Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    How to Love
    How to Love
    How to Love
    Audiobook10 hours

    How to Love

    Written by Katie Cotugno

    Narrated by Merritt Hicks

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    For fans of Sarah Dessen and John Green, this is a breathtaking debut about a couple who fall in love...twice.

    Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember. But he's never noticed that Reena even exists...until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. Then Sawyer disappears 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. Reena's gotten used to life without Sawyer, but just as suddenly as he disappeared, he turns up again. Reena wants nothing to do with him, though she'd be lying if she said his being back wasn't stirring something in her.

    After everything that's happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9780062293428
    Author

    Katie Cotugno

    Katie Cotugno is the New York Times bestselling author of Birds of California and Meet the Benedettos as well as eight novels for young adults. She is also the coauthor (with Candace Bushnell) of Rules for Being a Girl. She lives in Boston with her family.

    More audiobooks from Katie Cotugno

    Related to How to Love

    Related audiobooks

    YA Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      Time Invents Us

      Sep 29, 2020

      Time Invents Us
      14 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Idiots

      Feb 26, 2021

      The Idiots
      18 min read

    • Article

      Soggy CHIPS

      Oct 19, 2022

      Soggy CHIPS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      Side Gig

      Aug 8, 2019

      Side Gig
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mature Adults In Your Area

      Aug 8, 2022

      I would say that I don’t normally do this kind of thing, except that on and off over the months and years, I’ve done “these kinds of things” too many times for that to be true. So yeah, I go on dates from time to time. This recent guy wouldn’t choose

      6 min read

    • Article

      Lil Spin

      May 17, 2019

      Lil Spin
      8 min read

    • Article

      Travelling LIGHT

      Jun 16, 2021

      Travelling LIGHT
      3 min read

    • Article

      Lech

      Feb 8, 2022

      Lech
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Space Between Us

      Oct 9, 2019

      The Space Between Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      May 16, 2022

      Book Extract
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Money Box

      Jun 10, 2022

      This is not a morality tale. It’s simply a story. It began innocently enough, over a lunch of beef pho in the Financial District, when my friend Paolo first mentioned the Money Box. Paolo was a pupa of industry then, waiting to emerge as a titan. He

      19 min read

    • Article

      A Double Life

      Dec 7, 2020

      Sadie is in the kitchen, already dressed in school uniform, fastening the clips on the violin she chose for her most recent birthday, when Gabriela heads downstairs the following morning. Seven years old: how the hell did that happen? Briefly, she wo

      6 min read

    • Article

      A PRECIOUS Moment In Time

      Jun 17, 2019

      There’s something about Lambrook Hall that always draws me back and I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been here. I don’t really care if it’s hundreds, to be honest. I can’t resist it. I’m in the dining room again now. Not the ballroom or the lib

      6 min read

    • Article

      ANGER Mismanagement

      Feb 9, 2020

      Mr Stable has asked me to pick up his drycleaning, as he’s going to ‘babysit’ at his ex-wife’s apartment, while she attends a tango class. “Maybe she’ll find a new love?” I’m a sucker for happy endings, so I can’t help hoping that his ex-wife will fi

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Homeless Angel

      Oct 18, 2018

      "Just as craving crystallizes into anguish, so does understanding flower into letting go." -- Stephen Batchelor, "Buddhism without Beliefs" I walk into the new CVS pharmacy in my neighborhood to buy a birthday card and the first thing that happens is

      3 min read

    • Article

      Diary Of A Country Mouse

      Mar 3, 2020

      THURSDAY, 10 DECEMBER. Giles shows us the sample mice and I am, as if for the first time, overcome with joy. Perhaps when I was a child I had feelings like this—but not in many years. I look, for instance, at a small gray mouse, smaller than the othe

      17 min read

    • Article

      Rising Sign

      Feb 4, 2021

      Rising Sign
      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton

      Jan 19, 2021

      An excerpt from a debut novel Booklist calls "sharp and haunting." The post ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton appeared first on The Millions.

