Review : Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Last Year's Mistake
Author : Gina Ciocca
Publication Date :  June 9th 2015
Publisher : Simon Teen
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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.

Personal  Thoughts

I've been pining for Last Year's Mistake ever since I saw the original cover. While not without its flaws, the book turned out to be very hard to put down. I wouldn't call it the most memorable read, but I can't deny that it had entertainment value.

I think the biggest flaw when it came to Last Year's Mistake was Kelsey for me. She's not very easy to like from the get go, mostly because she came across as extremely judgmental. I also took issue with the way she slut shamed every female character who seemed to be involved with David, her love interest. I'm not usually one to notice slut shaming in books, but it was so blatantly obvious in this book because of how frequently she made these catty comments about other girls in the book. That being said, I can't deny that the author did capture what it's like to be a teenager in a realistic way through Kelsey. I was a teenager not to long ago and yes, I admit to being as angsty as Kelsey was. I can't say I was in love with David's character either. I just felt like we didn't get to know him as well as I wanted to. He was a little bit all over the place with his actions and I never had a good grasp of  his intentions. I felt the same way about the secondary characters too. The author relied too heavily on stereotypes and cliches in order to craft them and that made for some unexceptional secondary characters. I particularly hated how Kelsey's boyfriend, Ryan, was made to be this evil juvenile douchebag just so we wouldn't sympathize with his character.

Last Year's Mistake was also told in the past and present chapters, which I thought was one of the strongest points of the book. I found myself more interested in the past chapters because I liked the characters more likeable there. I also liked seeing the slow progression of Kelsey and David's friendship to romance storyline. It was sweet and gave me the butterflies. As for the present chapters, I knew I wanted Kelsey and David together, I didn't particularly appreciate all the emotional cheating going on, even if Ryan was a douche nozzle. Kelsey did eventually make the right decision by the end. There's also no doubt that Gina Ciocca's writing is fantastic. Like I said, there was something very addicting about it that made me want to read on and on. Last Year's Mistake was dramatic at times and angsty. I also thought Kelsey's reasons for being upset with David were a bit over the top, but she was a teenager and teenagers make a big deal out of everything, especially when it comes to matters of the heart.

Overall, Last Year's Mistake might not be the best book out there, but it's a fun book that's pretty impossible to put down. I'll certainly be checking out Gina Ciocca's future books because her writing is very readable.

Rating 

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 4/5

**Overall Rating : 3.5/5**

Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon Teen for the e-ARC of Last Year's Mistake.