99 Days by Katie Cotugno

99 Days by Katie Cotugno
Series: No
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: April 21st 2015
Source: Publisher [Edelweiss]

Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that’s how I know everyone still remembers everything—how I destroyed my relationship with Patrick the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. How I wrecked their whole family. 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 got me to come to this party, and 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.

99 Days follows Molly Barlow who has just returned to her small town of Star Lake after running away to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere to escape. Her mother turned her secret into a bestselling novel, and a year later everyone still remembers. 

From the beginning I felt really bad for Molly. She'd confided in her mother only to have her turn around and write a book about her secret and admit that it was based on her daughters life, I mean, what the hell? I don't think I'd even be able to forgive my mum for something like that, especially since it caused all of her friends to turn against her and start giving her a hard time. And as soon as she returned, it started up again. Molly is a sweet character. She's extremely helpful and just wants to get through her 99 days at home before she starts college without any hassle.

So the story line of 99 days followed Molly through her summer at home where she got a job working at a hotel she worked at every summer and trying to make amends for what happened. Gabe (one of the boys involved in Molly's scandal) is happy she's returned and begins pursuing her. Molly has always liked Gabe and I think she was glad to have someone that didn't hate her. But then she runs into Patrick (Gabe's brother and the other boy involved in her scandal) and her whole world goes to shit.

I couldn't really get behind Molly at all when the whole love triangle thing started up again. She was seeing Gabe and then Patrick decided he wanted her back so started making out with her in secret while he was also dating Molly's new best friend Tess. It was messy and complicated, and I just can't get behind someone who's actively cheating and does it more than once even though she kept saying she had to stop. She wasn't just hurting Gabe, she was also hurting Tess who was one of her friends! So even though I still felt bad for her, I didn't particularly like her.

Also, Patrick had a severe attitude problem. In the flashback we got of him he seemed like a controlling, possessive asshole who wasn't too happy when things didn't work out the way he wanted them to or when Molly wanted to do something he didn't. He was a complete jerk and I honestly don't get what she saw in him to begin with or why she would even cheat on Gabe with him because honestly, Gabe was a complete sweetheart and he adored her. 

I wasn't much of a fan of the ending either. I wanted to know whether Molly would end up with Gabe or go back to Patrick, or just not bother with either of them. But it was a completely open ending with no resolution of the romance, which is what I was reading for. I was rooting for Gabe to end up with Molly (after she'd gotten some sense knocked into her), but she just drove off to college with her mum with nothing resolved. I kind of felt cheated by the ending.

Overall, 99 Days was a quick read that involved a love triangle, cheating and bad best friend behavior. I didn't really like the main character and the ending completely let it down for me.