LIAR’S BEACH By Katie Cotugno

April 12, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

LIAR’S BEACH By Katie CotugnoLiar's Beach by Katie Cotugno
Published by Delacorte Press on 5/2/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 288
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

Michael Linden—or just Linden to his preppy boarding school pals—doesn’t belong in wealthy, storied Martha’s Vineyard. But when his roommate Jasper invites him to spend the end of summer at his massive beachfront home, August House, Linden tries his best to fit in. Linden wouldn’t call it lying, exactly. Though it turns out August House is full of liars.

Then someone is found unconscious in Jasper’s pool, and everyone has something to hide—Jasper, his beautiful sister Eliza, their older brother Wells, and their friends. The accident is written off as just that—an accident—but Linden begins to wonder...

Enter: Holiday Proctor. Linden’s childhood friend, and the one person on the island who knows the truth about Linden. There’s nothing Holiday loves more than a good old-fashioned mystery and she’s convinced there's a potential killer on the Vineyard. The only question is…who?

Short and Sweet Review

Michael Linden isn’t wealthy, but he tries to keep up appearances for his boarding school friends. Linden is invited to Martha’s Vineyard by his roommate Jasper, which is where he meets, Wells and Eliza, Jasper’s siblings. After a party one night someone is found unconscious in the pool and it is written off as just an accident but Linden begins to wonder if there’s more to what happened than what’s being said. Holiday is one of Linden’s childhood friends and just happens to be staying at Martha’s Vineyard too and has a love for a good mystery. Together they’ll try to figure out if this was an accident or intentional.

Liar’s Beach was a good mystery it’s a new take on the novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The plot was engaging and we’re introduced to most of the characters in the first few chapters. After the person is found in the pool we see Holiday and Linden go around the island looking for clues and try to find leads but there wasn’t much for them to find so their theories were mainly speculation. I didn’t like Lindens character, he was too busy trying to fit in that he didn’t realize how awful he treated those around him. Linden was also more concerned about getting with Eliza to realize that she wasn’t exactly perfect. I would have preferred that Holiday was the narrator instead she just seemed more likable and wasn’t quick to jump the gun like Linden. The ending was okay I guessed who the culprit was mainly from the process of elimination but also there was a bit of a cliffhanger. I think it would be interesting to see these characters in another book and hopefully Linden has some more character development.

Overall this was a good beach mystery and it’s great for summer. There were a lot of good elements and some things that didn’t work but I would still recommend it and I’d be interested in seeing a sequel.

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TOP TEN By Katie Cotugno

June 11, 2022 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

TOP TEN By Katie CotugnoTop Ten by Katie Cotugno
Published by Balzer + Bray on 10/3/17
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Ryan McCullough and Gabby Hart are the unlikeliest of best friends. Prickly, anxious Gabby would rather do literally anything than go to a party. Ultra-popular Ryan is a hockey star who can get any girl he wants—and frequently does.

But somehow their relationship just works; from dorky Monopoly nights to rowdy house parties to the top ten lists they make about everything under the sun.

Now, on the night of high school graduation, everything is suddenly changing—in their lives, and in their relationship. As they try to figure out what they mean to each other and where to go from here, they make a final top ten list: this time, counting down the top ten moments of their friendship.

Short and Sweet Review

Gabby and Ryan are polar opposites but somehow it works because they’re also best friends, they like playing monopoly on Friday nights and going to house parties and making top ten list. Now its the night of high school graduation and they decide to make a top ten list of the moments of their friendship.

This book was a HOT MESS. I didn’t even know what was going on half the time because the timeline is all over the place. Gabby is an unlikeable character, she struggles with anxiety which is understandable but the way she treats people just got on my nerves. If someone told her something that was true but not what she wanted to her she would basically shut down and go off. Ryan is just your basic jock boy. I don’t understand how this was supposed to show “top ten moments of their friendship” because all I got was an insight into their toxic relationship. Most of these moments just showed them fighting and saying hurtful things to each other. I was hoping that this would get better but it just got worse. I didn’t think I would be reading about “friends” who fight almost every time they’re together and at one point they even stopped talking for five months. Nothing about this book was charming and it does not show relationship goals. I would say that Gabby and Ryan don’t make a good couple but I’m not even sure if they make good friends. Katie Cotugno books are hit or miss for me and this one was a big miss and all I wanted was to finish this book as fast as possible and forget the dumpster fire that it was and the awful characters that I couldn’t even remotely relate to. I don’t recommend this book, it wasn’t what I was expecting from a “romance” novel.