      13 min read

    • Article

      In a class OF MY OWN

      Jan 29, 2020

      In a class OF MY OWN
      6 min read

    • Article

      Blackberries

      Apr 5, 2023

      Blackberries
      24 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for How to Love

    3.5/5

    112 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      yeah it's sooooo niceeee:)
    • 5/5
      This book is so good and I started it today and I'm already in chapter 18 u guys should try it???☺️☺️?
    • 5/5
      This is by far my favorite book. I've read it over and over. And listening to it was a nice change.
    • 5/5
      I fell in love with this series!
    • 1/5
      Blah book blah this book was boring to me so.
    • 2/5
      This book had all the elements to turn into a new favorite. However there was something that really didn’t let it become that. That something's name is Sawyer.As so many others have said in their reviews of this book, if you don’t like Sawyer, you won’t like this book. Sadly, I didn’t like Sawyer.This is really disappointing, since at first I was really connecting with this book. I really understood Reena. I really understood her, and loved her as a character at first. Suddenly Sawyer comes into the picture, and all the maturity she had acquired (because of her teenage pregnancy and being left alone to deal with it) disappears. POOF. Reena is 16 again, and making stupid decisions all over again.I really tried to see what was so special about Sawyer. I tried to see how it was that Reena fell for him. But I couldn’t. All I saw was this manipulative and emotionally distant person. For Christ’s sake, Sawyer doesn’t even talk about his and Reena’s daughter when he sees her! He’s like: “Oh look, a baby. Well nice to see you, gotta go, bye.” He intentionally avoids the subject until he can’t anymore and then turns everything on Reena as if it were HER FAULT. And it is not.There’s also a love triangle here, and I definitely did not root for Sawyer. I think this love triangle was about much more than just a simple “should I? shouldn’t I?” aspect, but more of an inner war of Reena’s past self with her future self. I felt like this triangle was Reena choosing to be her old, 17-year-old self (with Sawyer), or the new and mature girl she had to be to raise her daughter. She ultimately chose wrong. I am all for second chances when the person proves themselves worthy. However Sawyer did nothing of the sort. He just reappeared into Reena’s life and expected to be accepted as if he belonged there.“The hideous thing is this: I want to forgive him. Even after everything, I do. A baby before my 17th birthday and a future as lonely as the surface of the moon and still the sight of him feels like a homecoming, like a song I used to know but somehow forgot.”What I did like, however, was the familial dynamics. I liked seeing Reena’s interactions with her daughter, Hannah. I liked to see Reena actually acting as a good parent to Hannah. I also loved seeing Reena’s parents being supportive (even if they were conflicted) towards Reena. I loved that her parents weren’t afraid to tell the truth to her. I also loved the writing. The story was presented in then and now moments, and I loved that I could see the contrast between what was happening.Overall, while this book has a great premise and wonderful writing, the fact that I could not connect with any of the main characters deterred my love for it. As I kept reading, Sawyer slowly kept sucking my enjoyment for what would have been an awesome book
    • 4/5
      How to Love has been in the market for well over a year and has some mixed reviews. I can see how some readers are torn. Sawyer is a very difficult character to life because he is so carefree and disregards the feelings of those close to him, especially Reena. I think others may also have issues with Reena and Sawyer's relationship. In both timelines they are deceitful and show very little remorse for the people they hurt as they rekindle their childhood romance. Despite all of this, I still enjoyed the book and can see myself reading this again. The love story is believable and most of the characters are realistic enough that readers can relate to them. If you're looking for a quick, feel good read, this book is a great choice.
    • 4/5
      This book has two different perspectives. It starts out in present time, the "after" where Reena, our main protagonist, is a young woman with a 14 month old daughter, trying to get by and be a good mom while taking extra shifts at her family's restaurant, going to community college, hanging with her quirky best friend Shelby and Shelby's older brother and Reena's boyfriend, Aaron. Her life is not what she dreamed for herself, as she dreamed of being a travel writer, going to an away college and seeing the world. Her dreams of travel and adventure are halted once she found out she was pregnant in high school and the love of her life, Sawyer up and left before she even knew she was pregnant. Sawyer shows up back in town and her life is thrown into mayhem. "Before" takes us into the young Reena's life. Her best friend since pre-school Allie is her only friend and the only person Reena can be almost herself with. Reena and Allie both have crushes on the cutest guy in town Sawyer, but Reena doesn't tell Allie, it is much more than a crush and that she has been in love with Sawyer since she was very little. Allie eventually starts dating Sawyer and Reena and Allie's friendship is forever changed. When tragedy strikes, Sawyer and Reena build a closer bond and eventually fall in love. But Sawyer isn't perfect for Reena. He's reckless and too free-spiritied for his own good and though she loves him, she knows he may not be good for her perfectly planned out future. Sawyer takes off and travels the world and Reena is stuck in her sticky humid town and discovers she is pregnant with Sawyer's child and will not be traveling, writing, or exploring the world. Luckily she has support from her step-mom Soledad but Reena's father hasn't been able to make eye-contact with his daughter since they discovered she was pregnant. Religiously devout, Reena's family and Sawyers family struggle with accepting Reena. So when Sawyer shows up and everything seems easy for him it makes her more than angry. She's hurt, scorned, everything a young woman who was abandoned and trapped would feel. At first I didn't like the different perspectives of the before and after but I soon found out there was a lot of things that happened that the reader needed to understand to see where Sawyer was coming from. I really liked this story and I found it believable, heartbreaking, and relatable. I would love there to be a book 2!
