3.5... Solidly good, but went on way too long

Cassidy wakes up and finds out she's dead. The problem is she can't remember what exactly happened to make her this way. She knows she had a fall from a bridge after a party, but she doesn't know much else. The police are calling it a suicide, but Cassidy can't imagine she would ever do that. The only person who can see her is Ethan. Sweet Ethan is the only boy she ever loved... but she knows she's done something to betray his trust, she just can't remember what. That betrayal may be the key to finding out what happened to her, she just needs to figure out what happened that night on the bridge... and everything leading up to it.

My Thoughts:
I am all for a good YA Mystery. I know it's been done like a million times, but I like it when the main character doesn't remember something and goes through the slow process of getting those memories back. It's like putting together a puzzle. A puzzle that makes me really anxious and excited to see the big picture.

This book was one of those books where you really really want to know what happened. Who pushed Cassidy?... or did she just have an accident?? I wanted to know so bad. There was a cool cast of characters and so many of them were suspects. The thing is, this book was broken up into 3 phases for me. Phase 1- I'm totally into it and really want to know what's going on... Phase 2- I'm like whhhyyyy is this taking so long to get through?? Why are we going over the same details and why is this situation way more complicated than it needs to be??... Phase 3- Ohh now we're getting to the good stuff. But I'm still a little confused as why this whole "big reveal" is so complicated.

Another thing I want to talk about is the cheating aspect. Cheating is NOT a deal-breaker for me. Just because cheating is going on, doesn't mean that I will automatically dislike a character. There is a cheating event in this book and the act itself didn't really bug me... I mean, people cheat, it happens. These are 17-year-olds. They're still figuring things out. I just didn't like the way Cassidy treated the boy she cheated with AT ALL. She was so worried about Ethan and his feelings, but the other boy could have easily have jumped off the bridge too and she wouldn't have batted an eye. It pissed me off and it made me dislike Cassidy. You can't just use a guy who genuinely cares about you and then boo-hoo about how you hurt your perfect boyfriend. That's not going to make me like you.

So I really enjoyed the mystery of this book, but I felt like it dragged a lot and didn't need to be so complicated. There are like 8 people involved in this book and they're ALL mixed together and connected in all these weird ways. I didn't really like how all that played out. It was a solid book with a good mystery, but could have definitely been better.

OVERALL: An intriguing mystery that made me want to fly through it to the end. I felt like it dragged a bit in the middle and the main character did a lot of stuff that made me feel annoyed with her. If you like reading these type of ghost/mystery books, this one should definitely go on your list.

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PopSugar '15 #6--book written by someone under 30 (guessing here...)
Interesting premise, but not very surprising. Neal's a good writer and I'll look for more books; this one just didn't stand out for me. ( )

My Last Kiss drew me in from the beginning. Who doesn’t love a ghost story mystery???

I liked Cassidy. She’s an outgoing girl that made a few mistakes. There were times I wanted to knock her upside the head, but she took being a ghostly being pretty well. I like that she cares for her friends. She is always trying to console them even when they have been total jerks. I don’t agree with how she handled some things, but those are incidents you learn with age. She doesn’t really have much of that left anymore. :p I also like how determined some of her friends were that Cassidy’s death wasn’t a suicide.

I loved how Cassidy was a part of discovering what really happened to her. She fought for the information, and dealt with the consequences. I had an idea about who might have done it, but I wasn’t sure. The ending was great, and I loved every second of this ride. It was fun, mysterious, and enjoyable. ( )

Unfortunately, My Last Kiss also failed to make much of an impression on me. It certainly wasn’t bad, and I enjoyed myself while I was reading it, but it’s not a story I’ll revisit. I kept waiting to be grabbed, to really connect with Cassidy and care about how and why she died. Instead, the closest I got to caring was the way I ached for her poor siblings. She was the dead one, but they were the ones who would have to live with the hole in their family.

