On my last major expedition to The Big Guy - aka Barnes & Noble and not God and I almost made a crack about Barnes & Noble being a god but that felt sacrilegious even to my unbaptized soul so I couldn't do it... Why don't we start over? I shall dub thee Barnes and Noble The Big Barn instead. Yes. Yes, I like that. It makes me giggle *giggle*. So anyway, the last time I'd gone apeshit in the aisles of The Big Barn, The Last Best Kiss was not supposed to make it into my cart. . .. Bahaha. No, that's not right. The Big Barn doesn't have carts because they're not there yet in advance technology.
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| THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY BUT INSTEAD SHE LOOKS POSSESSED. MY BAD. |
And why am I so rambly this afternoon? ANYWAY.
The Last Best Kiss looked nice and sweet and harmless like that guy you had a lovely first date with but never called again. So, yeah I imagined myself having a cheery time with it but if push came to shove-out-the-books-in-my-hand-because-oops-no-money I wasn't keeping it. Then that moment came at checkout where I had to decide and my mom so graciously bought it for me to save me from the hard decisions in life. I thought, well that's good and all but this better be bloody worth the expense of my mother's blood money.
AND IT WAS. She's very pleased.
In The Last Best Kiss, Anna made a huge mistake freshman year (then again, what freshmen didn't? *shifty eyes*). No, she didn't get pregnant. But she may have invited herself into one of the narrower circles of hell for humiliating the most adorably enthusiastic, passionate boy I wish had been among the flock in MY school. A boy who proudly displayed cool or beautiful pictures he'd found on the internet during car pool. A boy who was never ashamed of who he was. A boy who held Anna's hand by the sea. A boy who liked Anna for Anna. And she let him go. After denying his role in her life (boyfriend) to her friends, her family, and the rest of the general public, after rejecting his sweet, risky approach at the school dance, Finn Westbrook disappears without a word.
Well, you can guess what happens next.
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| AS IF. HE'S ONLY SEVENTEEN. |
But seriously tho, Finn comes back looking like a much more filled out, sexy self than the gawky, adorbs teen remembered from the beginning of Anna's story. And, oh it's both painful and reassuring to see him again. But, as to be expected, he does not hold out his waiting arms to the remorseful Anna awaiting his return. No, instead he's polite but distant and I DID NOT BLAME HIM.
I loved that this story was hard. It was hard to be completely pissed at Anna, because you get it. You get that high school is a jungle, hell, a shark pit, etc. and it's DIFFICULT so it's easy to want to blend. But you get Finn too because he was too cool for school and didn't give a shit about what people thought in a disarmingly non-agressive way. In a casual, I like myself so THERE way. In the best way, frankly.
So I cheered for them like a maniac. Because in the end I wanted them to understand each other and where they were coming from back then and to make peace with it. More, I wanted them to want each other despite all that jazz.
There's a #ship in the harbor people. GET ON IT.
The ending could've been better, but whatevs. I'm over it. (Last of the negative.)
The Last Best Kiss is the kind of book that makes you wonderfully warm, comforted by the knowledge that some things just work out wonderfully despite all obstacles. You know, that love conquers all semi-bullshit. Sometimes, #lovejustwins.
rating: 3.5 stars
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