Last Year's Mistake - Gina Ciocca

Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): 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 relocates to the same 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 let him go. And that maybe she never wants to.

MY OPINION: ***

I had SUCH high hopes for this book!

It's by an author that I've recently liked. It sounded interesting. It's a "fluffy" romance novel. It's everything that I've wanted to read this summer.

But somehow, it didn't CLICK.

The book started out very well. Within the first two chapters, we realize that this book switches from present day to a couple of years ago. That was helpful because I could see what happened before to compare to what is happening now. The first sentence itself is already inviting.

"The first day of senior year, he came back.

From this sentence alone, we can already see the set up for a perfect romance novel.

We meet Kelsey, who's in her senior year and has tried to move on from her past life. She has a boyfriend, Ryan, great friends, Violet and Candy, and she's doing well in her new school, what with her new blonde highlights and her new EVERYTHING. Immediately, we get a glimpse of David, what we know as her previous best friend from her old town, and we can already sense a competition with Ryan and David. We learn that something happened in their past that caused them to grow apart and completely stop talking.

We get cutesy flashbacks that explains their friendship from before. I loved their relationship and their dynamic and they were perfect best friends. However, as read through the past, we start to realize that there are certain things that already caused them to grow apart. Firstly, we have Isabel, David's "girlfriend" though he claims near the end "that they were never really together."

Isabel pissed me off throughout the entire book. She's that fake girl who tries to make herself look better in front of the guys but has a secret inner horrifying personality that the smarter people can see through. David completely trusts her and he falls for her little tricks every time and I think this is what caused me to NOT root for David.

Yes. You heard me.

I didn't like David. At first, I thought that their friendship was ADORABLE and perfect and I really liked David. As the story went on, however, I saw how he changed and I did not like who he ended up being. I was rooting for Ryan the whole time. David and Kelsey seemed more like friends than lovers and I couldn't help but not like David. He was easily manipulated by "pretty girls" who are always falling all over him, he doesn't seem to care about the timing of things and chooses to drop words like "I love you" at the worst possible moments, and I feel like he led both Kelsey and Violet along.

Kelsey was a character who I couldn't completely relate to but could understand. She knows things that David refuses to see. She's basically bullied at her old school and this is what really brings on the urge to become a new person when she moves. She was confused with what she felt and she wasn't sure if she liked David or Ryan better. She was smart and determined to make things right. I really liked her as a character at points but there were moments when she was incredibly frustrating and quite mean to other girls.

Ryan was a favorite of mine... until we got to the end. Even then, though, I wanted to forgive him for his mistakes. I really liked Ryan. At the end, I was tempted to scream out, "if you don't want him, I'll take him!" Although Ryan has made violent and horrible mistakes, I was willing to accept him because I can understand where he is coming from. College is so important in a high-schooler's life. It's stressed as being important from your freshman year all the way up to graduation. While Ryan may not be stupid, he doesn't have the grades to get into college. Yes, maybe that's his fault for not caring, but he had baseball to win him a scholarship and get him in. I can understand why he reacted the way he did towards David because he was afraid that he was going to lose his only chance at getting into college. Yes, maybe he should have talked it out instead of beating people up but I can understand where he was coming from.

The main issue with this book was:

Throughout the three years of this book, the characters never matured.

I get it. When you're younger you make more mistakes. I see those mistakes being made by both David and Kelsey. However, as you get older, you're supposed to LEARN from those mistakes and not make them again. When we get to present day three years later, we watch Kelsey and David make the SAME EXACT MISTAKES. It's like, we didn't need the past because all of that could just have been now. It was like deja vu the whole time.

The ending. I was SO disappointed in Ryan. Also, HOW CAN DAVID MOVE AWAY AFTER THEY FINALLY GET TOGETHER?? It was far from a happy ending because even though it's all la di da and they kiss and tell each other that they love each other (after FOREVER) it's not happy because David is leaving and y'all know that long-distance doesn't really work out. I can just imagine how it's gonna be. Kelsey and David are going to try but judging from what I already read, one of them is going to stab the other in the back, date someone else, cheat, or SOMETHING that prevents a complete happy ending. I was disatisfied with this ending, to say the least. It left me feeling angry and even a bit sad. And to see Ryan CRY, wow. 

ALSO, both Kelsey and David cheat on their respective boyfriends and girlfriends. At least break up before kissing somebody else! Especially Ryan: he didn't deserve that. It's like adding salt to the wound. Kelsey is SO loyal to him at first but as soon as she sees David, an old flame rises and BOOM she's back with this guy who has no effing right to kiss her, especially when he's dating VIOLET, KELSEY'S FRIEND.

There were some parts that made my heart hurt and I wish those moments were more present because I would have definitely loved the book more.

Overall, I would recommend this book to readers looking for a slow-paced romance.

Main Character: Kelsey
Sidekick(s): David, Ryan, Violet, Candy, etc
Villain(s): Isabel, timing, love, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.