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99 Days
Written by Katie Cotugno
Narrated by Allyson Ryan
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From the acclaimed author of How to Love comes another stunning contemporary novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen.
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. My Patrick, who's supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who's never going to forgive me.
A HarperAudio production.
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Start ListeningBook Information
99 Days
Written by Katie Cotugno
Narrated by Allyson Ryan
Description
From the acclaimed author of How to Love comes another stunning contemporary novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen.
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. My Patrick, who's supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who's never going to forgive me.
A HarperAudio production.
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Reviews
Molly Barlow fled Star Lake a year ago to get away from everything that was wrong in her life. Her friends have turned on her, making her life a living hell. Her ex-boyfrend, Patrick, cannot stand the sight of her because she betrayed him by sleeping with his brother, Gabe. To top it all off, Molly's own mother weaved the tale of this infidelity into a best-selling book, which lead to her self-imposed exile. Now, she has to endure 99 days back in her home town before she packs up and leaves for college.There's just something about Katie Cotugno's books that make them so captivating that I never want to put them down. Her main characters are flawed and go down paths that make you cringe. This is what makes them so believable. Molly and Gabe's characters are no different. They knowingly, without signs of remorse, put themselves into situations that make you feel like they deserve all of the negativity that is crashing down on them. Except, when you weigh out which of the two is getting the most heat from their situation, it's clearly Molly. It's this particular reaction that the author does a great job of focusing on in this book. In our society, when a relationship goes awry because one partner has been unfaithful, the blame, typically gets directed toward the female. Gabe's character often points this several times to try and make Molly feel like she isn't alone and wasn't the only person who did Patrick wrong.I think some readers will have a hard time getting through 99 Days. This holds especially true if the idea of cheating is hard for you to get past. I urge these readers to dig deeper and push on. Although this book appears to be about infidelity and your typical teen aged love triangle on the surface, I promise it's much, much more. Definitely a must read for anyone who adored How To Love.
Rating: 5Reviewed by Lauren (Class of 2019)99 Days was about a girl named Molly who returned to her home town, Star Lake after a mistake she had made. Molly lived a normal life, went to school and hung out with her boyfriend Patrick. That all changed during sophomore year when Molly made the mistake of hooking up with Patrick's brother Gabe. After she told her mom of what they did her mom decided to write a bestselling novel, Driftwood.It was about her, Patrick, and Gabe's story.After people read the book and realized it was about her it all went downhill from there. Julia, Gabe and Patrick's brother then started hating Molly.Then, so does everyone else. Overall I enjoyed this book. I really liked how the character's personality's all differed from each others. I also enjoyed the plot, it was a nice summer novel where there was teens, working, and drama all mixed in to keep the story interesting to me. Although I didn't really enjoy Patrick as much as I did his older brother Gabe. I thought Patrick was more the "stereotypical boy after a break up." I liked Gabe more on the other hand because even though what he and Molly did was wrong, I enjoyed that he was a more optimistic person and always nice to people, no matter the situation.I would recommend this book because I believe it gives a good message to teens about what your mistakes can do/cause, and why you should always think twice about what you do before you go and do it.
Rating: 4
Meh. It was alright. Nothing to write home about and nothing awful. Just kind of middle of the road.
Rating: 3Wow, ok. That ending was so anti-climactic. All that angst and then.......nothing :(
Rating: 43.75
"It's not that I don't think they all deserve to hate me...but I'm not the only one they deserve to hate. It feels like such a gross double standard."
I don't mind a book with unlikeable and heavily flawed characters if it is written really well, and if I feel like I took something away from it. I thoroughly enjoyed Cotugno's writing style, and it made breezing through this book easy and enjoyable.
Our protagonist Molly isn't loveable, she isn't the typical YA nerdy girl or a MPDG-she is just a flawed human that makes unbelievably horrible decisions that hurt innocent (Tess, Imogine, and Connie) and not so innocent people around her (The Donnelly siblings, and perhaps her mother). But ignoring the flawed brothers caught in this love triangle and how they throw family away to fight over and win the affections of a girl as if she is a prize from an ongoing competition, and instead only seeing Molly's flawed behavior only highlights the red letter A lesson hidden in this story.
Why is it only the girl who should pay dearly for the crimes when sex and cheating are involved? Why is her character the only one deserving of the reader's contempt? The fact that the book lets us wrestle with this in our own head when reading the protagonist in sticky and terrible situations and while making bad decisions had as much of an effect as reading the horrible ways in which she was treated in the aftermath. The slurs, the graphic sticky notes, her keyed car, toilet papered home and food/drinks tossed were only headed in one direction.
As an adult whose experiences no longer allow the existence of a black and white world, I appreciated this novel. I appreciated how the author handled it, and that at least a few of the flawed characters came to some self-recognization.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. It harkened me back to the movie "Inventing the Abbots" which I very much loved. This came very close to a four star read for me.