Actually, Aimee, Cassidy’s bulldog of a friend, was far more interesting than Cassidy herself. Aimee is the friend who spearheads the amateur investigation into Cassidy’s death and puts together the clues of what happened that night. I really would have liked to have seen the story from Aimee’s POV, especially as she starts to doubt the word of everyone, even her closest friends. The tension does ratchet up as the story progresses, but the ending was too chaotic and messy for my taste.

Note: I received a review copy of this title from the publisher for review consideration.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT: http://www.shaelit.com/2014/07/mini-reviews-the-half-life-of-molly-pierce-and-my... ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: This novel was extremely hard for me to get into, but the last third of the book knocked the review up a star. The last third was full of action, suspense, and soul searching. The rest felt bland.

Opening Sentence: “How old were you when you had yours?”

The Review:

Cassidy is dead. And she doesn’t remember how. She seems to be a ghost, hovering around friends and family, invisible to everyone but her boyfriend. She needs to discover how she died, because unlike the police she knows she didn’t throw herself off a bridge when drunk at her birthday party. As the story unfolds so does Cassidy’s memories. And it seems like maybe, maybe, her boyfriend Ethan wasn’t her last kiss after all.

As moderate to amazing reviews for My Last Kiss began to roll in, I got excited. Just a week before I had received it to review! Suddenly I found myself free with nothing on the schedule. Birds were chirping, palm trees swaying, beautiful California weather — the perfect reading time. I started My Last Kiss with high expectations, but unfortunately, was disappointed. I couldn’t get into the story to save my life. I would grit my teeth when I knew I had to sit down and read. The writing style wasn’t bad in the slightest, and the plot was unique. I simply could not find a reason to continue, and wasn’t hooked enough in the first chapters. I got confused easily and thought the main character was a tad bit annoying. I thought my experience reading this novel was doomed for sure, but luckily enough it was not —- the last third of the book I really enjoyed. The last hundred pages there was many realizations, lots of action, lots of soul searching, and overall what I expected from the book as a whole. The conclusion was well-written and described with an intriguing twist. I appreciated the main character and the story more. Basically, the last third knocked up the review a star. Since it was so hard to get to the last third, I only gave three stars, especially because I considered not finishing a couple times. (I haven’t ever not finished a review book even if I hated it. I hope I never have to!)

The main character, Cassidy, is going through a tough enough time before she supposedly commits suicide. Her mother moved out and family problems are flooding in. Of course, it doesn’t help that she’s kissing someone who isn’t her boyfriend in her spare time. Cassidy knows it is wrong and tries to stop herself, but it’s only at the very end of the book that she finally forces herself to choose one of them. This is probably the reason she irritated me every so often. I wanted her to figure out what she could on her own, set her moral compass right. However most of the book switches from after she died in her ghostly glory and her downward spiral beforehand. I was extremely pleased when she made up her mind and set things right, and chose one of them, even if it was at the very end.

The two boys are Ethan and Caleb, the first being her boyfriend, the second her old friend she just happens to be kissing before dying. I was very intensely team Ethan. I have already said I don’t approve of her cheating, even if he “understands” her family troubles. Caleb is not her boyfriend — end of story. It would be fine if she chose one of them without the cheating going on so long, but uch! Cassidy! Get it together and figure it out, it had been three weeks. And she dies around week four. Ethan was adorable and understanding and she is horrible to him part of the time.

My Last Kiss had a rocky start for me. I was annoyed by basically everything. In the last third I started to enjoy it and appreciate the unique plotline and intricate puzzle pieces of the mystery. The ending is surprising and is resolved cleanly without confusion. Obviously though I am the black sheep for this one, as many enjoyed My Last Kiss, so even though I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, other reviewers would. I will say that those who like a good murder mystery and don’t mind some ghostly action mixed in will enjoy this novel.

Notable Scene:

He’s crying or maybe he’s yelling; either way, I can see his breath.

I’m not breathing. I don’t need to. The words float past my lips like a rehearsed chorus: “I’m dead.”

FTC Advisory: Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan provided me with a copy of My Last Kiss. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )