My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal [Review]

4 out of 5 Robots!

  

My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal
Genre: YA Mystery/Paranormal
Release: June 10, 2014
Hardcover:  288 Pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
My Copy: Publisher
Reviewer: Shannon
Buy the Book: Amazon

Book Summary:

What if your last kiss was with the wrong boy?

Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss--the one she shared with someone at her seventeenth birthday party the night she died--is a blur. Cassidy is trapped in the living world, not only mourning the loss of her human body, but left with the grim suspicion that her untimely death wasn't a suicide as everyone assumes. She can't remember anything from the weeks leading up to her birthday and she's worried that she may have betrayed her boyfriend.

If Cassidy is to uncover the truth about that fateful night and make amends with the only boy she'll ever love, she must face her past and all the decisions she made--good and bad--that led to her last kiss.

Bethany Neal's suspenseful debut novel is about the power of first love and the haunting lies that threaten to tear it apart.

(Courtesy of the Publisher)

Shannon's Thoughts:

My Last Kiss is an kind of an odd book.  I felt parts of it worked really well.  But over parts seems a bit clunky.  In general, I enjoy this types of books that start at the end and jump all around as the mystery unfolds.  My Last Kiss does this type of story telling well.  How did Cassidy really die?  Who was really involved?  What really happened on the bridge?  I will admit I was actually thrown off a few times, which is rare for me. The mystery, in and of itself, is compelling.  I was anxious to find out the answer, but there were a few things that kept me from absolutely loving this book.

The first thing is the length.  It does drag a bit.  It would lose focus on the main mystery and then I would lose interest.  Secondly and most importantly, is the issue of Cassidy herself.  She's a fine character, but not the most likeable.  And depending on your tolerance for cheating characters, you may not like her at all.  I never quite bought into her reasons for the things she did.  Her reasoning always felt weak to me.  Mostly though, I felt Cassidy's ghostly presence to be very clunky.  First of all, she can be seen and felt by Ethan, but no one else.  I don't know why. It was especially awkward when Ethan starts playing "translator" for Cassidy. I think the book could have accomplished its goal without this aspect.  So while I liked the central mystery and the events that lead to Cassidy's demise, I wasn't too sure about having Cassidy and Ethan team up Scooby-Doo style to solve it. 

Overall, a good read.  If you like these kinds of mysteries like me, I recommend giving it a try!

Disclosure:  I reviewed a copy free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.