Friday, June 12, 2015

Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca

Title: Last Year's Mistake
Author: Gina Ciocca
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: June 9, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss 
(Thank you, Simon Pulse!)
Read: April 2015
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.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

I enjoyed reading Last Year's Mistake. It was easy and quick to read. I liked most of the characters and I definitely couldn't wait to find out what would happen between Kelsey and David!

Kelsey and David were best friends. They did everything together. Until one night a misunderstanding turned into a school joke. Everyone was making fun of Kelsey and her world started to crumble away. Even her friendship with David. School was becoming unbearable and Kelsey was becoming miserable. But when Kelsey's parents decided to move, she was given a chance to start over. Now, a few years later, Kelsey is doing great in school. She has new friends and an awesome boyfriend. Life is great. Until she sees David. David's family moves to town and Kelsey starts to remember the past. Old feelings begin to come back and Kelsey realizes that she hasn't let David go, and maybe she shouldn't. 

Last Year's Mistake is told from alternating chapters. NOW and BEFORE. I have really enjoyed reading alternating chapters in other books, so I was really exited to find that Last Year's Mistake has them too. I was not disappointed. It was really easy for me to transition between the before and now. I think that the storyline flowed nicely. I really liked reading things that happened before the move and what was happening now. 

There was a lot of back and forth between Kelsey and David. Some tension. I do think that these two characters did have a lot they needed to work out and talk about. But I was hoping for a little bit more time for them to be together. I really felt that there is a lot of chemistry between them and I really like them together. 

I didn't particularly like Ryan and Violet much. They were good characters and they are pretty nice. Ryan and Kelsey really had a good relationship until David showed up and mixed things up. I do think Kelsey was happy with him. But I was so anxious for Kelsey to realize how she really felt about David. The same goes with Violet. Her relationship with David was fine. But I didn't feel the same chemistry between them as I did between Kelsey and David. 

I really liked the family dynamic in the story. Especially the gatherings they had during the before chapters. I like Kelsey's parents and David's dad. Kelsey's little sister is so sweet. I like that the family is present in this story.

Kelsey is an enjoyable character, though I didn't like all of the decisions she made. (She wasn't exactly the nicest to Ryan after David moved to town.) I did feel bad about the school joke and how hard that was on her. Especially how it changed her friendship with David. 
David was my favorite character. I really love him. He has been through a lot and I really had no trouble caring about his character. He is sweet and charming. 


My Recommendation:

I think that Last Year's Mistake is a lovely debut. It has chemistry and second chances. I was really anxious to find out what would happen between Kelsey and David. There were parts that made me smile and there were parts that broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. If you enjoy books that have second chance romances or contemporary romances, I do recommend giving Last Year's Mistake a read. I really liked it!

My Rating:

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