Title: 9 Days & 9 Nights
Author: Katie Cotugno
Series: 99 Days
Release Date: May 1, 2018
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: ★★★★
Synopsis
Molly Barlow isn’t that girl anymore. A business major at her college in Boston, she’s reinvented herself after everything that went down a year ago . . . after all the people she hurt and the family she tore apart.
Slowly, life is getting back to normal. Molly has just said “I love you” to her new boyfriend, Ian, and they are off on a romantic European vacation together, starting with scenic London. But there on a Tube platform, the past catches up to her in the form of Gabe, her ex, traveling on his own parallel vacation with new girlfriend Sadie.
After comparing itineraries, Ian ends up extending an invite for Gabe and Sadie to join them on the next leg of their trip, to Ireland. Sadie, who’s dying to go there, jumps at the prospect. And Molly and Gabe can’t bring themselves to tell the truth about who they once were to each other to their new significant others.
Now Molly has to spend nine days and nine nights with the boy she once loved, the boy whose heart she shredded, without Ian knowing. Will she make it through as new, improved Molly, or will everything that happened between her and Gabe come rushing back?
Review
9 Days & 9 Nights bis the sequel to 99 Days which I had no clue about when I picked it up. I immediately went and read the first book then came back and I’m really glad I did. 9 Days & 9 Nights picks up a little after a year after the events in 99 Days. Molly now goes to college in Boston and has managed to reinvent herself. She is no longer wild and reckless with her decisions, but collected and has everything well planned out in advance. She has a new man in her life, Ian, who is a adork-able and loves the new her, never pushing for information on her past. They’re on a European adventure over break and Molly has planned a packed vacation through London, Scotland and Paris. Her life is going great, until she bumps into her ex, Gabe, in London with his new girlfriend. We know they have messy past, but neither of their significant others do. Suddenly Molly’s perfect trip for two has turned into a trip for four and can the past really stay in the past? Especially when Molly is still hiding things not only from her new beau but her old one as well?
I love the Molly show. The girl is highly entertaining always, but her turned-over-a-new-leaf college Molly made me a bit sad. She has some obvious trust issues after her last summer at home and not just with people but with trusting herself. I thought she’d finally learned to respect herself and what she wanted after the last book and while she has it was an over the top solution of playing everything safe. We also now that something happened right after she arrived in Boston. I knew right away what is was but it isn’t actually revealed until almost the end of the book. That event alone would be a huge catalyst in her life, enough to change who she was fundamentally but we could still see the old Molly she was repressing.
While Gabe and Molly both have someone new in their lives, I did not see/feel any sparks in either of their relationships. Gabe’s girlfriend (who I literally can not remember the name of) was bitchy and a girl who thought she was better than other girls. I was annoyed by her instantly. She had this potential to be so cool because of her confidence and that she knew who she was and what she wanted, but instead she was just forgettable. Someone to fill in that hole in Gabe’s life. Ian seemed sweet and dorky, but just fell flat for me. He was hiding a major secret which I get since Molly was too, but I feel like if he had been more open with her she might have opened up to him. He was also a know it all though and while he said he wanted Molly to be more spontaneous, when she was he kind of put her down for it. Molly and Gabe still had some major chemistry between them, but learned from their mistakes last year so no actual fireworks unfortunately. Unless you count the ones that happen in fights, because in that case there were ton. They’ve both been through a lot this past year and they really needed to each to help get through it and move froward it felt like.
I originally picked up this book because the destinations Molly was going to were the ones I had just been to myself at the end of last year. I still have some wanderlust and wanted to live vicariously through her. Some places were described but it kind of just felt like they could be hanging out anywhere. Paris was the only place really described or adventured in so I was a tad disappointed, but then again teens traveling through Europe means drinking and bars so it all fit the story.
Overall I’m really glad we have a conclusion to Molly’s story and such a fun adventure at that. So much has changed for her and I was really happy to see that. She has some new friends, amazing Imogen who I adore, and a relationship with her mom. She genuinely loves Boston and the life she has carved out for herself there. It’s really only missing one thing, but it goes to show that if you focus on yourself love will find you. This was a cute and quick read that could be read as a standalone novel but I highly recommend reading the first book. It brings a lot of harsh truths to light while showing that you should always be true to yourself and know your self-worth.
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