Filed Under: Reviews

HOW TO LOVE By Katie Cotugno

August 7, 2021 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

HOW TO LOVE By Katie CotugnoHow To Love by Katie Cotugno
Published by Balzer + Bray on 10/1/13
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 405
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember. But he's never noticed that Reena even exists...until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. Then Sawyer disappears 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. Reena's gotten used to life without Sawyer, but just as suddenly as he disappeared, he turns up again. Reena wants nothing to do with him, though she'd be lying if she said his being back wasn't stirring something in her.

After everything that's happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

Short and Sweet Review

Before: Serena has had a crush on Sawyer for a long time, and once they do get into a relationship it’s complicated and messy. Eventually Sawyer leaves Florida without telling Reena, and he doesn’t know she’s pregnant.

After: Almost three years later Sawyer comes back, but Serena has been just fine without him. Now Serena has to figure out if she wants Sawyer back in her and Hannah’s lives.

How To Love alternates between the past and the present. We see what Serena’s life was like when she and Sawyer get together and the present shows us how Serena has been living life without Sawyer in her life and her parenting a toddler. I found Serena to be obnoxious, she just had awful judgement and the way she would talk to people was so rude and uncalled for. Sawyer in the past was carefree and didn’t care much about things and now that he’s back he’s trying to make an effort. The romance was toxic, Serena and Sawyer fought a lot, and it’s like who would want a relationship like this? I would say most scenes with Serena and Sawyer would end in an argument. It wasn’t cute and it wasn’t a relationship people should want. The book was boring and there was a side story of how Serena’s friend Allie died, Allie was dating Sawyer before Serena.

This is not a book I would read again and at the moment I can’t think of anything redeeming.

Filed Under: Reviews

YOU SAY IT FIRST By Katie Cotugno

June 12, 2020 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

YOU SAY IT FIRST By Katie CotugnoYou Say it First by Katie Cotugno
Published by Balzer + Bray on 6/16/20
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

One conversation can change everything.

Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: she and her best friend, Emily, plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she works at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio.

Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.

But things don’t end there.…

That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more. Across state lines and phone lines, Meg and Colby form a once-in-a-lifetime connection. But in the end, are they just too different to make it work?

Short and Sweet

Meg basically has everything planned out, she’s going to go to Cornell in the fall with her best friend Emily, she has a supportive boyfriend, and she even works at a voter registration call center.

Colby lives in Ohio, and he’s still dealing with the death of his father. Colby is working at a dead end job and has no idea what his future will be like.

One phone call changes everything for these two. Meg finds that Colby gets under her skin, and Colby doesn’t like the idea of someone privileged preaching to him about going to vote. But things don’t end after their first phone call, Meg and Colby continue to talk and end up having honest and sometimes heated conversations that lead to a long distance friendship that turns into something more.

Characters

Meg: Meg lives in Philly and she loves politics, which is why working at the voter registration center is the perfect job. Meg is someone who likes to debate but recently she’s lost that spark. Meg’s parents divorced and her father is getting remarried and her mother is an alcoholic. I felt for Meg she tried to put on a happy face but she had so much going on in her personal life that people didn’t know about.

Colby: Colby lives in Ohio and is more rough around the edges. He isn’t a stranger to getting in trouble and he works a dead end job. Colby has also had to deal with the loss of his father, which has been hard on him.

Romance

Meg and Colby: These two had the most interesting conversations, most of them were about politics. I liked how they talked on the phone almost every night getting to know each other and also getting each others opinions on different topics. These two live such different lives that it made it understandable that they sometimes offended each other. In the end I think these two pushed each other to be better, and to pursue the things they really wanted in life.

Quotes

~ “If you want to change the world, go out and change it, Colby had told her.”

My Thoughts

~ Meg and Colby help each other a lot, Meg helped Colby pursue a job that he wanted and Colby helped Meg voice how she really felt to Emily.

~ I think after everything that happened between Meg’s parents she became more reserved and less assertive which is why she lets Emily make all the decisions.

~ Colby and Meg’s conversations always pushed the other to see a different point of view and I liked that they were honest with each other.

~ So Colby and Meg do end up meeting which didn’t end well sadly. But it seemed like even when things didn’t work out they were always drawn back to each other.

~ Reading the interactions between Meg and her mother was hard, mainly because you could tell that her mother had a problem but didn’t want to admit it.

~ Watching Meg and Colby finally take charge of their lives was amazing to see Meg apply to be an intern for a candidate and watching Colby getting a job he was interested in put a smile on my face.

~ I couldn’t put this book down I just thought that Meg and Colby were great and the ending just left me with a happy heart.

Overall

This was so cute and perfect for a summertime read! I loved the dynamic between Colby and Meg, they’re so different that it worked, opposites attract. The romance was cute and I also liked how the book focused on the issues each of them were facing in their personal lives. Pick this book up its perfect for the summer and also its election year!

