YOU SAY IT FIRST By Katie Cotugno

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 Cotugno
Published by Balzer + Bray on 6/16/20
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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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!