Morgan
You Say It First by Katie Cotugno
Goodreads Summary:
Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: her boyfriend Mason is sweet and supportive, she and her best friend Emily plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she even finds time to clock shifts phonebanking at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio, who gets under her skin from the moment he picks up the phone.
Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job—unsure what his future holds, or if he even cares. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.
But things don’t end there.…
That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more. Across state lines and phone lines, Meg and Colby form a once-in-a-lifetime connection. But in the end, are they just too different to make it work?
My Review:
I went into this book nervous that there would be a lot of politics involved. While there wasn’t much, there definitely was some politics involved. I thought the idea of them meeting through basically a call center was cute. However, they meet in person before every Face-timing or even texting a picture of themselves. Not only does that seem dangerous, but it also seems very unrealistic in today’s world.
Meg’s parents got divorced, and ever since then she doesn’t like making a scene in public by arguing or disagreeing with people. This has put a strain on her relationship with her boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend) and her best friend. Colby becomes the one safe place where she can be truly honest, disagree with him, and have arguments. However, it seems like she picks fights over every little thing. Some of it was justified, but some of it was really not. I got super annoying to read, and I’m not sure how their relationship is going to last in the long run if they live 8 hours away from each other and argue over everything. Which brings up the point of the ending. Meg finally realizes it is okay to ask for help and to be honest with people. She makes amends with people in her life, and is finally true to what she wants. That was nice to see, but her relationship with Colby is left very open ended. They do meet again and it’s left on a happy note, but I just don’t see it lasting.
3 stars
I received this book for free in return for an honest review.