Top Ten, Katie Cotugno

Top Ten by Katie Cotugno

This book will be released October 3,
2017 in the US

I have read Katie Cotugno before, I read 99 Days, which makes Top Ten the second novel that I read from this author. I enjoyed 99 Days a lot, I remember that at first, I thought that I wouldn't like the story, but as I continued reading it, I started enjoying it, and I would like to mention that in Top Ten I think that it happened in exactly the opposite way, I liked it a lot at the beginning, but as the story continued, I started getting annoyed by the main character and started to lose interest as the story progressed. 
Top Ten tells the story of Gabby, a teenager that has always preferred not getting involved with other people at high school, and Ryan, probably the most popular guy in high school being the hockey star. They become friends in an awkward attempt to escape realities and before they can realize it, they share a friendship that has changed their lives and they have become the other´s most important person. 
But that is until they start realizing that they may be liking each other as more than friends, but that idea seems to far away from their reality since they are both in different relationships that already feel like so much work. 
Will Gabby and Ryan be able to let go of their friendship and start a new relationship?
As usual, I´ll start by talking about the characters. 
I really liked Ryan because he gave us a new type of popular jock. I actually found Ryan cute and adorable! Which is unusual for me and for anyone that has read several YA novels that involve jocks, they are supposed to be ONLY hot. But Ryan is the exception, he is HOT and ADORABLE, which creates the type of boyfriend every girl wishes for. I liked that he was the first one that realized that he was completely in love with his best friend, which seems to be first because we are not really used to knowing how the male lead character feels like. In my opinion, Ryan was very similar to Peter Kavinsky from To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by Jenny Han,  who I absolutely adore, again because he is cute and hot, being a high school jock and all. Also, the whole vibe of not having a perfect family and a perfect life like the main character is very similar. 
Gabby was a character that I didn´t like at all! In fact, I started to find her annoying because she was always ready to criticize others and judge them but got very angry when other told her the truth that she wasn´t willing to accept. I saw too little character development throughout the four years of her high school career, she always had something that she didn´t like and found wrong in her life. So, for me, Gabby didn´t really do it for me.
On the other hand, I liked the idea of having Chelsey and Shay as supporting characters because I believe that for example, Shay was the character that pushed Gabby for some character development and seeing the type of people that both main characters were surrounding themselves with showing us how the characters were changing as we read along, I would say they were the piece that completed the story perfectly.
But although I didn´t like the main character, I did enjoy other things about the story. For instance, I liked the structure of the novel a lot. I liked both sides, although they weren´t in the first point of view, they did give us a piece of their minds, which made it easier to understand them and their actions. Also, the structures of the chapters were very nicely-planned because they are told in different time periods of their relationships and they are a list, which is something that only Ryan and Gabby understand, it´s their THING.
I enjoyed the way popularity was portrayed in this novel because it was realistic, just like the whole high school environment. I really enjoyed that Gabby wasn´t immediately popular because she was friends with Ryan, in fact, everything stayed the same way, which showed how personal their friendship was for both of the characters. 
In addition, I really liked Cotugno´s writing because it is very sweet and touching in an emotional way, I believe her words were very carefully chosen and that she was able to describe feelings in a very beautiful way. 
I believed that Top Ten is the perfect mixture of To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before, with a little bit of Love, Rosie and a fun activity in a Morgan Matson style. 
Overall, Top Ten is a fairly enjoyable reading about high school and the popularity.
I apologize for the short review. Also, I would like to thank the publisher for providing an ARC through Edelweiss in exchange for a review. 

3 1/2 stars out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua