[BLOG TOUR] 99 Dyas by Katie Cotugno

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Title: 99 Days
Author: Katie Cotugno
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: April 21st 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: eARC received fro blog tour in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
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Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that’s how I know everyone still remembers everything—how I destroyed my relationship with Patrick the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. How I wrecked their whole family. Now I’m serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college, and be done.

Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn’t finished. I’m expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it’s just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. “For what it’s worth, Molly Barlow,” he says, “I’m really glad you’re back.”

Day 12: Gabe got me to come to this party, and I’m actually having fun. I think he’s about to kiss me—and that’s when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who’s supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who’s never going to forgive me.

99 Days was a book that I was both excited and nervous to read at the same time. I knew the subject matter going in, I had heard from many people that the main plot dealt with cheating. And they were not wrong. I hate cheating characters in any setting, whether it be TV, Movies or books, so I knew going in that I was not going to particularly like the main character. But to be honest I was a little surprised at how much I did like her. I mean there were moments, especially near the end of the book that I questioned her motives and whether she actually learned anything at all from her mistake. But overall I liked her. She was spunky and independent and I liked that about her.

I had many issues with this book overall, first let’s talk about the cheating. It was constant and without that much guilt, so therein lies the issue for me. I wanted our main character to learn from the mistakes she made the first time, but it almost seemed like she couldn’t help herself. It was a pattern for her, she cheated, ran away, came back, cheated again and then ultimately ran away at the end again. What I did love about the main character was that she finally stood up to the bullies that had been harassing her since she came back into town. She acknowledged the double standard when it comes to cheating and honestly I think was my favorite part, that someone finally said something about this because it takes two to cheat. And it was just nice to finally see that on paper.

Overall I loved the writing. Katie has a way of making a story that you cannot stop reading. And that is what happened for me here. Although I didn’t agree with the characters choices, I still wanted to keep reading and see what happened. The story pulled me in from the very beginning and I found myself thinking about the characters when I wasn’t actually reading the book. So In the end the writing saved this book for me. Katie is an amazing writer, and How To Love will forever be one of my favorite YA Contempoaries of all time. I cannot wait to read more from Katie, even though this one fell a little short for me.