Title: The Mistake
Author: Elle Kennedy
Series: Off-Campus #2
Genre: new adult, contemporary romance
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.
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MY REVIEW
The Mistake by Elle Kennedy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.75 it grew on me STARS
“Just out of curiosity, what constitutes a 'nice cock shot'? I mean, is it lightning? The pose?” I'm being sarcastic, but Dean responds in a solemn voice. “Well, the trick is, you've gotta keep the balls out of it.” “Seriously,” Dean insists. “Balls aren't photogenic. Woman don't want to see them.”
The good stuff first. That quote above is probably my favourite thing about this whole book.
The Mistake is the second installment in Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series. It follows a group of college hockey players and their struggles both on and off-ice. Including family drama, but first and foremost their love lives. This next book in the series revolves around John Logan.
I'm afraid my review is one of those this-didn't-all-work-for-me rants. Please excuse that, but it's all I got right now. ;D
“What are you doing?” I whisper. “Well, you were looking at me like you wanted me to kiss you.” His blue eyes become heavy-lidded. “So I was thinking I might do that.”
I really have to thank all of my GR friends for making me stick with this one. After loving The Deal so very much and seeing all my friends liking The Mistake as well I had very high hopes going in. Unfortunately it took me a good 30 to 40% until I actually got into this book and started to really enjoy my read.
What happened? I loved the first book. So WHY?
Well, for starters...I was still mildly irritated by Logan's crush on Hannah. His best friends girlfriend and main protagonist of The Deal. I wasn't a fan of that particular story line in the first book and hearing him being all whiny for a good portion of the start just made me cranky. I don't even understand how that happened, but for some reason John Logan is head over heels in love with Hannah.
And don't say she is the coolest chick you know, that shit won't fly with me. Luckily that issue gets resolved eventually and in a plausible ways, too. But until I got there I had a hard time buying it.
So the first chapter wasn't so hot with his constant moaning. But then the second chapter was Grace's POV and I just thought 'Thank God. I need a change of pace.'
I couldn't have been more wrong. She was weird, and not in a good way. Grace has no brain-mouth filter and what comes out didn't appeal to me at all. I guess it was supposed to be quirky, but I was just irritated.
“Babe, you've gotta stop revealing all your crazy up front. Seriously. Save all that stuff for later, when you're in a relationship with the guy and it's harder for him to run away.”
Words to live by.
Logan is a player. We are talking slut like behaviour here. He goes through the girls like other people change their underwear. Grace on the other hand is a studious type, still a virgin and in general incapable to talk to boy...as established above. So, how do they even come together you ask? Well, let me tell you...
Logan and Grace have a little run in at a party...nothing happens and then the next day he turns up at her door. Apparently he got the wrong address for a party. HE STAYS and they watched Die Hard 2 together. One thing leads to another and...things get really weird.
“Oh crap. Downstairs action alert.”
Am I supposed to laugh or cry about that?
I didn't connect...not at all. So, at this point I went away for a few days and over the weekend I went in full force to finish this sucker.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE...it got better.
The first half of the book was a hard sell for me. I didn't feel the connection and their bubbling 'relationship' was suspicious to say the least and as Grace pointed out later, it felt more like an ego thing for Logan to pursue her than anything else. But the writing is phenomenal and that alone got me going.
“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.”
And then the impossible happened. Logan fucks up. In a big way. And The Mistake got a hundred times more interesting as a result.
There is a time jump over the summer break and after that I felt like I was reading a whole different book. Grace was more mature and less annoying in her quirkiness and Logan did some serious grovelling. Said grovelling produced some serious belly laughs. It was hilarious and something I was missing until that point. Granted there was Dean's dick pic advice, but all in all it wasn't as funny as The Deal was.
The second half of the book had a lot of redeeming qualities. The storyline felt more structured and far less all over the place. The characters lives got a lot more complicated and compelling to watch/read.
All in all an enjoyable read when you get past a certain point, but in comparison to it's predecessor it falls a little short. Let's hope the next one in the series will be more interesting.
Thank you for your time. I'm done. ;D
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