Past Perfect

by Leila Sales

Sixteen-year-old Chelsea knows what to expect when she returns for a summer of historical reenactment at Colonial Essex Village until she learns that her ex-boyfriend is working there, too, and then meets the very attractive Dan who works at a rival historical village.

• ISBN10: 1442406828
• ISBN13: 9781442406827
• Publish Date: 4 October 2011
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[lizarodz]

Past Perfect is a book by the author of Mostly Good Girls (see my review here), which I enjoyed, therefore I was eager to read this book because it sounded like fun and I loved the cover.

Chelsea was a fun character to read. She is very opinionated, pretty, a great friend, but full of insecurities. She was easily persuaded by others into doing something she didn’t want to do, and sadly that is true for a lot of people. I liked her frankness and several parts of the book were laugh-out-loud funny. I loved Dan, he was fun, considerate, and handsome and it pained me to see what happened between him and Chelsea. I also liked Fiona, Chelsea’s best friend, she was a drama queen and so loyal that she deserved an award for sticking to Chelsea and for opening her eyes. There is a good word to describe Ezra, but I won’t use it since I don’t like to write curse words (you get the drift, right?). Other members of the Essex Colonial Village were so “high school”, there were popular girls and guys, and just the opposite, but they were all united by the “War”.

The plot was very original and I love the concept of the "War", even when it got a little out of hand. the only thing that bummed me out is how Chelsea caved in so easily to betray Dan. It just seemed our of character for her. Just as her previous novel, Ms. Sales left a lot unsaid and I feel like the end was inconclusive. I hope that Dan gave Chelsea a chance (it seems like he did.) The writing was insightful, funny and easy to read.

It's funny how sometimes we look at something from our past, maybe a childhood memory or that of your first crush through "pink" glasses instead of the way things really happened. Past Perfect was an entertaining and short contemporary read that I hope you enjoy as I did.

About the cover: I like that the cover is unusual and pretty, although it has nothing to do with the story!

[Leah]

Leila Sales’s second novel is a delight. A delight! I haven’t read her debut novel (although I will) but when I saw Past Perfect on Simon & Schuster’s GalleyGrab Newsletter, I started it immediately because it sounded awesome. I’m not a big historical buff, but I absolutely loved Past Perfect. It’s set during the summer as Chelsea works at Essex, a Colonial Village, and a lot of time is spent at the Village, with Chelsea in Colonial garb and I was really caught up in the costumes and the history of the place. History generally bores me (if you ask folks in school their least favourite lesson, history will be top, I promise you) but I found Past Perfect to not be too full on. Well, as not too full on as a novel can be set in a historical village. But it’s not as if Leila Sales gives us one big history lesson, far from it, and whatever is mentioned historically, it’s fully enjoyable and it’s vital to the plot.

Another sub-plot to Chelsea working at Essex is the rivalry between a fellow historical village, the Civil War Reenactment village (I had to go look that up, which tells me how crap my historical knowledge is), and I loved that. I found myself caught up in the War between the two villages and what would happen next. To make it just a bit more jucier, Chelsea goes and falls for Civil Warrior Dan. Which is wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Because, there’s no way someone who works at Essex can fall for someone working at Reenactmentland. It’s just not the done thing. Because they’re at War, people! I thought the War plot was inspired and it really helped the novel drive along and it really kept me hooked. I also thought Leila’s message that history isn’t really history, but that it’s still here, still breathing around us, to be an inspiring message, a very true message.

I really loved the characters. Chelsea narrates the novel and she’s an awesome character. I really, really liked her and she carried the book beautifully. She’s the kind of teen you’d want to be friends with and I loved her and her best friend Fiona. I loved they wanted to become ice-cream aficionados (and I was a bit gutted that they didn’t find a one that was a perfect 10!) and I was easily sucked in to the characters. Leila Sales is excellent at making her characters people we care about even when they do questionable things. I mean, despite what Chelsea does during the novel, I still wanted her to be happy and fix it. I thought Dan was fascinating, right from the first time we met him and I thought he sounded rather dreamy! I loved Chelsea’s parents, too. They’re a bit different to most teen parents (they’re there, for starters!) but also I loved their passion for Essex, their passion for Colonial times and I found myself, along with Chelsea, rolling my eyes when her father started a story that was totally brilliant (to him, only, mind you).

Past Perfect was an awesome read. Everything about it was excellent. I love the title, I love the cover (the cover is STUNNING, folks), I love the plot and the characters. It was a super-quick read and it really made me smile. That’s what I like with books, that they make me happy and Past Perfect did that perfectly (sorry, I know that’s an obvious pun). It’s an excellent teen novel with a wonderful message. I can’t wait to go back and read Leila’s debut novel and hopefully she’s currently working on her third novel. I may have only read one of her novels, but she’s got an excellent ability of writing about teenage characters we care about and a plot that I truly loved. I could have read more about Chelsea, about Essex, about Fiona, about Dan and I was sad, in a way, to see it come to an end because it was such fun being with them during their summer. I hugely recommend Past Perfect, it was a brilliant, brilliant read.