Filed Under: Reviews

9 DAYS AND 9 NIGHTS By Katie Cotugno

June 12, 2019 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

9 DAYS AND 9 NIGHTS By Katie Cotugno9 Days and 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno
Series: 99 Days #2
Published by Balzer + Bray on 5/1/18
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 272
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

ReviewedbyDani

Molly Barlow isn’t that girl anymore. A business major at her college in Boston, she’s reinvented herself after everything that went down a year ago… After all the people she hurt and the family she tore apart.

Slowly, life is getting back to normal. Molly has just said I love you to her new boyfriend, Ian, and they are off on a romantic European vacation together, starting with scenic London. But there on a tube platform, the past catches up to her in the form of Gabe, her ex, traveling on his own parallel vacation with new girlfriend Sadie.

After comparing itineraries, Ian ends up extending an invite for Gabe and Sadie to join them on the next leg of their trip, to Ireland. And Molly and Gabe can’t bring themselves to tell the truth about who they once were to each other to their new significant others.

Now Molly has to spend 9 days and 9 nights with the boy she once loved, the boy whose heart she shredded, without Ian knowing. Will she make it through as new and improved Molly, or will everything that happened between her and Gabe come rushing back?


Short and Sweet Review

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I knew what I was doing to myself when I decided to read this sequel to 99 Days, but I still did it. Why? Because its only a duology and it’s the end to the 99 Days series, and I just wanted to read it and be done with it. Moving on I will give you guys the synopsis and tell you why I didn’t like this book. Molly Barlow is in college now, she has a new boyfriend, Ian, and they’re on a vacation around Europe. Funny thing is Molly’s ex-boyfriend, Gabe, is also vacationing in Europe with his new girlfriend, Sadie. So after bumping into each other and comparing travel plans, Ian extends an invitation to Gabe and Sadie to join them on their way to Ireland. Now Molly and Gabe have to make it 9 days with each other. Alright lets get into it. So after everything that happened in Star Lake, Molly tried to reinvent herself while she was in college and apparently that means she won’t cheat on anyone anymore or I don’t exactly know but that’s a huge thing with her, trying not to make the same mistakes. I was okay with that like you go girl. The only problem is that Ian doesn’t know anything about her life at Star Lake and she keeps it a big secret and at a point in the book they get in argument because he was keeping something from her and I felt like she was being a hypocrite because she’s keeping things from him to. Not only does she not talk about her life back home but Ian doesn’t even know that Gabe is her ex, he just thinks that she dated Gabe’s brother, same thing with Sadie she has no clue about their history. We get to see Imogen in Ireland because she got into an art program and I honestly thought that she was the only likable character. Molly and Gabe make this book hard to read they obviously still like each other but they’re dating other people and I had no time for it. Molly is envious when Gabe holds Sadies hand and it’s like that’s his girlfriend! It was just a hot mess and I don’t think I’ve disliked a main character as much as I dislike Molly. Anyway you would think this would be an enjoyable book with all the traveling but its miserable its so bad I didn’t want to finish this book but I pushed through. I’m glad that there’s only two books in this series and I don’t have to read them again. If you want any recommendations on books with decent love triangles or maybe books with travel I can recommend some but this series is not it.

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Filed Under: Reviews

99 Days By Katie Cotugno

May 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase 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 Cotugno99 Days by Katie Cotugno
Series: 99 Days #1
Published by Balzer + Bray on 4/21/15
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 384
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

ReviewedbyDani

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


Short and Sweet Review

Molly Barlow is back in Star Lake for 99 days, and all she has to do is survive the 99 days. Molly left town after her mother’s book revealed that Molly cheated on her boyfriend Patrick with his older brother Gabe. Here’s the thing everyone basically hates Molly and its one of those things where everyone hates the girl but the guys seem faultless… it takes two to tango (or in this case cheat.) Anyway, I felt bad for Molly like I said everyone hates her, her best friend doesn’t want to talk to her, and on her first night back her house was egged. As the book progressed I started to hate Molly too, at first, I felt bad for her and then I realized that she’s selfish and indecisive and likes to make the same mistakes. Molly’s ex Patrick has moved on and is dating a girl named Tess who so happens to be Molly’s coworker and you would think that Molly would move on at this point but she still likes to think of Patrick as hers even though she’s dating his brother Gabe at this point! What’s even worse is that there was no chemistry between her and Patrick or her and Gabe it was boring, it was like she wanted both brothers at the same time and if she couldn’t then it wasn’t worth it to her. I think the worst thing about this book is that she’s now dating Gabe and then she cheats on him with Patrick it’s ridiculous and like a never-ending cycle, you would think she would have learned her lesson. I liked how short the chapters were but Molly as a character I could do without. The book was okay it could have been better. I plan on reading the next book in this duology just to get it over with and to say I read it.

Filed Under: Reviews