You Say It First by Katie Cotugno

E-Audio, 08:49:41
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie & Kirby Heyborne 
Release Date: June 16, 2020
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Read from: September 12-15, 2020
Stand-alone
Source: Library (Overdrive)
TW: Suicide of a Loved One (One of the MCs found them), A loved one is an alcoholic. Divorce. Anxiety, Classism
For fans of: Contemporary, Romance, Meet Cute, Long Distance Romance, Multiple POVs, YA

   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?

     You Say It First is a propulsive, layered novel about how sometimes the person who has the least in common with us can be the one who changes us most. 

*MY THOUGHTS*

When I saw Cotguno had another book coming out, I was super excited. I love her controversial romance books! (How to Love I’m looking at you!) But when I read this one, I wasn’t expecting another one. But I should have known better.

Just when she thought she had it all figured out, Meg realizes things aren’t as clear cut as she thought. Everything starts going left when she’s connected to a stranger during one of her phone banking calls. Colby is spending his time at home, trying to get by, not caring about his future. When his paths cross with Meg, they try to figure out if they’re interested in being more or if they’re just too different to make it work.

This wasn’t exactly controversial, but it also wasn’t your average either. The main characters were from different walks of life, but let me tell you, neither one of them had it good. I liked the idea of them finding each other, but I also feel like they should have been by themselves and learned to be by themselves for a while before getting together. I think the romance could have been better had they agreed to work on themselves first. Granted it would have changed it into just a contemporary book, but I think that would have been more believable. And just as a heads up, there is a sex scene, but it’s not showed on the page. There’s mention of it afterward, but the actual act.

As for the characters, I actually liked them. But only individually. I liked that I could see the views on both sides of their arguments, but I didn’t like how Colby was so dead set on what he thought he knew and didn’t want to listen to Meg’s advice. She listened to his. I just don’t know why he was so stubborn the whole time. It started getting annoying.

For other random things, I did like the part about voting and the candidates that was in it. I also liked the way Cotguno showed an alternative route than college. I know college isn’t for everyone, but so often people forget that. As for the narration, for the most part it was ok. But then there were times when the voice for Meg tried to do the voice for Colby, and man it was laughable. Definitely made me cringe every time.

This wasn’t the romance I was expecting, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. It was just so much more heavy than I wanted and I was not expecting that. There are some heavy moments, so please take heed to the trigger warnings in the book description at the top of this post. If you can get past that, give this a shot and let me know what you think!

Overall, I give this

Have you read this? What did you think? Were you able to get past the bad characters? Let me know in the comments!