How to Love by Katie Cotugno

Published: October 2013

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Pages: 389

Copy Provided by: Bought

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Before: 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 that Reena even exists…until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town 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, Hannah. Reena’s gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she’s finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn’t want anything to do with him, though she’d be lying if she said Sawyer’s being back wasn’t stirring something in her. After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

In this breathtaking debut, Katie Cotugno weaves together the story of one couple falling in love—twice.

Review:

I don't read a lot of YA Contemporary fiction but every now and again I crave something heart-breakingly achey to remind me of what it is like to experience the craziness of hormonal love.  How to Love fits the bill! When I first read the summary blurb I was angry at this Sawyer guy.  Leaving a girl alone and pregnant only to resurface in her life again years later!  The nerve!  How dare he!  But as the story unfolds, we see that nothing is as black and white as it seems.  Reena has been tiptoeing in a precarious life limited by her need to please everyone except for herself.  When Sawyer arrives, he disrupts this delicate balance and throws her off her game...but in the process, helps her re-ignite some of her old passions again.  

I LOVED this book.  Miss Cotungo, you made me believe in love all over again....thank you!