Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno

 

Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed them to pop-culture fame, the five twentysomething sisters are living together in their parents’ crumbling McMansion, nearly broke and teetering towards rock-bottom. Lilly, the sensible second-eldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle, but she’s focused on holding herself and her family together, and unlike her siblings she tends not to care what the world thinks.

The Benedettos’ fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of Captain Fantastic, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend Will Darcy in tow. It isn’t long before Charlie falls for the warm and lovely eldest sister, June. Lilly has no such luck: the arrogant and judgmental Will Darcy, a man plagued by his own private demons, seems ready to clash with her at every turn--yet the two can’t seem to stay away from each other. And while the Benedettos’ matriarch sets to work encouraging a potential match between Charlie and June, there are plenty of others in the community who are determined to steer these eligible young men away from a ridiculous family of reality show has-beens...

Katie Cotugno brings a big, boisterous cast of characters to life in this deliciously sprawling LA story—a thoroughly fresh and modern tale about a family that’s “famous for being famous,” the ways that preconceived notions make fools of us all, and how unexpected romance can bloom despite the odds.

Pick up your copy here...


Katie Cotugno is the New York Times bestselling author of seven messy, complicated feminist YA love stories including 99 Days, How to Love, Fireworks, Top Ten, 9 Days & 9 Nights, You Say It First, and Liar’s Beach (Delacorte, 2022), as well a forthcoming adult novel, Birds of California (Harper Perennial, 2022). She is also the co-author, with Candace Bushnell, of Rules for Being a Girl. Her books have been honored by the Junior Library Guild, the Bank Street Children’s Book Committee, and the Kentucky Association of School Librarians, among others, and translated into more than fifteen languages. Katie is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Mississippi Review, and Argestes, as well as many other literary magazines. Katie studied Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College and received her MFA in Fiction at Lesley University. She lives in Boston with her family. 

My Thoughts...
I liked this book more than the first book I read by Cotugno Birds of California. I hope you get a copy to read.

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