    • 4/5
      We all have our mainstays: Hershey bars, for instance. One can’t go wrong with the simplicity of straight-forward milk chocolate. That’s what I was shopping for when I came across How to Love by Katie Cotuguo. The teens I know gobble up titles like 13 Reasons Why, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and 2012’s smash, The Fault in Our Stars. This chick is happy to add another title to the nest of what I like to term freakin’ fantastic “realistic” young adult lit.One of my favorite things about the story is the main character, Serena, nicknamed “Reena”, especially since the story is told from her point of view. She is the quintessential Catholic goodie-girl that mixes it up with a bad boy and ends up pregnant; her cliché life ends there, however. Her ability to soldier on becomes a study of courage after having her dreams blow up in her face. It’s the way those dreams were painstakingly built in the first place that mesmorize the reader. She wants to become a travel writer, so Reena hangs posters of exotic locations all over her room, she buys travel guides to distant lands, and she obsesses over travel books. She wants out, but her choices force her to stay in.There are too many recipe variables to list that would set a conservative community’s cook stove on fire. There is the sex, profanity, drinking, drug abuse, and ultimately, teen pregnancy. Considering the landscape of the lives of teenagers, these are everyday dealings, so take them as you will. What keeps this title from securing the ever-elusive five square rating are a smattering of tired young adult formulas. There’s the tried-and-true love triangle between Reena, Sawyer, and Aaron. The good news is that it isn’t overdone, there isn’t a hideously drawn-out power struggle, and the obvious shipper team wins. The other yawner lives in Sawyer’s chosen profession. Musician? DING! You win the bonus prize! Really? Does every skinny-jean wearing recovering addict have to be a musician? I’ll take a construction worker or firefighting intern for $100, please. Thankfully, those tired elements are off-set by the mystery surrounding the night that Reena loses her bestie and hooks up with Sawyer for the first time. The narrative structure bounces back and forth between the present and the past, keeping the ambiguous nature of that night threaded through the entire novel, creating an explosive lynch-pin at the end. The novel’s message, delivered through Reena’s journey, is that you can still reach your destination—it just might take some extra time to get there. And that’s always something worth holding out for when you are searching for a mainstay in your cupboards.
    • 2/5
      Not much changes in this book even though it is told in alternating chapters two years apart labeled “Before” and “After.”We begin with Reena (Serena) Mantero, 16, who finally captures the attention of 18-year-old Sawyer LeGrange. Reena narrates the two segments of the book. Although the families of Reena and Sawyer have been close forever, Reena doesn’t really know Sawyer well, but has always had a crush on him. At first, he starts seeing Reena’s BFF Allie, and this causes a rift between Allie and Reena. Eventually however, he moves on to Reena, and Reena gets pregnant. Sawyer has problems of his own, and leaves town, not knowing Reena is carrying his child. The After chapters occur two years later with Reena still living at home and now taking care of her baby girl Hannah. She is also seeing the twin brother Aaron of her new BFF, Shelby. Then, all of the sudden, Sawyer reappears.Discussion: I kept waiting for the story arc to show some change but it just never happened. Reena keeps being an idiot, especially where Sawyer is concerned, never exercising any judgment whatsoever with Sawyer except for her insistence on driving when he is drunk and/or stoned. In the Before, if he wanted her to skip school, even if she had important tests and meetings scheduled, she did. If he abandons her for hours at parties, she just waits for him. She gets crabby about it, but she still can’t resist his smile and his kisses. In the After, she is similarly challenged, seeming to forget that she had been abandoned and forced to give up all of her dreams of college and travel and a career when she got pregnant and Sawyer left town without a word. She knows she doesn’t know who he really is, and she knows she can’t trust him as far as she can throw him, and yet, she can’t ever say no to him: not Before, not After.So what really happens in this story? There is a very improbable and unrealistic ending I don’t want to spoil except to say that this girl does has a 14-month old toddler that needs to be cared for and supported. But really, nothing about the ending is different either. The same problems and challenges remain, augmented by the existence of Hannah. Reena has not grown up at all, in spite of being a mother, albeit a child-mother, and Sawyer is still very much Sawyer.There is one subtle thread in the story