by Katie Cotugno
384 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: April 21st 2015
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.
You can find an excerpt of the book on Epic Reads
I liked Molly from the get go. It really made me ache for her the way people treated her. There are a bunch of different sayings about stones that could easily apply. I wanted to crawl into the book and yell at those girls for being immature twits and good people make mistakes. That none of this will matter in the long run of life. Then punch them out….well I guess that last part would make me immature. The point being, I really felt for Molly. I think it’s sad she doesn’t stand up for herself because she feels she deserves it and those people are not the ones that should be judging her. It’s really between Patrick and her. Although Molly ends up making some poor decisions at points, I was still rooting for her happy ending.
I loved Gabe. I was really rooting for him and Molly to make it. He was so sweet and seemed to really care about her.
I didn’t like Patrick in the past or present. I could see how him and Molly were more like young puppy love. He was very selfish and it really bothered me. I really wanted him to go find something else to do. I could see how they might have residual feelings towards one another both bad and good. When Molly ran off, they didn’t really get to have the closure they needed.
There are a lot of things in this book I could relate to unfortunately and one of them is the pushing people away and running off. So I get the whole Molly and Imogen dynamic and why she could be mad. I’ve had friends be mad when I tried to find my way back after disappearing on them too. Imogen is a cool girl though and I like how she tells things to Molly straight.
I liked how the book is divided into each chapter being a day. There are 99 days until Molly leaves for college. Which gives the books setting of the entire summer. I enjoyed the plot even though parts of it were hard at times. I think I would get frustrated with all the characters at points. I liked how it portrayed multiple sides the issues though. No one is really innocent but you really get to see how lopsided the blame can be. I liked the way the ending left it, although part of me would like to see what Molly’s up to maybe even a year later. After she has been away at Boston. After everyone kind of gets away.
I really enjoyed 99 Days. This is always a tough topic to tackle and I think Katie Cotugno was able to capture many different angles. I thought it was well written and definitely sucks you in.
MOLLY
SHELLEY HENNING
GABE
SCOTT EASTWOOD
PATRICK
LOGAN LERMAN
I'm still doing my playlist on Spotify even though I can't embed them anymore. You can follow the direct link to it. This was actually one of the easier playlist to make. So many songs reminded me of the book. The song Bright definitely reminded me of Molly & Gabe, The song Can't Remember to Forget You is for Patrick & Molly. Say Anything could almost go either way. The song Cups reminded me of the group being together and then breaking up to go their separate ways for college. I could have kept going with songs but I decided to not get out of control.
Katie is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in The Broadkill Review, The Apalachee Review, and Argestes, as well as on Nerve.com. Her first novel, HOW TO LOVE, is due out from Balzer + Bray on October 1st, 2013.
The great loves of Katie's life include child's pose, her little sister, and mozzarella and honey sandwiches. She lives in Boston (and in sin) with her boyfriend, Tom.
