How To Love

It's kind of funny that everyone will quickly chime in with the advice "don't judge a book by its cover" yet most people I know do add their personal opinions about the covers of the books I am reading.

How to Love by Katie Cotugno is a debut novel, and I am fairly ambivalent about the cover.  My high-school helper at school instantly looked at it and remarked that she would like to read this book because it had a great cover.  Considering the teen crowd is who this book is geared for, I'm sure she is right.

However, my ambivalence about the cover is not a reflection on my love of this book.  How to Love is my new go-to teen romance.  Reena has always loved Sawyer LeGrande.  He's a few years older than her, and they've known each other their entire lives, as their families own a restaurant together.  Reena has never shared her feelings with Sawyer, but one day Sawyer notices Reena and the two fall in love.  

Sawyer unexpectedly leaves town, and Reena is left behind- pregnant and alone. 

Now Sawyer is back and wants to be part of Reena's life and his daughter's.  Reena has tried to move on and is dating someone else, and is totally in love with her daughter.  But even though she tries to forget Sawyer, there is still a pull she feels toward him.

I loved this book and the love story between Sawyer and Reena.  I loved that despite the fact that this book deals with a teen mother, it is still a clean story that I can recommend to younger teen readers.  And I loved the fact that even though I am not even close to a teenager anymore, I was able to remember how it felt to be a teenager again.