(Review) Top Ten

Top Ten by Katie Cotugno

Publication Date: October 3rd, 2017

Pages: 320 (Hardcover)

Genre: Young Adult

My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Ryan McCullough and Gabby Hart are the unlikeliest of friends. Introverted, anxious Gabby would rather do literally anything than go to a party. Ryan is a star hockey player who can get any girl he wants—and does, frequently. But against all odds, they became not only friends, but each other’s favorite person. Now, as they face high school graduation, they can’t help but take a moment to reminisce and, in their signature tradition, make a top ten list—counting down the top ten moments of their friendship:

10. Where to begin? Maybe the night we met.
9. Then there was our awkward phase.
8. When you were in love with me but never told me…
7. Those five months we stopped talking were the hardest of my life.
6. Through terrible fights…
5. And emotional makeups.
4. You were there for me when I got my heart broken.
3. …but at times, you were also the one breaking it.
2. Above all, you helped me make sense of the world.
1. Now, as we head off to college—how am I possibly going to live without you?


My Review: 

I'll have to admit to highly disliking my first Katie Cotugno book, so I was little wary when I downloaded this one. 

Gabby and Ryan are both interesting characters in their own way. Ryan is popular and everyone loves him, yet Gabby is his best friend and she's kind of a social outcast. She doesn't go out and doesn't have a lot of friends besides Ryan. She's convinced he's ashamed of her for most of the book although he never says or does anything to really make her feel that way. Ryan caters to her in a way that others don't. 

The story in itself is cute. I love how they get each other out of their own heads by creating their Top Ten lists. Using the Top Ten was a great way to explain their relationship, even though some of it was out of order. I liked how it went back and forth and told their story. 

You definitely see growth in both characters, which I love. Ryan was my favorite character, simply because I wasn't crazy about some of the stuff Gabby said and did. 

The ending, to me, was a little bit of a copout. I would have liked to have seen something a little different, but I get it. I'm glad I picked this one up and will be looking for more from Cotugno.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Balzer + Bray for the ARC.