Review: Last Year’s Mistake by Gina Ciocca

Last Year’s Mistake
By: Gina Ciocca
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: June 9, 2015
Genre: YA Romance
Rating:

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.

Last Year’s Mistake flops back and forth between Kelsey’s freshman and sophomore year when she first met David, and present time (senior year) when David ends up moving to her school. You see, Kelsey met David when visiting her uncle. David and his dad were visiting his grandfather who lived next door. It turned out that David was moving to her neighborhood that following school year and was going to be going to her school. They became immediate best-friends. Fast-forward a couple of years and Kelsey moves away closer to where her uncle used to live. She spends a year trying to forget those two years she knew David. However, it turns out that David moved into his grandfather’s old house and is (again) attending her school. She tries to keep her distance from him but she finds herself gravitating towards her old best friend.

The way the synopsis and the title made the book sounds was that these two characters had a past. A past that would result in one very big mistake. I didn’t really get that. I don’t want to go into details and give anything away but the title could have been “Last Year’s Misunderstanding” and would have made more sense. A lot does happen those first two years for Kelsey. She has some health problems, she is no longer accepted by her friends and is in fact shunned by them, and David ends up dating one of them while he pines away for Kelsey. Fast forward a year and it’s the same thing all over again. I felt like the whole story revolved around their misunderstanding and non-communication on their feelings.

The story is told in Kelsey’s point of view and she wasn’t always an easy voice to listen to. She name-called and slut-shamed girls because they bought name brand purses, wore make-up, and dressed girly. There was even a part where she called a girl a “Sloppy Ho Train” because she started dressing in nicer feminine clothes. I don’t know, Kelsey was not my ideal main character. She was too petty at times.

I honestly felt bad for David. Right from the get-go he was throwing signs her way. Asking her if she liked him like that. When he started dating the “sloppy ho” he told her that he would dump her in a heartbeat if she asked him to. This poor boy was friend-zoned from the moment they met and no matter what he did she just didn’t see him that way. That is, until he gave up and started accepting the advances of another girl. Then Kelsey got jealous and started throwing internal temper tantrums. I think I’d have enjoyed this book a lot more if it were in David’s point of view instead.

This honestly was just not for me in the end. It was still an enjoyable read but the main character just grated on my nerves too much. She slut-shamed girls for just existing while she had a boyfriend that she loved, meanwhile daydreamed about David and at one point kisses him. Like I said, this one just wasn’t for me.

“I didn’t know how to explain that I didn’t click with people very often but when I did, it was instant and lasting.”