99 Days

February 9, 2015
Molly Barlow has a complicated history with the Donnelly siblings: Patrick was her first love, but then she hooked up with his brother, Gabe, enraging sister Julia, Molly’s onetime friend. Making matters worse, her mother wrote a thinly veiled bestselling novel about Molly’s love triangle with the brothers, which resulted in Molly skipping town to attend boarding school. Now she’s back in Star Lake and taking abuse from all sides—except from Gabe and Tess, Patrick’s current girlfriend. Soon, Molly and Gabe’s romance has reignited, even as she’s getting dirty looks from his family, hanging out with Tess, and going running with Patrick. Setting her novel over the “99 days” of summer before Molly starts college, Cotugno (How to Love) explores the powerful bonds that arise between childhood friends who grow up to discover romance, as well as the intense rivalry between brothers. Societal double standards that label girls as promiscuous while boys get off scot-free are front and center in a thought-provoking story that will leave readers thinking about the guilt and shame that are often unfairly attached to sex. Ages 13–up. Agency: Alloy Entertainment.

January 15, 2015
A teenage girl spends the summer doing penance for her romances with two boys. The problem was-and still is-they're brothers.Molly's summer of 99 days looks bleak. Because of her indiscretions, her relationship with her best friend is strained, she's ostracized by her peers, and she feels like she's lost her second family, the Donnellys. She's also resentful of her fiction-writer mother, who spilled the beans by making a best-seller out of Molly's confession of impropriety to her. And now, after her senior year away at a boarding school, Molly's back in her hometown, trying her best to hide out before she leaves for college. The first night back, Julia Donnelly, protective sister of Molly's love interests, brothers Gabe and Patrick, eggs her house. Molly soon runs into Gabe and tentatively starts seeing him while trying her best to avoid run-ins with Patrick, whom she left brokenhearted. But when she sees Patrick with a girlfriend, she is discombobulated by her own feelings; she struggles with twin guilts: from hurting him as well as her own desires. Molly's emotional growth is the strong propeller of the plot; she's a totally engaging, multifaceted character. Kind and with a quirky sense of humor, she's also precociously stalwart in the face of Julia's unrelenting torment and others' constant scrutiny. Drama-filled flashbacks fill in the dots of the back story. A fascinating story of adolescent love and betrayal. (Romance. 13 & up)

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February 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Molly Barlow is back in her hometown near the Catskill Mountains. A year ago, Molly fled to a faraway boarding school in the wake of a disastrous betrayal that left her the most hated girl in town. Now that she's back, all of her fears are justified-the girls who used to be her friends want nothing to do with her, especially not the Donnelly siblings, who used to be her closest friends. The teen plans to lie low and wait out the rest of the summer until she can escape and start over in college. She is getting used to all the bullying, when the arrival of the two Donnelly boys turns her world upside-down. Patrick, Molly's first boyfriend, has a new girlfriend who doesn't seem to hate Molly despite her past transgressions. And Gabe is there for her when nobody else seems to care if she exists. When Gabe wants to spark up a romance, Molly starts to feel like she may be able to right some wrongs and put her past behind her. But things are never simple, and Molly finds herself dreading as well as clamoring for the 99 days of summer to be over. This coming-of-age story is dramatic and wickedly funny, and the protagonist's voice will speak to any teen facing an uncertain future. VERDICT This book will appeal to fans of E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks (Hyperion, 2008), offering complex characters, plot twists, and an insightful look at society's double standards.-Tara Kron, School Library Journal

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015
Grades 10-1 Molly Barlow is no stranger to mistakesher last, a tryst with her boyfriend's brother, made local headlines and saw Molly all but run out of town for her senior year of high school. Now, back in her hometown with only 99 days to go before she leaves for college, Molly is hiding from her mothera best-selling novelist whose liberal use of her daughter's love life got Molly in this mess in the first placeand former friends and neighbors, all holding a grudge. Molly plans to keep her head down until the end of summer, but she finds herself irresistibly drawn back toward the Donnelly siblings: Patrick, her first love; Gabe, the older brother she cheated with; and Julia, Patrick's twin sister and previously Molly's oldest friend, now her most vicious attacker. Cotugno has created a solid, relatable, not always likable heroine in Molly, and she surrounds her with a cast of multilayered secondary characters. An interesting look at the stigma that still surrounds female sexuality and infidelity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)