How to Love by Katie Cotugno

Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he's never seemed to notice Reena exists until one day, impossibly, he does. The two fall in messy, complicated love—but then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated—and pregnant—Reena behind.

Three years later there's a new love in Reena's life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena's gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she's finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as suddenly as he disappeared Sawyer returns. Reena doesn't want anything 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 let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

3.75/5 stars

Truth time: the only reason I'm reviewing this is because my internal pressure to review every book I read is getting to me.

I don't have much to say about this story. I read it because there were elements of the plot that are a guilty pleasure of mine, and also because I did the one thing they warned you about since childhood. I liked the cover. Oops. Admit it, we all do it.

So here's a quick review, as I am already starting to forget details. I enjoyed the main character, not so much her love interests. I enjoyed the way the chapters alternated between time lines, but sometimes I felt like one storyline would start to drag behind another, struggling to keep up. There were probably way to many things that made me say. “So, um, okay...why?”

Would I go recommending this book? Probably not. It wasn't that complicated of a contemporary. But I still enjoyed it, and if you are looking for a book you don't have to think much about, then look no further.

DNF at 32%.

It's a myth that boys don't like to gossip.

I was expecting it to be a lot different.
It wasn't very emotional and I didn't fall in love with the characters. Maybe Hannah but all the rest were annoying.
Like all it had was a cute ending.
This book would make a good movie.

This book made me sad, because I really liked Reena. She was well-developed and kind of awesome. Except when she was around Sawyer. As Reena's best friend Shelby said: Whenever Sawyer was around, Reena forgot how responsible and smart she was. I think the title of this book should be “How to Have a Destructive, Dysfunctional Relationship”. Has a ring to it, right?

And Sawyer was a jerk. Just an epic a-hole. I wanted to kick him in the crotch. Hard.

Very disappointing story from a writer who obviously has a lot of skill.