The Mistake (Off-Campus #2) by Elle Kennedy: Book Review

Synopsis: He’s a player in more ways than one…

College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants. For this hockey star, life is a parade of parties and hook-ups, but behind his killer grins and easygoing charm, he hides growing despair about the dead-end road he’ll be forced to walk after graduation. A sexy encounter with freshman Grace Ivers is just the distraction he needs, but when a thoughtless mistake pushes her away, Logan plans to spend his final year proving to her that he’s worth a second chance.

Now he’s going to need to up his game…

After a less than stellar freshman year, Grace is back at Briar University, older, wiser, and so over the arrogant hockey player she nearly handed her V-card to. She’s not a charity case, and she’s not the quiet butterfly she was when they first hooked up. If Logan expects her to roll over and beg like all his other puck bunnies, he can think again. He wants her back? He’ll have to work for it. This time around, she’ll be the one in the driver’s seat…and she plans on driving him wild.

Date Published: May 6, 2015

Publisher: Createspace

No.of Pages: 296

 

REVIEW

Off-Campus series, oh what do I do without you? Still addictive, but was a little repetitive to a fault.

First off here is my John Logan, I was picturing Freddie Stroma this whole time, because seriously why the hell not?

And now that it is out of the way, I can proceed with this review.Sorry I didn’t bother picturing out Grace Ivers, because first, her character kind of annoys me and second I am too lazy to look up for some not-so well known celebrity or model that could probably fit in Grace’s description in the book. So forgive me and let us proceed.

Reading Elle Kennedy’s books can be best compared to eating potato chips, you simply cannot just have one. After reading The Deal the first book in the Off-Campus series I knew I had to binge read the rest of it or else I’ll toss and turn in bed thinking about it this whole time. I never actually binge read books written by the same author. I have my reasons, one of which is that I am afraid to just read the same thing or same line of thinking at the very least, losing the distinction of the characters. I want to remember each one of the characters as much as I could and be able to separate one from another. I don’t want to mix the stories, I want to preserve whatever I got out of their stories, so as not to affect my judgments, or tend to over-compare. Comparison of books is inevitable, yes, but I just felt like I am more objective when I didn’t read it consecutively, well this is not applicable to series that have the same plot line. Off Campus series, yes have the same setting, but with different characters featured on each book, it could very well be a stand alone. You can actually read them not in the same order, there just this cameo appearance of the characters from other books, other than that you won’t miss out on a lot of things since as I have mentioned, different books different characters. Now the problem I encountered was, I compared The Deal and The Mistake a little too much than necessary. And to be honest, The Mistake fell a little short. I had my issues with The Deal but it was easily overshadowed by how much I loved the overall story of Garrett and Hannah. However in The Mistake, my issues with it are not easily forgotten, it pops up every chance it gets, which I tell you was pretty often. I found the whole book, a little repetitive and has become tiring to read. Don’t get me completely wrong here, I enjoyed this book but not as much as I did the first one.

Let’s talk about the voice of the characters, because The Mistake deals with another set of characters now namely John Logan and Grace Ivers, it is very natural to expect that the dialogues or the voice used in this book will have variation with that of The Deal. That’s where I was disappointed, there was no difference at all. The sentences and the choice of words already appeared in the first book, (duh of course, it was written by one and the same person what do you expect?) what I’m driving at is, when you read the book, say for an instance it was Grace’s point of view, if your mind is wandering off, you can very well think that it was Hannah who was talking. What I’m saying is, there wasn’t really a big difference as to the tone or the words used by the characters. You can easily mistake one from the other. What I was looking for was that wow factor wherein even if it is written by the same person, at least make an appearance that it wasn’t. At least make it look like that the characters are really distinct from the other, because that what makes a good book. I’m not saying that the author should altogether change her writing style, but at least make the characters believable and different from each other and maybe do away with using same phrases over and over.

The Mistake didn’t grip me as much as The Deal did. There were great moments, oh yes boy, definitely there are, I could still remember how I squealed at some parts or how I tweeted aimlessly about how I cannot deal with the palpable chemistry between Logan and Grace. How excited I was to see how the story will unfold. I wouldn’t deny the fact that I really enjoyed it for the most part, but somewhere along the way, they lost me. I put it down for two whole days, because I just couldn’t force myself anymore to continue on reading. Not unlike The Deal wherein I literally had to put it down only when I need to participate in life i.e, eating, sleeping and doing important life stuff. However, I liked Logan and Grace’s backstory than that of Garrett and Hannah, I thought that was more original than The Deal. And oh goodness, I love love love Grace’s mother. I’ll be inserting a few lines where I literally laughed so hard.

““Remember when that nasty girl was bullying you in fifth grade? What was her name again—Brenda? Brynn?”
“Bryndan.”
“Bryndan? Lord, what is the matter with parents these days?” Mom shakes her head in amazement.”

Haha this was so funny to me, her mother was really funny, she reminded me of Jenna Hamilton’s mom on the show Awkward. 

I also loved how great of a guy Logan is, well except for the fact that he was once a manwhore, but other than that, he was really a great guy, what with all the father thingy and being a great Grace pursuer. What’s not to love about that guy? I loved Garrett and Logan’s friendship as well, ahh if it is possible to ship the two, haha. Grace’s character on the other hand annoyed me a shit ton, no not really, but there are things that she does that irked me to no end, and there are things that I could live with. She sometimes contradicts herself, I’m so annoyed I cannot even explain it without giving out spoilers.

And oh don’t get me started with how they end up watching Die Hard 2 and then to something else steamy. I mean, seriously who does that? I cannot. I just cannot even. It was an eh? moment for me. And believe me there are lots of it. It was overly cheesy (this says a lot, because I like cheesy, but this book over did it, it was too sweet and cheesy it’ll give you diabetes, haha!)

And might I add, why is everyone good-looking? Why does every girl have tiny waist and fruity-smelling hair? Why does every girl have to be so gorgeous, I mean why? Not a single normal looking soul described in the book, even Morris who was described as hipster was portrayed as some exotic looking guy, what with all the different nationalities he has. Ugh. Why? And these damn hockey players are so god-like! With their ripped abs, chiseled jaws, their beautiful eyes and dreamy smiles. WHY? I know I mentioned that this series consists of dreamy guys, but it was too much already. Why can’t anyone look like a regular human being? Am I reading about gods now? Last time I checked these were bunch of college students with steamy steamy relationships and trust issues to last them a life time. I bet even the cab driver looks like David Beckham. Ha! Okay rant over.

Okayyy, this is getting longer than what I intended, so to summarize, I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first book. To me it definitely suffered the proverbial Second Book Syndrome. 

Will I read The Score immediately? Maybe not. I was told it was the best one out of the three, but I have to reserve my judgment until then. Sorry I bored you with this review that became a rant along the way. Haha!

I need you. I can’t stand the thought of being without you.” He releases a shaky breath. “You’re the last person I think about before I go to sleep, and the first person I think about when I open my eyes in the morning. You’re it for me, baby.”
― Elle Kennedy, The Mistake