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May 27, 2015

Double Reviews: Last Year's Mistake and Sweets - The disappointing edition

Last Year's Mistake
Title: Last Year's Mistake
Author: Gina Ciocca
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada
Publication date: June 9, 2015
Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC
Pages: 320
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.
I had high hopes for Last Year's Mistake because I am a big fan of contemporary second chance romances. Unfortunately the mediocre writing and cheating element really took the potential out of this book. I was only able to read around 80 pages before I decided that this book just isn't for me and reading something I'm not enjoying defeats the whole point of reading for fun so I decided to call it quits while I'm still at the beginning. My main problem was the writing. Everything felt so childish and simplified. None of the scenes seemed realistic and it honestly felt like watching a show with horrible acting. Everything seemed forced, whether the behaviour of the characters of the way they spoke. I don't even know how many times I cringed or rolled my eyes based on how the characters were behaving or the way they spoke. I had a lot of expectations for Last Year's Mistake because with its Before and After format as well as the second chance romance plot, it reminded me of How to Love by Katie Cotugno which is one of my favourite characters.. but alas, it did not deliver. I have already given my arc to someone else that I hope would enjoy it more than I did. 
Sweet
Title: Sweet
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Publisher: Raincoast Canada
Publication date: June 2, 2015
Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary/Horror)
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC
Pages: 288
The luxurious celebrity cruise launching the trendy new diet sweetener Solu should be the vacation of a lifetime. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She's already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host Tom Forelli—the hottest guy ever!—and she's too sick to even try the sweetener. And that's before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

Tom knows that he should be grateful for this job and the chance to shed his former-child-star image. His publicists have even set up a 'romance' with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when the hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it's Laurel that he's determined to save. 
I have read Emmy Laybourne's post apocalyptic trilogy, Monument 14 and really enjoyed it, so once again, I had some expectations for this book in regards to how much I'll be enjoying it. Unfortunately  I just couldn't get into Sweet. Don't get me wrong, the plot sounded very unique and interesting, however the execution just was overly bizarre and all over the place that I just couldn't enjoy it. One thing I must point out is the over use of exclamation points. We have a 19 year old male character who, on average, has an exclamation point at the end of every third of fourth sentence he speaks of thinks.. it is even worse for the girls. Also, the guy was called Baby Tom Tom... and he's 19 years old. What? Also, nothing happens at all for the first 120 pages (basically almost halfway through the book) and then all hell breaks loose and I find myself on the set of a mashup between The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries. It was really bizarre and not in a good way. The way everything was progressing and how the main girl HAD to be the hero, when let's face it, all of us would be scared cripples and wanting to be rescued, didn't add up with her very shy character. I ended up skimming through the last 90 pages of the book and I honestly didn't think I missed much. The villain's whole agenda and reason behind it was so ridiculous, I felt like this whole book was a parody. Remember that Twilight parody that was released a while back? it felt exactly like it (I hate parodies, I only watched its trailer and stopped it halfway). So I'm sad to end it like this, but this book was a total and utter disappointment. 

3 comments:

  1. I've seen some bloggers not loving these two books too. I'm sad about Last Year's Mistake :( I really hoped if would be a beautiful romance story...

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  2. Aw I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Last Year's Mistake :( I love YA contemporaries and I was actually looking forward to it when I first saw it online, but I'm sad to see that it disappointed you. I have to agree that the cheating element would have been its downfall. I don't like books with too much of that element, I have to say. But I'm still looking forward to that because I want to see it for myself!

    Jillian @ Jillian's Books

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  3. Aw, sad face :( I'm sorry these books were so disappointing Juhina :\ That is never fun. But your reviews are gorgeous, as always. <3 I.. have a print ARC of Sweet :( Sob. I don't want to read it. Ugh. But I will try. Sometime. One day, lol. Thank you for sharing about them sweetie. <3

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