TITLE : The Mistake
AUTHOR : Elle Kennedy
PUBLISHING DATE : May 06, 2015
PUBLISHER : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
PAGE LENGTH : 296
GENRE : NA (College) Romance
TRIGGERS : Alcoholism, Sex and Swearing, Mentions of Assault, Mature Language, Violence
TROPES :
- Second Chance Romance
- Sports Romance
- Opposites Attract
SYNOPSIS : He’s a player in more ways than one…
College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants. For this hockey star, life is a parade of parties and hook-ups, but behind his killer grins and easygoing charm, he hides growing despair about the dead-end road he’ll be forced to walk after graduation. A sexy encounter with freshman Grace Ivers is just the distraction he needs, but when a thoughtless mistake pushes her away, Logan plans to spend his final year proving to her that he’s worth a second chance.
Now he’s going to need to up his game…
After a less than stellar freshman year, Grace is back at Briar University, older, wiser, and so over the arrogant hockey player she nearly handed her V-card to. She’s not a charity case, and she’s not the quiet butterfly she was when they first hooked up. If Logan expects her to roll over and beg like all his other puck bunnies, he can think again. He wants her back? He’ll have to work for it. This time around, she’ll be the one in the driver’s seat…and she plans on driving him wild.
“And just in case my reaction to your idiocy didn’t make it clear where I stand with us, then let me spell it out for you.” I whirl around to scowl at him. “I love you, you stupid jackass.”
Elle Kennedy (THE MISTAKE)
MY REVIEW – ★★
The Mistake by Elle Kennedy is book 2 in the Off Campus series and it follows the story of Grace and John as they navigate through college and fall in love. John meets grace on accident one night. One thing leads to another and they end up spending some intimate time together. The issue is that John feels that he is in love with his best friend’s girlfriend and hence, he rejects Grace’s advances which leaves her humiliated and abashed. So, she leaves Briar and goes to Paris to nurse her broken heart. But when she comes back, John gets the clarity that what and who he wants in his life is Grace and he would stop at nothing to win her back. But is it too late?
Loosely plotted and redundant at best, this book did not even meet my expectations let alone surpass them. Having read the first book in the Off Campus series, I expected more finesse in the second book. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The plot felt rushed and the angst which is typical of second chance romance books, rather than being sizzling bright, had condensed to the point that the book was filed with icy lust with little more.
The characters felt hollow with very little to sculpt their personality in the reader’s mind. The chemistry between John and Grace was mediocre at best and despite trying very hard to root for the pair, I just couldn’t bring myself to care about them at all. The plot felt very juvenile with the list of things that John was supposed to do to get Grace back (which wasn’t even elaborated) and the fact that they fooled around hours after meeting is something that I had a difficult time digesting. These characters feel flat in their motives and didn’t really leave any impact on me.
The writing style that I came to love in Kennedy’s first book was absent in this one. The world building and diction were lackluster and there was too much tell than show. All the issues seemed to be resolved without any development plot wise or character wise which irked me and made me want to haul the book out my window.
The only redeeming quality of this novel was the dialogue delivery. It was witty, candid and hilarious.
The Mistake, in essence was a book that I don’t regret picking but one I won’t be picking up anytime soon. Nevertheless, I will probably find myself fiddling with more of Elle Kennedy’s books sometime in the near future.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Elle Kennedy grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, and holds a B.A. in English from York University. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer, and actively began pursuing that dream when she was a teenager.
Elle writes romantic suspense and erotic contemporary romance for various publishers. She loves strong heroines and sexy alpha heroes, and just enough heat and danger to keep things interesting!
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