Book Review: My Last Kiss - Bethany Neal

Title: My Last Kiss
Author: Bethany Neal
Pub Date: June 10th, 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page Count: 358

What if your last kiss was with the wrong boy?

Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss--the one she shared with someone at her seventeenth birthday party the night she died--is a blur. Cassidy is trapped in the living world, not only mourning the loss of her human body, but left with the grim suspicion that her untimely death wasn't a suicide as everyone assumes. She can't remember anything from the weeks leading up to her birthday and she's worried that she may have betrayed her boyfriend.

If Cassidy is to uncover the truth about that fateful night and make amends with the only boy she'll ever love, she must face her past and all the decisions she made--good and bad--that led to her last kiss.

Bethany Neal's suspenseful debut novel is about the power of first love and the haunting lies that threaten to tear it apart.

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Just when I think [My Last Kiss] has concluded and everything's settled, the story finds a way to completely twist itself and suck me right back in. - Nova @ Out of Time

My Last Kiss reminded me of a mix of Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout and Hereafter by Tara Hudson. I don't typically pair books together to make other ones, but sometimes I guess, it just happens. If you liked either of these books' plots (don't judge by writing because those authors are NOT Bethany Neal), you may like My Last Kiss!

My Last Kiss follows the story of Cassidy, who's been murdered. The interesting thing is the perspective (or Neal's writing.) My Last Kiss is told in Cassidy's perspective - Cassidy's ghost. So though it's 1st Person, more than half of the book is written like it's in 3rd person, with some occasional thoughts from Cassidy. This is because Cassidy's a ghost, meaning that though she's observing the situation, the other characters can't see her. I don't know about you, reader, but I felt like that was something interesting in this book.

Further into the story, it's about trying to figure out who killed Cassidy. This is why it reminds me of Don't Look Back. And because Cassidy's dead, trying to make contact, it reminds me of Hereafter.
Cassidy doesn't remember anything about the night she died and throughout the story, receives snippets of the night and events leading up to that night. All the information makes for a perfect story on what really happened the night Cassidy died. It's also very crazy because there are so many people that make for potential suspects and just when I think I have everything figured out, this story has a funny way of completely pulling a red-herring on me. And that was the main reason everything was so captivating.

The reason this isn't five stars is because of the characters. I wasn't actually sure what was going on with the characters, and while that can be good, it was never cleared up for me until the very end and that took away from the story itself. The characters all seemed to have their own agenda and some of them didn't even make sense. I went from "Who's Drew?" to "Wait, Mica's which one?" And it was pretty irritating for me.

I think my favorite part of this book is how different it is. This book is like an episode of Veronica Mars (I just started watching!). It is full of thrill and just when I think everything's been solved, a new clue is introduced that gives me a new suspect.
This book will play with your head, but if you're like me (or not), you'll love what this book does. You'll appreciate how it's been told and even try your hand at cracking the case! Believe me, I tried and well, failed.

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Bethany Neal writes young adult fiction with a little dark side and a lot of kissing from her Ann Arbor, Michigan home. She graduated from Bowling Green State University and has worked as an interior designer, photographer, and teacher’s assistant at a K-8 school. She is obsessed with (but not limited to): nail polish, ginormous rings, pigs, pickles, and dessert. MY LAST KISS is her debut novel.