Last Year's Mistakes by Gina Ciocca
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: Print ARC, 320 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Series: Standalone
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Before:
Kelsey and David became best friends the summer before freshman year and were inseparable ever after. Until the night a misunderstanding turned Kelsey into the school joke, and everything around her crumbled—including her friendship with David. So when Kelsey's parents decided to move away, she couldn't wait to start over and leave the past behind. Except, David wasn't ready to let her go...
After:
Now it's senior year and Kelsey has a new group of friends, genuine popularity, and a hot boyfriend. Her life is perfect. That is, until David's family moves to town and he
shakes up everything. Soon old feelings bubble to the surface and threaten to destroy Kelsey's second chance at happiness. The more time she spends with David, the more she realizes she never truly let him go. And maybe she never wants to.
Told in alternating sections, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE is a charming and romantic debut about loving, leaving, and letting go.
*I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher in an exchange for an honest review.*
I've been meaning to try to read more contemporaries for this year and when I read the summary for this one, I was instantly pulled me in.
It starts off with the main character, Kelsey, realizing that her ex-best friend has come back into her life once more. The last thing she needs or wants is her old life mixing with her new one. She thought she had left everything behind back at her old town and high school. But she was wrong. When David reappears before her, old feelings resurface and she realizes that she still has yet to move on. But things get more complicated now that she has a boyfriend who makes a rival out of David. Not just for Kelsey. But because they are both on the baseball team and vying for a scholarship.
Kelsey doesn't want to get mixed up with David all over again especially after she was humiliated at her old high school. She's fully prepared to go on about her life even with him around. But things turn out to be harder than she thought.
At first, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy this because the story immediately jumped into Kelsey's new life. And I wanted to know what the deal was with her past that cause her friendship with David to crash and burn. The I realized that the chapters were going to flip back and forth with Kelsey's new and old life. I found this aspect to be quite enjoyable but ended up liking the chapters depicting her old life more.
I do feel like the ending was really cheesy and could have been more developed. And it kind of seemed rushed in my opinion.
While I did love the plot, I didn't really connect with the characters. I found myself having same qualities as Kelsey but I didn't click with her. I thought she and David made some poor decisions that annoyed me. But that's why they call it drama.
Nonetheless, Last Year's Mistakes was quick cutesy book. I found it to be a perfect book to read on Valentines's Day. There's a lot of high school drama and romance. I think readers who loved Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and 99 Days by Katie Cotugno will also enjoy this contemporary!!
4 Hearts: A Great Read!
This book sounds really good, but I feel a deeper connection with the characters is crucial!! I'm a sucker for cheesy endings, so I think I'll eat this one up. Lovely review!
ReplyDeleteRachel @ A Perfection Called Books
It was very fascinating to read but I think connecting with the characters is going to be different with every reader.
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