Blog Tour - 99 Days by Katie Cotugno + Giveway

Title: 99 Days

Author: Katie Cotugno

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: April 21, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Molly Barlow is facing one long, hot summer—99 days—with the boy whose heart she broke and the boy she broke it for…his brother.

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, who’s supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who’s never going to forgive me. 

Katie Cotugno was a total standout for me in 2013. I absolutely adored her debut, How to Love, and have been (im)patiently waiting for more from her ever since. Needless to say that I was beyond excited when I got my hands on 99 Days and read it as soon as I could. And I am happy to say that I was not in the least bit let down by this book.

A year ago, Molly Barlow left Star Lake, attempting to outrun her mistakes. Now back for the summer, Molly has to face what she left behind when she ran away. Molly is hoping everyone has moved past what happened between her and the Donnelly brothers, but the moment she sets foot back in town, she finds out that nothing has changed. Patrick and Julia still hate her. The whole town is still judging her for what she did. The only person who seem to be happy to see Molly again is Gabe. The more time she spends with Gabe, the more Molly starts to put what happened a year ago behind her. But Star Lake isn’t ready to let her forget what she did, and everywhere Molly goes someone is there to remind her just how badly she screwed up.

No matter how awesome I think 99 Days is and how much I loved it, I know that unfortunately it’s not going to be for everyone. So much of this story revolves around cheating and cheating happens on more than one occasion. While this is something that doesn’t bother me when it’s done well, like it was in 99 Days, I know not everyone is going to share my opinion (and I have a lot of thoughts on this particular topic as you can see). In 99 Days, Katie Cotugno depicted cheating in a way that felt realistic and didn’t feel gratuitous. She didn’t just decide to have the characters cheat just for the sake of cheating, but instead showed that there are often so many other forces at play that can lead to someone cheating on their significant other. Though what made me really love this story, was the way she showed the aftermath, the way everyone treated Molly after they found out what she did. There were times that I wanted to throw the book or hit some people because of the way they were treating Molly, but the story always felt real. Knowing what I town for close-knit communities, everyone’s reaction was on point, no matter how angry it made me or how badly I felt for Molly. In 99 Days, no one is perfect, least of all Molly, but that’s what made the story feel so realistic. The ending also made the story feel realistic. The way the story ends, everything is not all tied up with a nice bow. things are left open, and if the story were to go on, it could go any of a number of ways. I know what way I would want it to go, but I don’t know for sure that that’s what would happen. It just felt like the most natural way for the story to end based on everything that had happened before.

Molly isn’t perfect. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But that’s what made me like her so much. Even though I didn’t always agree with her action, hell sometimes I wanted to downright yell at her for behaving stupidly, I was always ready to stand by her side. Because as much as she screwed up, she didn’t deserve all the crap everyone in town was giving her. The double standard with how they treated her versus how they treated Gabe especially angered me and I could write a whole review on that alone, but I’ll spare you. The point is that Molly was flawed and she behaved like a teenager and I absolutely loved her for it. And I could also understand how she could be torn between the two Donnelly brothers. I’m not going to lie, right off the bat I was all in favour of Gabe, if only because he actually treated Molly like a decent person. But then there was a moment where he did something that completely sold me on him. Patrick on the other hand, I have seriously mixed feelings about. I pretty much spent 75% of 99 Days going back and forth between liking him and wanting to hit him. It’s like I couldn’t figure him out. He definitely had his reasons for being mad at Molly, all things considered, so I got that. But then a few pages later he would be really sweet to her and I would get all confused about MY feelings for HIM. Let’s just say that by the end of the book though, I finally figured him out.

Katie Cotugno’s 99 Days left me with a lot of feelings. I didn’t know what to do with myself when I finished because I just knew that no matter what I read afterwards, it just wouldn’t compare. Be ready to have your emotions be all over the place when you read this book, it’s going to happen no matter how much you try to stay calm and collected. But it’s worth it.

Favorite Quotes

As part of the tour, I was asked to share some of my favorite quotes from 99 Days. This is the kind of book that has so many amazing words and passages and it made it hard to pick just a few. So here are three of my favorites.

Giveaway!

Do you want to read Katie Cotugno's 99 Days? Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a signed copy of the book. US only.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to Love by Katie Cotugno

Title: How to Love

Author: Katie Cotugno

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Source: ARC from BEA

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he's never seemed to notice that Reena even exists…until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated--and pregnant--Reena behind.

