The Mistake

by Elle Kennedy

5 out of 5 stars

I went into The Mistake worried it would feel like a lesser sequel to The Deal. Sophomore slump energy, riding on the goodwill of book one. Instead I finished it wondering why it took me this long to get to it, because Kennedy does something trickier here than a fake-dating setup: she makes you root for a hero who genuinely doesn’t deserve the heroine yet, and then makes him earn it every chapter of the way.

The setup is classic Off-Campus: John Logan is a Briar University hockey player, a guy who can get any girl he wants. Grace Ivers is the freshman who almost falls for his charm before a careless move on his part sends her running the other way. The book picks up a year later, with Grace older, warier, and very much done being anyone’s consolation prize, and Logan, now facing down the end of college and the terrifying blankness of what comes after hockey, finally reckoning with the fact that he wants a second chance he has no right to ask for.

What makes it work is that Kennedy doesn’t let Logan off easy. His charm is still there, but it’s undercut by real anxiety about his future that he’s been burying under one-night stands and easy grins, and watching that crack open is more interesting than another cocky-athlete redemption arc. Grace, meanwhile, gets to be genuinely guarded without curdling into someone who exists purely to make Logan grovel. She has her own reasons for pulling back that have nothing to do with punishing him. Their chemistry is the loud, combustible kind rather than the slow burn of Hannah and Garrett’s book, and it suits them; these two were always going to crash into each other eventually.

The pacing sags a little in the middle stretch, where the will-they-won’t-they starts to repeat its own beats before the story finds its next gear, and a couple of the secondary hockey-team dynamics feel like they are just setup for future books more than they add to this one. Neither kept me from finishing it in a few days.

If you liked The Deal for its banter and its refusal to make either lead a pushover, The Mistake gives you a spikier, more emotionally fraught version of that same energy. A hero who has to actually change instead of just apologize, and a heroine who makes him work for it. Five stars, and I’m already eyeing book three.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

Tropes/Themes: Second chance romance, sports romance, hockey captain, guarded heroine, college romance, redemption arc

Tea Pairing: Cinnamon spice black tea. Bold, and warms you up fast.

Song Pairing: “Stay” by Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko — the ache of wanting someone back after you’ve already lost them once

MY BLOG - BOOK REVIEWS, WRITER WOES, BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS, FAVE BOOKSTORES

Click Here to View my Goodreads Profile!

Please feel free to comment on my blog posts! I would love your feedback on book reviews, writer woes, book recommendations, and bookstore highlights!

Recent Posts