that gives it some heft, which is that both Reena and Sawyer feel alienated from their families and lonely, and so they see only each other as “home.” Yet there is no good reason given for this feeling from the story, especially in Reena’s case. She has a quite loving family, even if her father is a bit more religious than Reena likes, and Sawyer is someone she doesn’t even know, not even at the end of the book after a number of revelations about him. Sawyer himself tells her she just sees him as someone she wants him to be, without knowing who he really is. Reena hasn’t had a lot of friends, but the ones she has had have loved her and been there for her. I just wasn’t totally buying either her loneliness, or Sawyer’s attraction to her.Evaluation: I thought the writing wasn’t bad in this book (great descriptions of the weather in southern Florida!), but I’m not sure I bought into the story. It also didn’t help that the main characters are not very likable. Perhaps if they had been developed more deeply, I would have believed in their choices. Regardless, the ending did not seem realistic to me. The book would, however, make a good choice for book clubs, as it will generate a lot of discussion.
    • 2/5
      Is this book well written? - Absolutely! Did it keep my interest. -Positively! Did I like its message? Not at all. This is about about a young girl who makes one bad decision after another and in my opinion ruins her life. The book is about a 16 year old straight A student who dreams of traveling and has been accepted into Northwestern University. She becomes infatuated with a going nowhere drug taking manipulative member of a rock band and becomes pregnant. He is generally a jerk! Spoiler Alert! Time after time she has chances to make good decisions in her life and she never does once (in my opinion) What is confused here is the word love and what it really means. I see no evidence that these two are beyond the state of teenage infatuation with each other. Though it is well written I would never want my teenage daughter reading it. The title should be How to Ruin Your Life Through a Series of Bad Decisions!
    • 5/5
      This story captures the best thing in life. Love. I don’t think I read such a story that captivates the reader with such conviction in forgiveness and love.Plot: Life sucks. Sometimes bad things happen. This plot is real and down to earth. It captures the reader with the anger of what happen in the past. It pulls the reader past all the mistakes and towards a place where the characters find peace and love. I can’t even tell you how much I loved this book. It is written so beautifully with real emotions and situations that I believe anyone who reads it can relate to it.Love: How can you love someone after all the mistakes are made? I think this questions answers itself. We love with love. No matter what mistakes are made, once that bond is forged you love them no matter what. I adored how well this story captured every part of love. It even captured the anger, the hurt, the unforgiviness and the bitterness it came along with it. Reena learned to love selflessly and let things go despite all what happen. Reena’s growth throughout the story gives the reader a full bloom of lost and love. It just amazing.Ending/Forgiviness: There is a saying that says,” You can let your past mistakes make you better or bitter.” And with Reena, it made her better. She took what happen in the past and moved on. She learned to let go of all the anger that she held and learned to love again. Not only for her but for her daughter. She is selfless in every action and I adore her. That is one of strongest these you can do. Learning to love after being hurt.If you love a true romance, one with mistakes and anger, read How To Love. This story captivates the essence of love and learning to move on. How To Love is an awe-inspiring story that is powerful and gripping. A bold story that is hugely rewarding, How To Love is amazing.
    • 5/5
      Reena Montero is brilliant and full of substantial dreams for her future. Sawyer Le Grande is charismatic yet hindered by terrible addictions. Reena has been in love with Sawyer for as long as she can remember. The day he finally notices her was the day both of their lives were forever transformed. By the time Reena realizes she's pregnant, Sawyer has disappeared without a trace and she's left to suffer the consequences. How to Love alternates between Before chapters, when Reena and Sawyer are together, and After chapters, when Reena is a struggling single-mother before her 17th birthday.Oh my gosh, this book. I went into this with the preconceived notion that it'd just be a mediocre read because honestly, YA contemporary romances are not my thing. I've always found the majority of the romances are typically shallow and superficial, lacking any honest or true love. But this? This book managed to elicit such profound feelings from me that I was left feeling utterly bewildered at how impeccably Reena and Sawyer's story managed to speak to me.