Last Year's Mistake ~ Gina Ciocca (earc) review [@gmc511 #LastYearsMistake @SimonTeen]

Last Year's Mistake
Simon Pulse
June 9, 2015
320 pages
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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.

Several things keep Last Year's Mistake from being the typical story - or what you expect it to be. Kelsey and David begin as friends, their friendship (as well as the bond between their families) only strengthening once they live in the same town.

It doesn't matter that Kelsey's not one to stand out while David draws every girl's attention, they're best friends.

Until, suddenly, they're maybe not. And Kelsey's family moves away. She's sure it's the end of her and David.  Then he shows up for senior year at her new school and she has to wonder if maybe they shouldn't be so over - and if it's even possible.

I loved that 'before' Kelsey and David were best friends. They weren't friends-who-aren;t-really-friends for five minutes before they started dating, they really were friends. I liked the scenes of their friendship and seeing their relationship really grow.

The 'misunderstanding' that caused a rift between them and had Kelsey so ready to leave town - leave everything and everyone behind - was different than I expected. While you don't know about it until later on in the story, it helps make Kelsey's life at her new school, her relationships and decisions make more sense.

It makes sense that Kelsey and David don't have the happiest or easiest of reunions. We don't know just what drove them apart, what happened when Kelsey moved away. I enjoyed that we got to see the after effects before finding out what i was they were reacting to, what had happened at the end of their 'before.'

Their present day relationship, the tension that's there, the struggle to figure out how - or if - they fit
is a bit reminiscent of other novels but it's who Kelsey and David are, their past friendship, what threatened their friendship that makes them and their story unique.

The alternating sections - before and after - do a great job revealing the story, giving readers some of the 'after' before we get its 'before' leading to some great questions and a fresh perspective.








thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for my digital review copy