Review Detail

Told in alternate timelines of then and now, ‘then’ tells the story of Kelsey’s freshman year, her growing friendship with David, and what eventually drove them apart. ‘Now’ is the story of Kelsey’s senior year in a new school, new town, and the new life she’s made for herself where no one knows her past – until David’s family moves to town. Kelsey has to face the events from freshman year and the feelings for David that maybe never went away.

I went into this book nervous about the now and then format. Would it be confusing? Would it mean I would easily be able to see any twists coming? It did end up being a bit predictable but it was easy to follow.

I liked getting to see the difference between freshman Kelsey and senior Kelsey. She had changed a lot in the few years, she came across as more confident and sure about who she was, but I missed getting to see that growth through the book. I also would have liked to have seen more interactions between Kelsey and her girlfriends instead of it being mostly Kelsey with her boyfriend Ryan or with David. It made the book feel like it was driven by the love triangle.

I did like Kelsey’s emotions throughout the book. She was innocent and insecure in the freshman year, more confident in her senior year while maintaining a lot of that innocence. her confusion over what she felt for Ryan and David was very believable and I could understand why she felt torn between them. I also really enjoyed the family interactions, Kelsey with hers, the glimpses of David with his, and both families together.

I wasn’t completely sold on any of the romances. None of them really had a chance to grow since the plot was split between the now and then. It felt like more time was spent devaluing Kelsey’s relationship with Ryan and making the blame one-sided than building anything new with David. Maybe I could have gotten more into it if Kelsey and Ryan hadn’t been an exclusive couple or if Kelsey wasn’t always lying to Ryan about her feelings and past with David.

Overall, I did like the writing style and the POV format but the characters and their love triangle just wasn’t for me.