Review: Last Year’s Mistake by Gina Ciocca

Last Year’s Mistake

Author: Gina Ciocca

Series: -

Pages: 256

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release date: 9^th June 2015

Amazon

Synopsis: (Goodreads)

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.

Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I have been eager to read Last Year’s Mistake since I first glimpsed the cover and read the synopsis, I usually enjoy these types of books but this one has left me conflicted.

Kelsey couldn’t wait to get out of her home-town despite having to leave her best friend David, the opportunity to start afresh away from drama, a misunderstanding and people she no longer considered friends made the move a relatively easy decision. I liked Kelsey but I did have a difficult time understanding her actions. David on the other hand I thought was wonderful and ‘real’ he was popular, loved baseball and the girls adored him.

The characters were at war with one another for the majority of the book, they were supposedly the best of friends and inseparable at one stage but they treated each other terribly; there was a lot of jealousy, angst and unnecessary drama as well as one thing I can’t really handle in books – cheating, I had many issues with a few things that took place, maybe a teen could relate more but I was left shaking my head. I think this book would have appealed to me a lot more if they weren’t in relationships with other characters for a majority of the book, I couldn’t feel or appreciate their attraction or the bond they shared.

The secondary characters weren’t memorable, Kelsey’s boyfriend Ryan was an ass and Violet, David’s girlfriend came across as demanding and high maintenance. The only characters I didn’t mind were the parents and Kelsey’s new best friend – Candy, she was a great support.

Last Year’s Mistake is told from Kelsey’s POV, it would have been the perfect book to have dual POV’s, getting to know David’s thoughts would have helped to understand his actions a lot more. I couldn’t fault Gina Ciocca’s writing which was entertaining but unfortunately, at this time this book wasn’t for me.