*This review might contain spoilers*

I bet you didn’t expect the first review to come so soon, and to be honest, I didn’t either, but I stayed up late last night (10:30pm *is* late, okay?) and finished 9 Days and 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno. And now, obviously, I have to tell you what I think about it because that’s the whole point of this blog.

Before last night, I was fully prepared to write a rant review because I disliked most of the novel, and as I reached the final three chapters, I kept thinking “oh no, there’s no way she’s going to make me like this book.” By “she,” I mean the author, and she didn’t make me like the book, but she made me not hate it, and she actually managed to destroy pretty much all my arguments about why this book sucked, so I’ll give her that.

This is the sequel to 99 Days, which I read at least five years ago, and which I adored. Keep in mind, I was in my early to mid-twenties and I was a sucker for angst, which is what 99 Days gave me. I’m not sure if I would recommend this book currently because my taste has clearly changed, but I loved it when I read it. Now, my experience with 9 Days and 9 Nights as so bad (before reaching the last three chapters) that I even questioned whether its predecessor was that good.

We follow Molly, the main character, and her boyfriend Ian, who is an absolutely amazing guy, on their trip around Europe. But wait, there’s more, because they run into Gabe, Molly’s ex, and Sadie, his current girlfriend, who’s fine but needs to be educated about feminism. But wait, there’s more, because Ian ends up inviting Gabe and Sadie to tag along with him and Molly, which is obviously awkward because neighter Gabe nor Molly have told their significant others that the other person is their ex.

Can you see how that plotline can be, I don’t know, completely unnecessary? I mean, I understand that maybe what happened was that readers were so into 99 Days that they begged the author for a sequel, which makes sense considering that the first book in the duology was open-ended. I can see myself years ago wanting more of this story because I personally loved Gabe in the first book. I was apathetic towards him and couldn’t stand Molly for most of the second installment.

Now, I think you can infer what might happen when two exes who aren’t over one another come together by chance. That’s why this book was filled with angst, and it was honestly too much for me at times. I would not recommend this book, but I wouldn’t advise you against reading it, either. I think it was realistic, and I think it stepped away from some clichés we see in both YA and NA novels. I can tell you straight up, for example, that there was no cheating of any kind, and I appreciated that. I can also tell you that even though at times it seemed like the author (or Molly, who was narrating the book) wanted to paint Ian and Sadie in a bad light to make them seem less suitable for their partners, she didn’t. Again, I think that’s realistic, and that shows a level of maturity and affective responsibility many millennials didn’t grow up to have.

Even though this is the sequel to a YA novel, I think that older readers would enjoy it more because the characters are in their early twenties. I wouldn’t consider this a New Adult novel, but sort of like an in-between. I can’t say I liked this book, so I won’t say it, but the ending was redeeming and refreshing.

Have you read anything by Katie Cotugno? If so, what? What did you think about it?