[Blog Tour] My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal: Review & Giveaway
Author: Bethany Neal
Release date: June 10th 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Series: N/A
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary / Mystery / Romance
Tour organized by: The Fantastic Flying Book Club Tours
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Add to your library: Goodreads
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. (via Goodreads)
I received an e-copy of this from Bethany Neal and The Fantastic Flying Book Club Tours in exchange for an honest review. This however did not influence my opinion of the book or of the author in any way.
Review
The synopsis basically screamed mystery to me. I was all excited to uncover what happened to Cassidy.
The moment that Cassidy saw her dead body, my heart ached for her. I cannot imagine someone going through that phase. Seeing your dead body, trying to get it back, shouting and talking to the living ones and trying to remember what happened to yourself. As much as being stuck in such a limbo is already depressing, not remembering what happened to you is like dying all over again. Cassidy flew upon time and place all the while she was uncovering the moments that led to her death. The discoveries she made weren't all happy but she cannot definitely undo it anymore.
Cassidy's death was ruled as a suicide but it was obvious it wasn't even though there was a note at the crime scene. Was it an accident or did someone kill her? There were a lot of guilty people. I guess her party was the thing that made it happen. Or actually someone made it happen. All the things that happened to Cassidy even before she died were a little orchestrated. As much as I want to sympathize with Cassidy's death, I cannot help but somehow blame her. She did something and look where it got her. I was really annoyed on how she was somehow doing the same thing when she was still alive and even when she was dead already. I sound so bad. But as I have said, everything was a little planned. So I cannot help but think she was just a victim too.
The way that Cassidy remembered the events little by little was actually painful and really quite the vision. It was as if I was with her the whole time she was travelling from place to place and from time to time. Bethany's writing was absolutely endearing and made the story more relatable in a sense that I get to feel whatever Cassidy was feeling despite the fact that I haven't been in her place.
Reading this made me remember One Moment by Kristina McBride. It was such a struggle to not incorporate some things when they were kinda the same but not exactly the same. I hope I made sense there. Fortunately in the end, My Last Kiss made its own way to my heart.
I should be feeling most for Cassidy since she was the one who died but my heart in the end definitely went for Ethan. He was probably the most clueless person around Cassidy's life given that he was her boyfriend. I just cannot imagine how would that have felt. Also for Joules, Cassidy's little sister and Aimee, one of her best friends.
My Last Kiss is a story of how wrongs can definitely lead to a more dangerous path, a story of how a tragedy can make you realize things and a story of how one can forgive despite all the odds. I didn't cry while reading this but it thoroughly made my heart ache a lot of times. Definitely a soulful and heartbreaking read.
The moment that Cassidy saw her dead body, my heart ached for her. I cannot imagine someone going through that phase. Seeing your dead body, trying to get it back, shouting and talking to the living ones and trying to remember what happened to yourself. As much as being stuck in such a limbo is already depressing, not remembering what happened to you is like dying all over again. Cassidy flew upon time and place all the while she was uncovering the moments that led to her death. The discoveries she made weren't all happy but she cannot definitely undo it anymore.
Cassidy's death was ruled as a suicide but it was obvious it wasn't even though there was a note at the crime scene. Was it an accident or did someone kill her? There were a lot of guilty people. I guess her party was the thing that made it happen. Or actually someone made it happen. All the things that happened to Cassidy even before she died were a little orchestrated. As much as I want to sympathize with Cassidy's death, I cannot help but somehow blame her. She did something and look where it got her. I was really annoyed on how she was somehow doing the same thing when she was still alive and even when she was dead already. I sound so bad. But as I have said, everything was a little planned. So I cannot help but think she was just a victim too.
The way that Cassidy remembered the events little by little was actually painful and really quite the vision. It was as if I was with her the whole time she was travelling from place to place and from time to time. Bethany's writing was absolutely endearing and made the story more relatable in a sense that I get to feel whatever Cassidy was feeling despite the fact that I haven't been in her place.
Reading this made me remember One Moment by Kristina McBride. It was such a struggle to not incorporate some things when they were kinda the same but not exactly the same. I hope I made sense there. Fortunately in the end, My Last Kiss made its own way to my heart.
I should be feeling most for Cassidy since she was the one who died but my heart in the end definitely went for Ethan. He was probably the most clueless person around Cassidy's life given that he was her boyfriend. I just cannot imagine how would that have felt. Also for Joules, Cassidy's little sister and Aimee, one of her best friends.
My Last Kiss is a story of how wrongs can definitely lead to a more dangerous path, a story of how a tragedy can make you realize things and a story of how one can forgive despite all the odds. I didn't cry while reading this but it thoroughly made my heart ache a lot of times. Definitely a soulful and heartbreaking read.
About the Author
Bethany Neal writes young-adult novels with a little dark side and a lot of kissing! She is obsessed with (but not limited to): nail polish, ginormous rings, pigs, pickles, and dessert.
You can find her locked in her Writertorium for insane amounts of time. But, hey, insanity is fun! My Last Kiss is her first novel.
1 comments:
I'm part of the tour as well and I finished this yesterday! I loved it! :D Great review, glad you loved it as well!
REPLYHey, there! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you! I'll reply as soon as I can! ;)