*sigh* Sawyer. He reminded me so much of another character that I read recently, Sutter from The Spectacular Now, and how self-destructive he was yet so charismatic and charming. (Although admittedly Sawyer was a far more redeeming character.) Sure he made some really jerk moves in the Before bits, but I couldn't help thinking his heart was in the right place. He's a highly dysfunctional character and it's easy to place the blame because of his addictions but once you get to that point that he's at, choosing not to do it is not as easy as saying yes or no because it's become a part of who he is. It's clear that the struggle to slay the demons within him is ongoing, but his love for Reena was forever evident even when he chose to leave without a word.'I think of how it felt to lose him, slow and painful and confusing, and how it felt to wonder if I'd ever really had him at all.'I heard all the negative things about Sawyer before going into this book and how he dragged Reena into his reckless behavior but I was somehow able to completely look past that and understand him and his situation a bit more than I was entirely comfortable with. I've been in a relationship much like theirs and yes, it's a destructive type. Going to the parties when I'd rather be home. Going because it's the only way to ensure that he stays somewhat safe. Knowing that you being his rock, his stability, is the only thing you can do for him as the demons within cannot be slayed. When you love a person, you're willing to stand with them through thick and thin and help them the only way you can think to. Sawyer may not have shown any visible progress in becoming a better person but Reena was the only thing in his life that helped him become the redeeming character we see in the After chapters. He came back into Reena's life intent on earning her love back. He was truthful and forthcoming with the issues he had and how he needed to leave to fix them. He was repentant but never actually apologized I believe because no sorry could ever fix what was done, only him being the support that Reena needed would change that. It was clear that he battled with the guilt of his actions.This was a hard review to write and I'm still not convinced I'm discussing everything I want to. This book left me with the worst bookish hangover I can remember in recent history. It managed to evoke a shocking amount of emotion from me and left me contemplating for days. How To Love is a beautiful and powerfully written story of love ingraining itself onto your very being.
    • 3/5
      Reena and Sawyer have always been in each other's orbit. This book switches between "Before" and "After," referring to before and after their daughter Hannah was born, when Reena was 16. It's a bit Hallmark-channel for me, but it is interesting in terms of being one of the first real "new adult" titles I've read where it felt like the story was too old for ya but too young for adult fiction. There's some great dialogue and a few fun secondary storylines.
    • 4/5
      This is a very engrossing book. It is a theme that has been done before but what makes this story special are the characters. The main character, Reena, had a compelling voice. She felt so natural as a character and since she doesn't like the party scene and is more quiet, book smart, and to herself, I def related to her. Her strength isn't found in balls to the wall kick ass, or fiestiness, although you find that some in a sarcastic way, but sometimes she just wins arguments in her head, not aloud, allowing her best friend to save face. She gets herself in a hard spot, with a daughter from the boy she grew up falling in love with who finally found her only to disappear. When the boy, now young man, Sawyer, comes back in town, there is delicious awkwardness. Reena is understandably hurt and holding him at an arm's length. She doesn't know if he will disappear, and since the narration goes from one time (before) to another (after) I know that there is some unresolved feelings. But she does have a whole new life, and even a boyfriend who makes her happy and doesn't judge. Speaking of the time shifts, they are written very well, and flow seamlessly. It never jarred me and I was always able to keep up with what happened before or after. I couldn't help but keep Aaron, the current after boyfriend at an arm's length because the synopsis implies that we get to see Sawyer and Reena fall in love again.I didn't want my heart broken falling for him and I didn't want the poor guy to get hurt. But I also just couldn't completely fall for Sawyer either because he really just seemed like a big jerk. I totally understand that he was in pain, that him and his parents had problems, he suffered a loss, but when he came back (which I never really understood why he left so suddenly and no one knew how to get in touch with him, almost seems like plot device.) he was such a jerk to Reena. Though I have to at least give him props for trying when he did return, and that he did come back since he apparently didn't know she was pregnant. By the end though I was beginning to see them as a couple and how they both have the exterior and interior and have a hard time letting their true selves show. I was pulling for them and didn't think that Sawyer was as complete of a jerk by the end, and wanting them to be happy. I think it was fitting, and even though a bit of an open ending, it tied up everything in the story we just don't know what their happy ever after will exactly look like. Bottom Line: Great storyline and main character, though I had some issues with the love interest.
    • 4/5
      How to Love, a debut novel by Katie Cotugo, was at first a turn-off for me. I dislike a before and after split style of writing. I like to read from page one to the end without my brain having to back track, or to have to remember each segment.That said, I loved this book because I chose to read the after and then the before and my brain combined the two into one great novel. Not what the author intended, I'm sure, but it allowed me to hear the voices of the characters. I felt the emotions of Reena, as she raised her child, Hannah, in the midst of criticism. I understood the emotions of Sawyer and his need to be loved andhis struggle for sobriety. I was angry at Reena's father and his narrow-thinking ways toward women, remembering how that generation had a hard time accepting unwed mothers.This novel should be read by all who have endured growing up by having to give up their plans made before bad choices interrupted that pathway. I highly recommend this book, and hopefully you will read it as it was written, from page one to the end, without splicing it as I did.