{Review} 99 Days by Katie Cotungo

Posted by Donna
Release Date: April 21st, 2015
Finished Date: January 6th, 2015

Publishers: Balzer + Bray
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Pages: 384

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

From the acclaimed author of How to Love comes another stunning contemporary novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen.

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. She has every right to hate me, of course: I broke Patrick Donnelly's heart the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. 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 wouldn't quit till he got me to come to this party, and I'm surprised to find 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.

The Review: Molly Barlow has always been friends with the Donnelly’s. She’s grown up in their house and they’re like her second family and the fact that she is dating Patrick – the younger Donnelly – shows how strong her connection is to this family. But when Molly cheats on Patrick with his older brother Gabe, the Donnelly’s and all of her friends hate her. As a way to escape Molly moves to a boarding school but, with school out for the summer, she has nowhere to go other than to return home.  It’s back home she finds that everyone still remembers what she did and Julia Donnelly is definitely trying to punish her by egging her house and leaving notes on her car. All Molly wants to do is keep her head down and reconnect with her friends she accidently pushed away, but when Gabe and Molly start spending time together, it’s there that she realises she has feelings for more than one Donnelly brother and more so when Patrick decides that he also wants to spend time with her to. Once again Molly finds herself in the middle of the Donnelly brothers but can it all end with a happy ending?

99 Days is Katie Cotungo’s second novel and like her How to Love, I really enjoyed 99 Days. It is a very quick read, one that is fast-paced and easy to fly through and get lost in the story. I find Katie’s writing completely captivating and well written that once I start one of her books I don’t want to stop. It makes me wish she had more novels released so I could devour them to. Honestly, there is just something about 99 Days that will make you love it.

I really liked the main character Molly. Some people may not because this is kind of a cheating book and I know some people are put off by that. In Molly’s defence there are a few technically, so although she’s not completely innocent she’s not completely to blame either. She doesn’t make the best choices at times around these boys and she does let her emotions take over but honestly with two hot Donnelly brother’s running around, how could the girl not fall at their feet. But Molly’s young and it’s in my opinion it’s good for her to make mistakes while she is young. She definitely grew as the story progressed. She became stronger and I believe a lot of that had to do with Gabe and how he pushed her to do what she wanted.

Now for the Donnelly brother’s, I only liked Patrick. As the story progresses you see that everything is not as black and white as it seemed and I really didn’t like his motives. I felt the connection between him and Molly was more based around them growing up together – being together for most of their younger lives. But Gabe on the other hand, I loved. I felt their relationship was more real and open. Molly could be with him and could leave most of her troubles away. So I was definitely TEAM GABE!

I really enjoyed the plot of the story – love triangle and all. It is an emotional read with lots of adventures and fun moments to. The only thing I didn’t really like was how the story ended. I need closure and this provided none apart from a tiny little moment between Molly and one of the boys that left me feeling hopeful but, nothing much more – nothing concrete. It would be interesting to hear other peoples take on how it ended.

In all, 99 Days is a good summer read that will definitely be a hit. And I’m really looking forward to seeing what Katie comes up with next.  

Thank you to Balzer & Bray for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.