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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This review does contain spoilers!
I swear this book is one of the reasons why I hate reading contemporary romance novels of any kind. The rules of the universe are stupid and the characters are incredibly stupid and make even stupider mistakes. Take Molly Barlow for example. She’s coming back to her hometown for the summer following a year of hiding out in a school in Arizona because she decided to sleep with her boyfriend’s brother one night and then the news got out and now almost the entire town seems out to get her. You think the one thing she would do when coming back is stay away from these two boys that seem to bring her nothing but trouble but what does she do instead? Starts dating the guy she slept with, Gabe Donnelly. And then proceeds to start getting touchy-feely again with her ex-boyfriend, Patrick Donnelly. And then decides to focus solely on Gabe. An then moves on to getting intimate with Patrick.
And this continuous circle literally envelops the entire novel. I did sympathize with Molly and how she was being treated as nothing but a piece of trash and being called a slut and a whore at every waking moment but did she do anything to change my mind about why she made her decision to cheat on Patrick in the first place? No, because she literally made the same mistake over and over and over again and she didn’t seem to think anything of it. Sure she would think “Oh no what did I just do,” but then she’d think it was fine and even better than what she was getting with brother number whatever. It got the point where it was so inconsistent where her heart was I really didn’t care who she ended up with at the end and thank heck Molly didn’t end up with anyone at the end because in the end it turned out that the Donnelly brothers just didn’t deserve her.
The big twist at the end? It turns out that Gabe and Patrick were practically using Molly as a means of being competitive with each other because both of them like her at the same time! Sure both of them may have had serious feelings for her but they were basically at each other’s throats and whoever had Molly in the end was gonna be the big winner of their little mental contest. Are you serious? At least in the end Molly figured this out and basically called the entire town out on how they blamed her for everything but Patrick and Gabe were little angels, which I loved. One of the things I hated in the beginning was how Molly got so much of the slack but yet Gabe basically walked around unscathed as though he was just a victim. And even if this was resolved at the end I just couldn’t get the bad taste out of my mouth left by the entire rest of the book.
I will give Katie Cotugno the benefit of the doubt though because this book was so well-written and she really knows how to set up an atmosphere and create a setting and fill it with characters. Star Lake was this picturesque town filled with characters that I liked so much better than Molly, even if some of them had some of the worst names imaginable. I mean, Pennsylvania Jones are you serious? I had to re-read that one at least twice to make sure my eyes didn’t deceive me. Imogen is too good for Molly and Tess was just too good for anyone in this book but hey you win some and you lose some. The way the book was set up, by dividing the book into 99 chapters detailing each of the titular 99 days (some longer than others) was also smart seeing how some chapters were thick due to what was happening while others were fairly short, like every other day where nothing super noteworthy happens (‘cuz don’t we all have those types of days).
Overall 99 Days was just…blegh. It wasn’t bad in the sense that it was poorly written, because the opposite was true it was actually very well written and I loved Cotugno’s style of writing and her voice. However, not even this could save the poorly-constituted love triangle between Molly, Gabe, and Patrick that relied solely on Molly being with one brother while cheating on the other. I’ve heard that her other book, How To Love, is much better and I’m really hoping so because this one definitely did nothing to impress me.
I swear this book is one of the reasons why I hate reading contemporary romance novels of any kind. The rules of the universe are stupid and the characters are incredibly stupid and make even stupider mistakes. Take Molly Barlow for example. She’s coming back to her hometown for the summer following a year of hiding out in a school in Arizona because she decided to sleep with her boyfriend’s brother one night and then the news got out and now almost the entire town seems out to get her. You think the one thing she would do when coming back is stay away from these two boys that seem to bring her nothing but trouble but what does she do instead? Starts dating the guy she slept with, Gabe Donnelly. And then proceeds to start getting touchy-feely again with her ex-boyfriend, Patrick Donnelly. And then decides to focus solely on Gabe. An then moves on to getting intimate with Patrick.
And this continuous circle literally envelops the entire novel. I did sympathize with Molly and how she was being treated as nothing but a piece of trash and being called a slut and a whore at every waking moment but did she do anything to change my mind about why she made her decision to cheat on Patrick in the first place? No, because she literally made the same mistake over and over and over again and she didn’t seem to think anything of it. Sure she would think “Oh no what did I just do,” but then she’d think it was fine and even better than what she was getting with brother number whatever. It got the point where it was so inconsistent where her heart was I really didn’t care who she ended up with at the end and thank heck Molly didn’t end up with anyone at the end because in the end it turned out that the Donnelly brothers just didn’t deserve her.
The big twist at the end? It turns out that Gabe and Patrick were practically using Molly as a means of being competitive with each other because both of them like her at the same time! Sure both of them may have had serious feelings for her but they were basically at each other’s throats and whoever had Molly in the end was gonna be the big winner of their little mental contest. Are you serious? At least in the end Molly figured this out and basically called the entire town out on how they blamed her for everything but Patrick and Gabe were little angels, which I loved. One of the things I hated in the beginning was how Molly got so much of the slack but yet Gabe basically walked around unscathed as though he was just a victim. And even if this was resolved at the end I just couldn’t get the bad taste out of my mouth left by the entire rest of the book.
I will give Katie Cotugno the benefit of the doubt though because this book was so well-written and she really knows how to set up an atmosphere and create a setting and fill it with characters. Star Lake was this picturesque town filled with characters that I liked so much better than Molly, even if some of them had some of the worst names imaginable. I mean, Pennsylvania Jones are you serious? I had to re-read that one at least twice to make sure my eyes didn’t deceive me. Imogen is too good for Molly and Tess was just too good for anyone in this book but hey you win some and you lose some. The way the book was set up, by dividing the book into 99 chapters detailing each of the titular 99 days (some longer than others) was also smart seeing how some chapters were thick due to what was happening while others were fairly short, like every other day where nothing super noteworthy happens (‘cuz don’t we all have those types of days).
Overall 99 Days was just…blegh. It wasn’t bad in the sense that it was poorly written, because the opposite was true it was actually very well written and I loved Cotugno’s style of writing and her voice. However, not even this could save the poorly-constituted love triangle between Molly, Gabe, and Patrick that relied solely on Molly being with one brother while cheating on the other. I’ve heard that her other book, How To Love, is much better and I’m really hoping so because this one definitely did nothing to impress me.
I was a little frustrated with this story. I think I don´t do well with love triangles, but mostly it was Molly´s constant "I don´t know!". I´ll probably continue to book 2 just to see if she´s matured a bit more. But...agh!
Molly and Patrick are fucking idiots. The whole thing was based on cheating and it was v cringeworthy. The writing style is what saved it. I would definitely read another Katie Cotugno book just not this one.
My thoughts are very conflicted. Need to revisit them later, so I won't rate until then.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I echo what everyone else has said about this book. The protagonist is unlikeable and not contrite enough.
Well I"m sorry, but almost everybody was kind of an asshole in this book. And childish, def childish.
If Molly wasn’t so dumb half the time this book could have been rated much higher.