My Christmas Break Mistake by Anne-Marie Meyer

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Title: My Christmas Break Mistake
Author: Anne-Marie Meyer
Series: The Rules of Love #7
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 9th 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 132
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Holiday
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 HoHoHo Readathon
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

Who said mistakes have to be bad?

It’s Christmas break and I’m alone. My best friend is off with the dance team to the Bahama’s and I’m at home, trying to pad my college application by volunteering with Safety Net Mentors, a program that pairs teens with kids in need—and if I finally get to talk to my life-long crush, I’m okay with that.

Everything is going according to plan until I discover that not only is my ex-best friend, Grayson back, but he’s also volunteering. And we get paired with siblings.

Great.

I not only have to talk to him but I have to spend time with him and his mentee. Which seems doable as long as neither of us bring up the past.

Which seems harder to do than say.

Now I’m so confused, I can’t keep my mind straight. There’s something Grayson isn’t telling me and feelings that creep up that weren’t there before.

And I don't know what to do when what felt like the biggest Christmas break mistake doesn’t feel that was anymore. If only I could figure out what everything meant, I just might survive with my heart intact.

My Review:

2 stars — First, the title and cover have changed for this book, but since the one on my Kindle is this one, I used the original title/cover.

*sigh*  Ellie was NOT a great character.  I mean, I assumed she was going to start off in this way and then grow and change, hence why I kept reading.  But she didn’t.  I don’t think she learned anything.  She was selfish, self-involved, and I got whiplash from her emotions changing on a heartbeat.  And since the book was entirely from her POV, I didn’t have anything else to temper her bad behavior.  I seriously couldn’t believe how quickly she would go from feeling sorry for Grayson, feeling hurt by him, to hating him and never wanting anything to do with him.  It was ridiculous!  I get she’s a teenager, but this felt unrealistic even for that.  And more importantly, I don’t think she ever saw the situation from his POV…I think she just finally settled on forgiving him instead of understanding him.

And don’t get me started on her behavior with the Safety Net program.  That was just abhorrent.  She supposedly cared for Molly, but it was in a totally selfish manner.  She didn’t listen to the girl, or really connect with her at all.  Her own feelings ALWAYS trumped what was best for her.  I don’t think she has an empathic bone in her body.  I was hella disappointed that she didn’t even really grow in that way and realize what she did was wrong…I mean, she said it, but I didn’t believe it for one second.  Because she kept resorting to the same behavior.  It was just luck that she and Grayson made up in the end.  *rolls eyes*

And then there’s Grayson.  It’s tough because we don’t get his POV, but the big reveal in the end?  I don’t get it.  I don’t understand AT ALL how that justified or explained his behavior along the way.  I felt for him, for sure…and maybe it was his Dad’s influence?  I don’t know.  All I know is that none of what was happening with him explained him pushing her away so harshly and being mean.

So yeah.  I think I started off rating this 2.5 stars, but I’m really having a hard time justifying what was deserving of the extra.  The characters weren’t great, the lesson wasn’t there, the romance was lacking…*shrugs*  Basically, it didn’t work for me.

OH!  And to top it off, the editing was ATROCIOUS.  If this author paid for line/copy editing, they should fire them.  The grammar and punctuation were NOT GOOD.  I will let a lot slide, but I feel like these were things that if you just loaded it into Google Docs, you could correct at least half of them.  (and it was like commas in the middle of sentences, multiple misspellings (ridged instead of rigid), you’re instead of your, semi-colons in the middle of sentences, and more)