I received this book for free from HarperCollins Audio in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
99 Days by Katie Cotugno
Published by Balzer & Bray on April 21st 2015
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Source: HarperCollins Audio
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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.
I don’t really know to say about this book since I didn’t really care for it much. The only reason I finished it was because I was listening to the audiobook on the train home from NYC and I decided I might as well finish since I got that far. I don’t really know why I even wanted to read it really. Maybe because I really liked her first book, but I hate cheating so I was bound to not like this one. It wasn’t just that though. Some of the characters besides Molly just really irritated me. Then the romance was just not something I could get behind. The one thing I did enjoy about this was the narrator though. Allyson Ryan did really well at bringing emotion to the story, even though I couldn’t care less about the characters at all.
Molly was irritating, and I really just couldn’t like her. We go through each of the 99 days with her, and I never thought I would like her. First, she slept with her boyfriends brother. I mean technically, they were broken up at the time, but still. Then, she doesn’t tell him about it, and the whole town finds out because her mother wrote a book about it. A fictional book, but based on what happened. Molly goes away to a school in Arizona or something for a year, then when she comes back she is angry with her mom, and mopey about everything. But that doesn’t stop her from getting close to Gabe. In fact, things seem almost normal for a while. Until she can’t stay away from Patrick, who also has a girlfriend. Ugh!! As if she wasn’t dumb enough the first time around, then she is pretty much doing the same shit again. She is just a dumb friggin person. Okay, I’ll be fair. She’s actually smart, and has a great skill for business, but when it comes to common sense and doing what is right, she gets a big F.
I can’t even get into the romance. Pretty much she is in love with both brothers and she can’t make up her mind what or who she wants. She drove me up the wall and I wanted to tell her that she didn’t deserve anyone and she should spend the rest of her life alone. You don’t go messing with people like that. And then she keeps feeling sorry for herself. Get over yourself!!
The audio aspect of this was great. If I could have liked the book, this narrator would have made it an even more enjoyable experience. In fact, the fact that it had a good narrator was the only reason why I even decided to finish it. I look forward to listening to other audiobooks that she has narrated. I am pretty sure this was my first. She read the characters with so much feeling. If Molly had been a redeemable character at all, I may have felt sorry for her with how well Allyson Ryan brought her character to life.
I can’t say that I would recommend this book because I thought it was just awful. I did like the format it was told in. The whole countdown thing was pretty cool. I really disliked mostly all the characters. Molly was horrible, Patrick was an ass, Molly’s mom was a jerk, and Gabe drove me nuts with having to call Molly “Molly Barlow” constantly. This book was almost torturous for me. I am sure that others will enjoy it, you know, if cheating and a horrible main character are your thing. I don’t typically review books that I disliked because I usually won’t finish them, but also because then I feel like an asshole for being negative. It’s not a badly written book, I just didn’t care for the subject matter and it really just ruined the whole thing for me. I probably shouldn’t have even read it, but sometimes books surprise me even if it’s a topic I don’t typically enjoy reading. This one did not.
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