A review by teniamonet
The Mistake by Elle Kennedy

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

TW for parental alcoholism, sexual assault

I didn’t like this one as much as I liked the first book in the Off Campus series. I was more interested in the background story of Logan’s family dynamic and him dealing with his alcohol father. 

“What do we do?” I ask grimly.
“Same thing we’ve always done. We man up and take care of our family.”
Frustration twists my gut, tangling with the pretzel of guilt already lodged there. Why is it our job to sacrifice everything for him?
Because he’s your father and he’s sick.
Because your mother had to do it for fourteen years and now it’s your turn. 

Back to the romance aspect of this book what happened to hello!? Way too much steam for me right away, I personally like to get to know my characters and have some banter before they get involved that way. By time I made it to page 74, Grace and John were already on their third hookup (In the first book to this series we didn’t even get a first kiss until page 122). The romance kind of felt like insta love in my opinion, we had a series of hookups, a summer break that I’m meant to believe Logan fell in love with Grace over even though they had no communication? 

I’ve known her since April, but we weren’t dating then. Now we are and it’s nearing the one-month mark, but I’m not sure what the etiquette for I-love-yous is. I told my first girlfriend I loved her after two weeks of dating. My second, after five months. So maybe I should split the difference and tell Grace… at the three-month point. Yeah. That seems like an appropriate amount of time. 

I will say I did enjoy seeing Logan pine after Grace and the fact that he wanted to put the work in to get her back and show her he was serious about her. I liked Grace’s personality and that she knew what she deserved and wasn’t willing to settle. 

Did we ever really get a resolution on Ramona or her friendship with Grace? Because I have a hard time believing Grace would just forgive her like that. I feel like the argument and the groveling at the end wasn’t even necessary, I hate third act breakups (even though they technically didn’t break up). I will say though the groveling Logan did was cute, probably one of my favorite cute moments in the book. 

Spice Rating: *reserved for the romance genre or books with an appropriate substantial romance subplot* this rating is meant to categorize the level of spice not how much i enjoyed it. this is a completely subjective thing.

3 spice (🌶🌶🌶) = solid love scene, around two - four scenes in a standard length book, the use of vulgar terms to explain *parts*. the desire goes hand in hand with the love and romance between the characters 
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