Rating: 4"It's not that I don't think they all deserve to hate me...but I'm not the only one they deserve to hate. It feels like such a gross double standard."
I don't mind a book with unlikeable and heavily flawed characters if it is written really well, and if I feel like I took something away from it. I thoroughly enjoyed Cotugno's writing style, and it made breezing through this book easy and enjoyable.
Our protagonist Molly isn't loveable, she isn't the typical YA nerdy girl or a MPDG-she is just a flawed human that makes unbelievably horrible decisions that hurt innocent (Tess, Imogine, and Connie) and not so innocent people around her (The Donnelly siblings, and perhaps her mother). But ignoring the flawed brothers caught in this love triangle and how they throw family away to fight over and win the affections of a girl as if she is a prize from an ongoing competition, and instead only seeing Molly's flawed behavior only highlights the red letter A lesson hidden in this story.
Why is it only the girl who should pay dearly for the crimes when sex and cheating are involved? Why is her character the only one deserving of the reader's contempt? The fact that the book lets us wrestle with this in our own head when reading the protagonist in sticky and terrible situations and while making bad decisions had as much of an effect as reading the horrible ways in which she was treated in the aftermath. The slurs, the graphic sticky notes, her keyed car, toilet papered home and food/drinks tossed were only headed in one direction.
As an adult whose experiences no longer allow the existence of a black and white world, I appreciated this novel. I appreciated how the author handled it, and that at least a few of the flawed characters came to some self-recognization.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. It harkened me back to the movie "Inventing the Abbots" which I very much loved. This came very close to a four star read for me.
A wonderfully written book about the double standards and bullying young women face. A really good listen, not only did I love the book I also loved the narrator
Rating: 599 Days caught my eye first of all because of the cover, and then I read the synopsis. It is the definition of a girl who is trouble and feels guilt and shame about her past decisions. And of others who also can't let go, and it bullying her for it. Even though I know from the get go that Molly hurt Patrick, who she'd been in a long term relationship with by sleeping with Gabe, his brother, with the set up of this book, he is the only one in town that will talk to her or make out like she was horrific. Gabe talks to her and tries to draw her out, and I can sense the chemistry between them. Don't get me wrong, I hate cheating but I know that it happens, and I can't help but feel sorry for Molly because she seems like she never intended to hurt anyone, and now Julia, who used to be her best friend is torturing her. I like how the book is formatted where we are in her present, what she feels like is a prison sentence-- getting through the summer back at home before she goes off to college. But then we see pieces of how things used to be. How close she was to Julia, and what her relationship with Patrick was like. Knowing what I know, I tried not to get too attached to Patrick and their cute long term relationship before the truth came out. As an added complication, Molly's adopted mother writes a story about a girl caught up in a love triangle, turning Molly's secret into a national best seller. That is how others found out about her and Gabe in the first place, and no matter the intentions of her mom, that has to put some space and distrust into the relationship. I Like how realistic it was. The synopsis warns us that there is a love triangle that existed. Molly and Patrick were together before and she messed it up, but through the flashbacks were see that it wasn't all one sided. She wanted to at least consider an offer from a boarding school to attend and be a part of their track team. He was so against it and they had started to fight that he was more introverted and was constantly asking Molly to stay with him and not hang out with her other friends. Now she is in a relationship with his brother Gabe. He is easy going, charismatic and accepts and encourages what Molly wants. But she is still having thoughts about Patrick. Which is natural because of the length of their relationship and first love hits the hardest. She scolds herself because Patrick is in a relationship with some one else, and because the more time she spends with Gabe, the more she likes him. But when situations bring her and Patrick together, more mistakes are made, and she can't seem to break out of this pattern. And while it is frustrating as a reader, it is realistic because she was with him for so long, and she know that it is awkward and he is probably hurting to see her and Gabe together. The cheating and not learning from the first time did bother me and I know it will be a big issue with some who read it, but we do know going in. I like the way that she finally stands up for herself against the bullying that started, stopped and then started again. She owns that she made mistakes but she acknowledges the double standard that is often found in these sorts of situations. She was getting all the bad rap, but Gabe and Patrick are let off the hook. But both of the boys are grown up and making their own decisions and had their own part in the mistakes and hurt that was going around. The ending was nice even if it wasn't the direction that I thought it would, and then at one point feared that it would go. Molly and her mom worked out some of their issues and she gave some good writer advice that actually translates into real life really well. How to end things well, and the times where you just have to let go and move on. Bottom Line: Liked the main character who gets in a complicated triangle with two brothers.
