from sleeping with Gabe, but returns the summer before college. Upon her return, Molly continues to get harassed for sleeping with Gabe. While Gabe basically gets off scot-free. Come to find out Molly and Patrick were broken up when she slept with Gabe. So she didn't even cheat on him yet is still labeled a slut. Meanwhile Gabe slept with his BROTHER'S ex-girlfriend and gets left alone. I liked that Cotugno attempted to shed light on the double standard here. However, I did not like Molly at all. I was hoping for some growth on her part. Something like Molly finally standing up for herself and pointing out the ridiculousness behind the double standard. Instead what I got was an immature, selfish, stupid girl who made the same mistakes over and over. After a while, it was hard to feel bad for her. She definitely took the brunt of the ridicule which wasn't fair considering how both guys acted, but some of it was definitely deserved. The way she waffled back and forth between both guys was annoying. I honestly don't know what either guy saw in her. If you like love triangles similar to Molly McAdams this might be the book for you. But if you hate love triangles (and annoying heroines) you may want to skip this one.