Book 28/30.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ellis and Easton have been best friends for as long as they can remember. But after one impulsive decision turns Ellis’s life and her relationship with Easton upside down, she is forced to leave everything familiar behind and move across the country.
A year has passed since Ellis last spoke to Easton, and perhaps the distance is for the best. Maybe, with enough time, she can finally heal from the emptiness he left behind. But when Easton’s mother asks her to return home for a celebration, Ellis finds herself drawn back into the painful mess she thought she had escaped, surrounded by heartbreak, betrayal, and resentment, as well as the boy she never stopped loving.
Some Mistakes Were Made was the loveliest 4-star read but, thinking about it, I only rated it 4 stars because:
1. Easton 😍😍😍🫠🫠🫠
2. The writing was pitch perfect. Kristin Dwyer writes like me… or is it me who writes like her 😅 If I were the annotating type, I would have annotated the hell out of this book because there were so many sentences that spoke to me. Seeing her writing style gave me a much-needed confidence boost in my own because that kind of flowery/purple prose is not as popular nowadays.
3. It was an easy and engaging read. And the dual timeline, which shifted between the present (where Ellis has just graduated high school) and the past (from when she was eleven up until it catches up with the present), worked well.
But boy oh boy I did not like Ellis! Ellis is angry, and with good reason, but even though her portrayal as an angry teenager was honest, it did not make me empathise with her because she sucked. I tried not to judge her too harshly as she is only a teenager, but yikes she was such a selfish, ungrateful and resentful bitch (yeah I said it) who might 🎶swear she doesn’t love the drama, it loves her🎶, but that is a lie. That said, take my review as proof (that you have not asked for 😅) that I have grown so much as a reader I am now able to separate unlikeable characters from my ratings 💁♀️
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing