Serena Montero can't remember a time when she didn't love Sawyer LeGrande. He doesn't know how she feels as he's never paid a bit of attention to her. HOW TO LOVE is told in alternating timelines that work perfectly. Before tells the story of how Reena and Sawyer fall in love, and the after shows Sawyer's return and the effects he sends through the life Reena put together in his absence. This sets up a huge amount of tension for the reader. You will see how sweet they are, but you'll know in the back of your mind, it's going to go horribly wrong.

After a tragedy which involved Reena's best friend Allie, Sawyer and Reena start to see each other everyday and are inseparable. That is until the day Sawyer just up and disappears. Reena is heart broken and destroyed. Soon after, Reena learns she is pregnant. Sixteen years old, about to go away to college, her boyfriend just disappeared, and her family offers her no support. What is Reena going to do with her life now?

Reena has a daughter Hannah and swears she is going to move on. She is going to leave Sawyer in the past. Instead, she is going to focus on her daughter and moving on with her life. Then just as she is getting over Sawyer, he comes back like he never left. He goes to see Reena and finds out they have a daughter. He wants to be a part of their lives, but Reena doesn't want anything to do with him. He left her without a word. She doesn't trust him, but Sawyer is determined to get her and his daughter back into his life. Can Reena let him back into her heart? Will Sawyer stay around long enough to get to know his daughter? HOW TO LOVE is an emotional roller coaster. You are going to be hanging on for dear life!

Teenage pregnancy is a very sensitive topic that needs to be handled with care in YA books. I haven't read many that were real and emotional enough to let me invested in the story. With HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno, the straightforward, yet touching story, made me really feel for the characters. My heart broke for Reena and Sawyer in the after chapters. In the before chapters, I held my breath, just waiting for the other shoe to drop! After a few pages in, I was totally invested in the characters lives and felt like I had known them for years. HOW TO LOVE will keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering how everything is going to unfold, desperately flipping pages to find out. Once you start, you will read HOW TO LOVE in one sitting like I did.

Book Summary

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. But 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?