Rating: 4What a terrible book this turned out to be. Molly was a horrible protagonist - selfish, inconsiderate and, ultimately, stupid. She was torn between two brothers, Gabe and Patrick. At first she cheated on Patrick with Gabe then unbelievably, two years later, she cheated on Gabe with Patrick. You would think, after being ostracised by her friends the first time, Molly would learn from her mistakes but no, she had to go and repeat the experience. Why these two brothers wanted her was beyond me. Gabe was such a nice guy, but Patrick was too arrogant for my liking. As for the the ending, there wasn't one. On Day 99 Molly just drove off to university without any resolutions. Absolute rubbish!
Rating: 1I though the book started alright; I liked the main character and thought her side of the story was compelling. However, I just couldn't stick with Molly once she started to make the same, if not worse, mistakes she had made the year before. I spent too much time being disappointed in her to keep a connection or real interest in finishing the book. I did finish, but was too let down to really care.
Rating: 4Molly, Molly, Molly, what were you thinking? How could you hurt those you care about so badly? First thing I want to do is shake some sense into you. Next, I want to give Gabe and Patrick a good old fashioned tongue lashing for their roles… and that is just for starters. There are plenty of guilty parties to go around in 99 Days.99 Days is one of those books that dealt with a difficult subject matter: cheating. It is never an easy topic to write or read about. But the fact remains – it happens. Life is completed and people influence our decisions both for the good and the bad. This is especially true for teenagers who are still figuring out the world and their place in it. The complexity and flaws of the characters and what could easily have been a real life situation is the why I enjoyed reading 99 Days. Unfortunately for Molly she did not learn her lesson the first time around. While I was not very sympathy to her plight, the story was so well written I could not help but like her. I received a free copy from the publisher in return for completing a survey. This review is my honest opinion.
Rating: 499 Days
By Katie Cotugno
Readers will enjoy this young adult novel about a girl who is mistakenly labeled as a “slut” and runs away to escape the bullying and the guilt. Molly spends her senior year at a boarding school to escape her problems with her love life. Teenage girls will definitely enjoy this book.
However as I read, I began to wonder when Molly would take charge of her life and stop hiding. She’s not a slut, she’s not the worst person to walk the face of the earth, and she’s not required to take this treatment from others. Houses don’t have to be egged, cars don’t to be keyed, and threatening notes should not be left on her car. There were people who could have helped her, but she didn’t seek out help. Yes, she was mad with her mom, but Molly needed to learn to stand up for herself.
Rating: 4By Katie Cotugno
Readers will enjoy this young adult novel about a girl who is mistakenly labeled as a “slut” and runs away to escape the bullying and the guilt. Molly spends her senior year at a boarding school to escape her problems with her love life. Teenage girls will definitely enjoy this book.
However as I read, I began to wonder when Molly would take charge of her life and stop hiding. She’s not a slut, she’s not the worst person to walk the face of the earth, and she’s not required to take this treatment from others. Houses don’t have to be egged, cars don’t to be keyed, and threatening notes should not be left on her car. There were people who could have helped her, but she didn’t seek out help. Yes, she was mad with her mom, but Molly needed to learn to stand up for herself.
What a clusterfuck.
Rating: 3I received this free eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. When I first started reading this, I felt bad for Molly. Her big bad secret was out for the whole world to read about because of her mother and it was following her around. But then she decided to make the SAME. STUPID. DECISION. So yeah, my pity was replaced with anger and bafflement. She can't say it was because of such and such and was a mistake because she did it again. And sure, it wasn't just her making the bad decisions, but she had MULTIPLE chances to stop what was happening and she just went along with it. It can't be that hard to decide! Eventually in the end she did, but I was about to give up on the novel when I got to 70%. Molly finally got the courage to make her decision and stand up for herself, so that was nice, but she basically lost all of my respect and sympathy way before that point.I'm not saying that I don't understand why the first incident happened because, let's face it, it happens. But she did it again, not learning from the first time, and that's where I got so disgusted in this novel. Hopefully she will learn who she is and what she deserves in college, not repeating her mistakes she made in high school.
