{"id":30803,"date":"2023-12-14T09:30:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T13:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=30803"},"modified":"2023-12-14T09:30:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T13:30:51","slug":"review-meet-the-benedettos-by-katie-cotugno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/14\/review-meet-the-benedettos-by-katie-cotugno\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-30803\" data-postid=\"30803\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-30803 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_iyrc128 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top gutter-narrow tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_7tjp128 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_lzfz128 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"964\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno.jpg?resize=640%2C964&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-30804\" title=\"meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno\" alt=\"meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno.jpg?w=996&amp;ssl=1 996w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno.jpg?resize=680%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno.jpg?resize=768%2C1157&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno.jpg?resize=400%2C602&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_ftug129 customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">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\u2019 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\u2019s focused on holding herself and her family together, and unlike her siblings she tends not to care what the world thinks.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">The Benedettos\u2019 fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of\u00a0<span class=\"a-text-italic\">Captain Fantastic<\/span>, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend Will Darcy in tow. It isn\u2019t 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&#8211;yet the two can\u2019t seem to stay away from each other. And while the Benedettos\u2019 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&#8230;<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Katie Cotugno brings a big, boisterous cast of characters to life in this deliciously sprawling LA story\u2014a thoroughly fresh and modern tale about a family that\u2019s \u201cfamous for being famous,\u201d the ways that preconceived notions make fools of us all, and how unexpected romance can bloom despite the odds.<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_r9h5129 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_496l129  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16471 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2_5-hearts-1.jpg?resize=107%2C44&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"107\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Dec 5, 2023<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Warm<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> Harper Perennial<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $11.99<\/p><hr \/><blockquote class=\"quotes\"><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>\u201cIn the living room she finds the girls heaped in a Turnpike Pileup, all five of them fast asleep like something out of a fairy tale, Cinta watches them for a moment: the long lines of their calf muscles, their faces smooth and relaxed. Olivia\u2019s hair across June\u2019s shoulder, Kit\u2019s head in Lily\u2019s lap. Mari is curled on her side, turned away from the others; still, Cinta can\u2019t help but notice, one seeking hand reaches back. They\u2019ll land on their feet, she thinks in the moment before she forces herself to stop imagining it, heads back up to bed with a mind gone perfectly, peacefully blank: her girls, her dark-eyed wonders, her miracles each and every one. After all, they\u2019re Benedettos. After all, they always do.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Benedettos, a family famous for their father\u2019s pizza chain and a reality TV series exploiting their lives, find themselves almost broke and teetering on the edge of financial ruin. When a wealthy movie star, <strong>Charlie Bingley<\/strong>, moves in down the block with his close friend, <strong>Will Darcy<\/strong>, their mother believes a match can potentially save them. Will Darcy is brash, rude, and unlikeable, but <strong>Lily<\/strong> is drawn to his dark and broody personality. Will is drawn to Lily\u2019s fire but is scared to be burned again so he pushes her away. He doesn\u2019t realize that once a Benedetto gets under your skin, they are hard to get rid of.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A modern retelling of the <em><strong>Jane Austen<\/strong><\/em> classic, <strong>Pride and Prejudice,<\/strong> which is an absolute favorite of mine. Is there any hero more swoon-worthy than Fitzwilliam Darcy in all of romance? Not in my eyes. I was notably excited to read this, but I found there to be a lot of issues. First, the fact that the hero sleeps with someone else after having an encounter with the heroine disturbs me. I get that they aren\u2019t in a relationship, but it completely draws me out of the romance. The fact that it happened more than once was a definite turnoff.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I also found this to be so on the nose with Pride and Prejudice, the character and location names, and the plot, that it felt unoriginal and uninspired. I think you can do a modern retelling but make it fresh and I think <strong>Katie Cotugno<\/strong> failed at doing that. By the end, I hated <strong>Will Darcy<\/strong>, and he never made up for being an immature bonehead. Was there anything I enjoyed about this? I was fond of <strong>Lily<\/strong>. She seemed mature and level-headed, and I enjoyed the family relationships between the Benedettos. They were the only part that made this book tolerable.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fans of <strong>Lynn Painter<\/strong> and<strong> Emily Henry<\/strong> may enjoy this one more than I did.