After: Almost three years have passed, and there's a new love in Reena's life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena's gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she's finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn't want anything to do with him, though she'd be lying if she said Sawyer's being back wasn't stirring something in her. After everything that's happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

In this breathtaking debut, Katie Cotugno weaves together the story of one couple falling in love--twice. 

Katie Cotugno's debut How to Love was easily one of my most anticipated books this year. As you can imagine, I had very high expectations and I really didn't want to be disappointed by the book. And in all honesty, I wasn't even close to bring disappointed. How to Love is one of my favourite books this year. 

Three years ago, Reena Montero was in love with Sawyer LeGrande. Had been in love with him for as long as she could remember. When Sawyer appears to be returning her feelings, Reena is ecstatic. But being love with Sawyer is more complicated than Reena ever thought it would be. And it gets more complicated until the day Sawyer disappears leaving everything and everyone behind, including a pregnant Reena. When Reena thinks she is finally figuring out how to live without Sawyer and raise her daughter, Hannah, Sawyer waltzes back into her life with no warning. But this new Sawyer is different from the Sawyer Reena knew three years ago. And before long, old feelings resurface. Could Reena be falling in love with Sawyer for the second time?

How do I even begin to explain how much I loved How to Love. I read the book on my way home from BEA back in June and even now, four months later, I still can't seem to get these characters and this story out of my mind. There was just something powerful about this story that touched me in a way I don't know how to explain. For starters, Katie Cotugno is a fantastic writer. With How to Love she essentially wrote two stories: the story of how Reena fell in love with Sawyer in high school and the story of Reena and Sawyer getting to know each other again three years later. I loved how the story alternated between the present and the past. It allowed me to understand the characters in a way I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. But it also allowed me to see that being in love doesn't always look the way you think it will, even if you think you know the person. There was just so much to love about How to Love that no matter what I say I just know I won't be able to do the book and the story justice. 

The thing about Reena and Sawyer is that I basically got a two-for-one deal in a way. Because there were two timelines, there was a past Reena and a present Reena. And the same goes for Sawyer. And like I've said before getting to know past Reena and Sawyer helped me better understand present Reena and Sawyer. And that meant I saw who they became who they now are. With Reena, I saw her go from being the wide-eyed girl who's been in love with the same boy since she was a child to being this hardened person who has had to learn how to get by on her own and care for a child. With Sawyer the change was obviously more drastic, but a bit more of a mystery. With the story being told from Reena's point of view, I was able to see the differences between past and present Saywer, but it was less clear how he became the latter. But honestly, I didn't really need to know. All that mattered was that, like Reena, I pretty much fell in love with Sawyer. 

I could keep going on and on about Katie Cotugno's How to Love. This is a book with a story and characters that will stay with you for a long time after finishing the book. But more than that, How to Love reminded me why I love YA and contemporary stories as much as I do.

Top Ten Tuesday: Fall 2013 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is Top Ten Books on my fall TBR list.

I will preface this post by saying that some of these books have already been published, others are books that will be published at some point in the next few months. Regardless of if the book has been published or not, I am looking forward to reading all of these in the coming months.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth - There is a strong likelihood that Allegiant is on just about everyone's list and I totally understand why. After everything that went down in Insurgent, I can't wait to see how it will all come together. Plus we get Four's point of view.

Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes - I found myself liking Falling Kingdoms last year so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. I've had an ARC of Rebel Spring sitting on my bookshelf for a few months and now that the release date is getting closer, I have the perfect excuse to read it.

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead - Richelle Mead. Adrian Ivashkov. Enough said.

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano - The premise of Perfect Ruin is that it takes place in a utopian world. And it's written by Lauren DeStefano. That's pretty much all I need to know in order to know I will want to read this book.

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry - My heart broke a little in Dare You To with what happened to Isaiah so I can't wait to finally read his story in Crash Into You. Plus, as far as I'm concerned, Katie McGarry can do no wrong.

How to Love by Katie Cotugno - I was lucky enough to get an ARC of How to Love while at BEA and I proceeded to read it on the bus ride back from NYC. But it's one of those books that I really, desperately want to reread. So since it's coming out soon, I'll most likely be doing just that.

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White - So far I have loved everything I have read by Kiersten WHite. And now she writes a book about mythology? Count me in.

Resist by Sarah Crossan - I loved Breathe. I want to know what happens next (though I may need a refresher between now and then). And that's all that really needs to be said about Resist.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black - Vampires and Holly Black. Do I really need to explain this any further?

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater - I only just recently read The Raven Boys but the moment I finished, I wanted the sequel. And now I have it. So you can bet I'll be reading The Dream Thieves and Ronan's story quite soon.

What books are on your fall TBR list?