Rating: 2‘Patrick was my person, my other half. I never felt stuck or cut off or like there was other stuff I’d rather be doing, never felt like there was anyplace else I’d rather be. At least, not until the moment it did.’Molly Barlow has only 99 days before she can leave for college and those days can’t go by fast enough for her. Molly and Patrick were childhood friends turned first loves when they drifted apart just long enough for her to fall into the arms of Gabe, Patrick’s brother. This subsequently caused Julia, their sister and Molly’s best friend, to end their friendship completely. She also seems to be intent on making those 99 days some of the worst for her.‘It’ll make a great story someday. She said that, she told me what was going to happen, so really there’s no earthly reason to still be so baffled after all this time that I told her the worst, most secret, most important thing in my life – and she wrote a best-selling book about it.’The truth behind the indiscretion between Molly and Gabe had managed to stay hidden until her mother, an author, decided to take the story her daughter confided in her and use it as the inspiration for her new novel. But that’s all in the past, however, no one seems to have forgotten it in the year she’s been gone. The only one that actually seems happy to see her again is Gabe and slowly but surely she develops a relationship with the other brother. But forgetting about what her and Patrick once shared doesn’t seem to be as simple as she’d like.This story was a complete train wreck to watch unfold. It’s one of those that you can’t in all honesty say you ‘enjoyed’ but the story still possessed a strong emotional resonance. And while Molly’s actions may not have been right, the brothers were just as much at fault yet it was Molly that took the full brunt of the blame and ostracizing. As a reader we have to watch Molly continue to recreate past wrongs, all the while knowing that not a single bit of good is going to come of it all. But as far as love triangles go, it was quite possibly one of the most realistic I’ve ever read. Forgetting your first love is never easy and becoming involved in their lives again can lead to some sticky situations. Even with Molly developing feelings for Gabe, seeing Patrick together with another girl caused a multitude of confusing emotions that she struggled to understand. Faced with a situation like that, her actions are almost understandable, but it still made it no less difficult a read.Katie Cotugno continues to impress with her stories that push the envelope and while How to Love is still my favorite, there’s no denying that 99 Days is a smart, complex tale about emotions and the havoc they can wreak.
Rating: 3Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: Irritating female protagonist and ridiculous storyline.Opening Sentence: I spend the next day holed up in my bedroom with the blinds closed, eating Red Vines and watching Netflix documentaries on my laptop, hiding out like a wounded fugitive in the last third of a Clint Eastwood movie.The Review:Seriously, I cannot understand why 99 Days is so hyped. I do not feel the slightest guilt in saying that I did not enjoy reading this book at all. In fact, if it wasn’t for DFT, there is no way I would have finished reading and then reviewing it. This just was not the book for me.The 99 days is basically Molly’s countdown to the number of days she needs to get through before she can leave for college. In a nutshell, Molly returns to her hometown a year after she cheated on Patrick with his older brother Gabe and is still treated horribly by everyone. Apart from her mother (who, by the way was the reason the town found out about Molly’s cheating since she published a book on her daughter’s drama), Gabe and Tessa (Patrick’s new girlfriend) everyone is out to make Molly’s life hell.Let me begin by saying that I live in a sizeable town but we have our share of close knit communities and although people here gossip and judge, the reactions and bullying in 99 Days were way over the top. Who has the time to carry such grudges a year later, and it’s not like it was a murder!? On top of that, which mother publishes a book, knowing that it will make their daughter’s life hell?On the other hand, I do not understand why Molly felt as if she didn’t deserve the poor treatment she was receiving, particularly because she doesn’t bother to learn from her mistakes. She acts remorseful for her actions but then sneaks around with Patrick whilst dating Gabe and pretending to be friends with Patrick’s girlfriend. I mean who does that?!“Really?” That surprises me for some reason. I always thought of Julia as the brains of the Donnelly family. Gabe had the personality. Patrick had the soul.Molly was the most selfish and weak willed character I have ever had the misfortune to read about. Her righteous behaviour wound me up, and her ability to continue to destroy the frail relationships she clung to was astounding.What I disliked most was that the author tried to portray Molly in a positive light. I understand everyone makes mistakes but Molly outdid herself. I won’t deny that the townsfolk were biased in focusing their anger on Molly alone and not the Donnelly brothers but at the same time she definitely deserved it. Not only did she cheat on both of the supposed loves of her life but she also managed to destroy a family that helped her grow up and ruin the few friendships she scavenged. Molly feels betrayed by her mum for writing the book and exposing her secret, which is understandable but what Molly doesn’t understand is that her mother didn’t write anything untrue. If it didn’t happen, she wouldn’t have written about it!Overall, a drama filled story with a most irritating female protagonist and a ridiculous storyline.Notable Scene:Tess smiles at me, easy and careless. There’s a bit of donut glaze on her upper lip. “Patrick Donnelly?” she says, the affection palpable in her voice, the way you talk about your favourite song or movie or person. “Why, you know him?”He was my best friend. He was my first love. I had sex with his big brother. I broke his fucking heart.“Yeah,” I say finally, reaching for another donut and forcing a weak, jellyfish smile of my own. “I do.”FTC Advisory: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins provided me with a copy of 99 Days. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Rating: 1A lot of jumping back and forth... Got a bit dull for me from the middle to the end because of the main characters inability to make decisions, or stick to them... Or maybe just because of my lack of concern for the characters.
Rating: 2Just boring. Not badly written but not engaging. Didn't care about the characters.
Rating: 2Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I really didn't like the main character. She had no backbone, no self control, was selfish, and was dishonest with her friends and herself. IMO, she deserved all the hardship she got.
Rating: 1