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Michelle<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_cr0d129 customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/46YK9qM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3uZeDfg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno\/1143166351?ean=9780063324152\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/meet-the-benedettos-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Katie_Cotugno_Meet_the_Benedettos?id=jTqyEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,122,48],"tags":[142,216,541],"class_list":["post-30803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harpercollins","category-michelle","category-reviews","tag-2-5-stars","tag-contemporary","tag-contemporary-womens-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \u2764\ufe0f Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/14\/review-meet-the-benedettos-by-katie-cotugno\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. 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A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed them to pop-culture fame, the five twentysomething sisters are living together in their parents\u2019 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\u2019s focused on holding herself and her family together, and unlike her siblings she tends not to care what the world thinks.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Benedettos\u2019 fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of\u00a0Captain Fantastic, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend Will Darcy in tow. It isn\u2019t 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\u2019t seem to stay away from each other. And while the Benedettos\u2019 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...<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Katie Cotugno brings a big, boisterous cast of characters to life in this deliciously sprawling LA story\u2014a thoroughly fresh and modern tale about a family that\u2019s \u201cfamous for being famous,\u201d the ways that preconceived notions make fools of us all, and how unexpected romance can bloom despite the odds.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2_5-hearts-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"107\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Dec 5, 2023<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Warm<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> Harper Perennial<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $11.99<\/p><hr \/><blockquote><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>\u201cIn the living room she finds the girls heaped in a Turnpike Pileup, all five of them fast asleep like something out of a fairy tale, Cinta watches them for a moment: the long lines of their calf muscles, their faces smooth and relaxed. Olivia\u2019s hair across June\u2019s shoulder, Kit\u2019s head in Lily\u2019s lap. Mari is curled on her side, turned away from the others; still, Cinta can\u2019t help but notice, one seeking hand reaches back. They\u2019ll land on their feet, she thinks in the moment before she forces herself to stop imagining it, heads back up to bed with a mind gone perfectly, peacefully blank: her girls, her dark-eyed wonders, her miracles each and every one. After all, they\u2019re Benedettos. After all, they always do.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Benedettos, a family famous for their father\u2019s pizza chain and a reality TV series exploiting their lives, find themselves almost broke and teetering on the edge of financial ruin. When a wealthy movie star, <strong>Charlie Bingley<\/strong>, moves in down the block with his close friend, <strong>Will Darcy<\/strong>, their mother believes a match can potentially save them. Will Darcy is brash, rude, and unlikeable, but <strong>Lily<\/strong> is drawn to his dark and broody personality. Will is drawn to Lily\u2019s fire but is scared to be burned again so he pushes her away. He doesn\u2019t realize that once a Benedetto gets under your skin, they are hard to get rid of.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A modern retelling of the <em><strong>Jane Austen<\/strong><\/em> classic, <strong>Pride and Prejudice,<\/strong> which is an absolute favorite of mine. Is there any hero more swoon-worthy than Fitzwilliam Darcy in all of romance? Not in my eyes. I was notably excited to read this, but I found there to be a lot of issues. First, the fact that the hero sleeps with someone else after having an encounter with the heroine disturbs me. I get that they aren\u2019t in a relationship, but it completely draws me out of the romance. The fact that it happened more than once was a definite turnoff.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I also found this to be so on the nose with Pride and Prejudice, the character and location names, and the plot, that it felt unoriginal and uninspired. I think you can do a modern retelling but make it fresh and I think <strong>Katie Cotugno<\/strong> failed at doing that. By the end, I hated <strong>Will Darcy<\/strong>, and he never made up for being an immature bonehead. Was there anything I enjoyed about this? I was fond of <strong>Lily<\/strong>. She seemed mature and level-headed, and I enjoyed the family relationships between the Benedettos. They were the only part that made this book tolerable.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fans of <strong>Lynn Painter<\/strong> and<strong> Emily Henry<\/strong> may enjoy this one more than I did.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Michelle<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/46YK9qM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3uZeDfg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/meet-the-benedettos-katie-cotugno\/1143166351?ean=9780063324152\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/meet-the-benedettos-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Katie_Cotugno_Meet_the_Benedettos?id=jTqyEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30803"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30809,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803\/revisions\/30809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}