How to Love
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4.5 • 137 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Sarah Dessen and John Green, this is a breathtaking debut about a couple who fall in love...twice.
Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember. But he's never noticed that Reena even exists...until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. Then Sawyer disappears without a word, leaving a devastated—and pregnant—Reena behind.
After: Almost three years have passed, and there's a new love in Reena's life: her daughter. Reena's gotten used to life without Sawyer, but just as suddenly as he disappeared, he turns up again. Reena wants nothing 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 really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?
First Love, Second Chance: Reena loved Sawyer for years before he finally noticed her. Now that he's back, can she risk her heart on the one boy she's never been able to forget?Teen Parent Romance: For three years, Reena's world has revolved around her daughter, Hannah. Sawyer's return threatens the stable life she's built, forcing her to decide what's best for them both.Dual Timeline: Told in alternating "Before" and "After" chapters, this story unravels the mystery of Sawyer's disappearance and explores the bittersweet path to forgiveness.Secret Baby: Sawyer left town with no idea that Reena was pregnant. Coming home means facing not just the girl whose heart he broke, but the daughter he never knew he had.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There's a big gap between where 18-year-old Reena Montero expected to be and where she is. Instead of studying journalism at Northwestern after graduating from high school a year early, she's living with her parents in hot, sticky Florida, taking courses at the local community college and caring for her toddler, Hannah. It's not what Reena planned, but she's making the best of it. Then her one love Hannah's father, Sawyer LeGrande comes back to town. In a confident debut, Cotugno structures Reena's story in alternating "before" and "after" chapters that explain how Reena and Sawyer got together, what brought them to where they are now, and where they could end up, maybe, if they can push through a tangle of guilt, anger, and complicated family connections. Cotugno draws even the minor characters well, and although Sawyer, as a reformed bad boy, is something of a stock figure, Reena is complex and appealing. It's impossible not to root for the two of them to beat the odds. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
Loved this Book
Main character was very easy to relate to! I loved the writing style and would highly recommended. My favorite character was Hannah of course!
love it
i read this book and I love it, it is now one of my favorite books I always recommend it to my friends. it truly is an amazing book
Worth the Money
This book was equally excellent and frustrating. There was a while there that I wasn’t sure I liked it and regretted buying it, but at the end, I was sold.
I will say that I’m not entirely sure why Reena liked Sawyer because in flashbacks he wasn’t a very redeemable character, but teenagers do what teenagers do, so who am I to say why?
My two biggest issues are these:
1) I felt like Reena, in particular, had a voice that was much older than 18. Maybe it’s because she was a teen mom or maybe it was because she was a smart girl, but in any case, I feel like that was a little unrealistic. I think it would have been better if the book had been set a few years later.
2) I wish there was a little more communication, a little more answers and backstory as to why. Like who was Sawyer, really, as a teenager? Who was Reena, really, as a teenager? We see them fighting and having secrets and liking each other, but I didn’t really get a sense of either of them as characters. Also, what was the dynamic between Reena and Allie. All we see are a few short scenes before they fight, then they fight, then what happens to Allie happens and Reena is crushed. I wanted more about them so that I could care more about what happens.