How to Love

By: Katie Cotugno
Location: FIC COT
Genre: Looove Story

This is real. This is life. This is how to love.

This story reminds me of Hazel one of my heroines from CapeTown- an incredible young woman who has had stuff happen in her life that are mountains, she puts on her hiking boots and she climbs them, facing the challenges, conquering the routes yet to have another mountain appear before her again.
I deeply admire young woman who despite difficulties and obstacles, stand, walk and move on in life!

 But this story....
How To Love almost fits into the new adult category rather than young adult. It's a much more mature story than normal YA books and I loved it. Younger readers can certainly get away with reading it (although there is drug use/alcohol use/sexual content) and older readers such as myself can truly enjoy it. While Sawyer and Reena are both in their teens, they are forced to deal with some much more adult issues and it was refreshing to read such a realistic story. There's college, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and so much more packed between these pages. Katie Cotugno tackles everything head on and doesn't shy away from the tough stuff. 
The story is told from Reena's point-of-view alone but I really felt like I got to know Sawyer just as well I got to know Reena. Reena is a smart girl. She's funny (in a very sarcastic way), she's kind, and she's definitely a good girl. Sawyer is the opposite of Reena in almost every way. He's definitely a bad boy. He's got drug problems, he's in a band, he's living in a run down place with multiple other guys, and he's not good for Reena. That doesn't stop the two from falling completely in love with each other. This was definitely a case of opposites attracting. Personally I thought Reena and Sawyer were perfect together, at least the second time around. 

The story is told in alternating chapters; before and after. It's easy to see how their relationship isn't really all that healthy in the before chapters but both of them have changed drastically since then. They've matured (especially Reena, having to raise a baby), they're smarter, and they can see the truth of their relationship. The story is a very unique one and it completely drew me in. There were secrets between Sawyer and Reena that I just wanted to know and I couldn't stop reading until I knew every last detail. I was captivated from beginning to end.

The last thing I want to mention about How To Love is the writing. It's gorgeous. I don't know any other way to describe it. - Katie Goodreads.com