Susane Colasanti

In this first book of a captivating new series by bestselling author Susane Colasanti, three girls share a Manhattan apartment the summer before college begins. City Love captures the essence of summer love, self-discovery, and sisterhood, a perfect fit for fans of Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, and Jennifer E. Smith. This summer will change everything for Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna. Sadie is all about dreaming big and following her heart, hoping her soul mate is right around the corner. Darcy wants a summer of boy adventures with New York City as her playground. Rosanna is running from dark secrets of her past, desperate to reinvent herself. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives. Told from alternating points of view, City Love resonates with the moments when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying all at once . . . in a way it will never be again.

City Love

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

THE STORY:
Becca: City Love is a book that I have really been looking forward to, it was even a WOW pick of mine! The story is about three girls and their journey over the Summer before their Freshmen year in NYC. Going in I thought this was going to be a coming of age/friendship story and although it was that, that was only a small part. It focused more on each girl and their love interest over the Summer. This story was told in three points of view, the chapters would alternate POV’s from each girl. I liked the multiple POV’s and they were very easy to follow. One of my favorite parts of this book was the city! Susan Colasanti made me feel as though I was there! I could hear the sounds and see the sights in my imagination, she described actual places, restaurants and sights of NYC and I absolutely loved it!


  
    
  


Lisa: This is my very first Susane Colasanti book. I’ve heard she writes fun contemporary beach reads, so I was very excited to read this book. Especially now, when the warmer weather is just coming upon us and we’re all about summer here in CT. Like Becca, I thought this was going to be more about these girls and their friendship and roommate fun and drama, so I was surprised to see what a small part of the story that was. The majority of this story was each girl’s separate journey for love over the summer before starting college. Yes, we got to see them together in their apartment a few times, but most of the story was told through the girl’s separately.

Listening to the audio of this was fantastic because we were lucky enough to have three separate narrators! YAYYYY!! We don’t see this nearly enough, in my opinion, and I’m always overly excited when I see this in an audio. Having the three separate voices to show their individual personalities and uniqueness was such a great addition to this story.


THE CHARACTERS:
Lisa: Our three MCs are Sadie, Darcy and Rosanna. Sadie, born and raised in NY, is at home and comfortable in the big city. She’s a hopeless romantic and dreams of a relationship like you see in the movies. Darcy is a California girl who’s very much a free spirit with a love of life. The last thing she’s looking for is a relationship. She’s all about the fun and adventure, not about settling down. Lastly, there’s Rosanna, who’s a bit of a mess. She’s utterly broke and moves to NY with pennies in her pocket and a hope of a better life in her future. These three go so well together and really show off each other’s positive attributes. I just wish we got to see a little bit more of the friendship among the three, instead of only their relationships separately.

Becca: Lisa is 100% accurate in her descriptions of these three characters, Sadie the romantic, Darcy the free spirit and Rosanna the too serious pessimist. They each begin to form relationships with different guys, the book mainly focuses on the girls and their love interests. Each guy was just as different as the girls and I liked how Colasanti really created such different dynamics in these characters and the couples as well. For a shorter novel, she really developed each girl and their love interest very well. Although I enjoyed most of it, I really was looking forward to a book more about friendships with some romance, rather than the other way around. More like…


  
    
  


OVERALL:
Becca: I was shocked by the ending of this book! I had no idea this was going to be a series and was expecting a stand alone novel. With that ending there is no doubt there will be a sequel! Although I cannot wait to see what happens in these relationships, I am hoping for a larger focus on the friendships in the sequel. Which I will definitely be reading!

Overall I will say that I really enjoyed this book, it was cute and fun. The descriptions of the City were so perfect and made me nostalgic to visit again. Despite living so close to NYC, I have only visited a few times in my life. This was my first Colasanti book and I really enjoyed her writing style, it was charming and fun! I look forward to reading more by her in the future, including this sequel!

Lisa: A sequel? That would DEFINITELY be awesome! I have to agree, this book just kind of… ends. I was listening, and all of a sudden it just stopped. I thought I may have missed something… but nope. That’s where it ends. I would love to see more of this group in another book.
 

Audiobook Impressions:
Lisa: A great narrator can definitely bring a book to life… and this one had THREE fantastic narrators! (Yayyyyyy!!!) This coming from a HUGE audiobook fan, there’s nothing better than having multiple narrators when a book has multiple POVs. So I was SOOOO excited to see we would have a different narrator for each girl. And let me tell you, it was golden! I’m not sure I would have liked this book quite as much if I had read it versus listening. These three narrators did such a fantastic job of bringing these girls to life. The three roommates were all so completely different, and having the three individual narrators made it always easy to tell who was speaking, and also to really give a voice to each girl. I would definitely recommend the audiobook for City Love.

Becca: I agree with Lisa the audiobook was pretty awesome! Each narrator was spot on and gave a perfect voice for their character, and they were able to individualize the other characters as well. I think that these narrators totally made this book even better. Like Lisa, I highly recommend the audiobook!
 
(Thanks to Katherine Tegen for the review copy!)

Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

Three teenage girls learn how to navigate their hearts and NYC. Book one of the trilogy, City Love, is the start of a romantic new series for fans of Sarah Dessen, Stephanie Perkins, and the Carrie Diaries, from bestselling author Susane Colasanti. Roommates Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna have big plans for their summer before college. Sadie is looking for love, Darcy is living for the next adventure, and Rosanna is reinventing herself. There will be plenty of distractions—irresistible guys, wrong guys, awkward encounters, 2 a.m. breakfasts, fangirl moments, Nasty Girl, and more—but if they look up they will discover the true meaning of city love.

Jessica 

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GUYS! Guys, guys, guys! I have news! Incredible news just in time for the warmer weather.

You know that perfectly engaging, girl power infused, lovely and overall quotable contemporary romance novel you've been waiting for? It's here! Or, well, will be on April 21st 2015. But what makes it that way, you ask? Aside from the super adorable, warm fuzzies inducing promotion that's been going on for it, City Love is filled with characters you will connect to, fall in love with and just want to protect. I honestly would love to be friends with our three leading ladies. And who wouldn't want to be? The positive vibes and girl power that brings the three of them together is strong.

Pair that with budding romance and friendships, set in New York City in the summertime, I don't need to tell you just how fun this novel is. You already know. It's completely adorable and was an absolute delight to read. You know those fluffy novels you can relax with and don't want to move until you are finished? That's exactly what City Love is. I could not put it down. And let me just start by saying this: I cannot wait for the remaining books in this trilogy -- seriously, can I have them now or?

It ended way sooner than I wanted it to; then again I could probably read dozens of books about these characters. I needed more as soon as I finished, let's talk about that cliffhanger. Swoons. I fell hard and fast for each girl, for each love interest, and you will too.

City Love

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