I loved the concept of a stolen kiss in the dark. A kiss that felt familiar, but was shrouded in mystery. Macy's search for the identity of the kisser coincided with some friends from the past reemerging in her life. I enjoyed tagging along as Macy examined events from her past in order to figure out her present.
•Pro: The format worked really well for this story. There were several concurrent mysteries running through this story, and all were connected in some way to the events from Junior year, which lead to the demise of some friendships. Ciocca fed us bits and pieces from the past and present in such a way to keep me flipping the pages, and she aligned the past and present storylines in a way that was quite complementary and worked without disrupting the flow of the story.
•Pro: I always enjoy a little mystery in a story, because I like trying to figure it out. I had my suspicions about several things, which I ended up being 100% right about, but there were other details revealed which were surprising, and I enjoyed getting to the big reveal.
•Con: I thought the opening of the book was really strong, but then it stumbled a little. There were some things that seemed a little random thrown out there, but after that, I thought the story hit its stride and I was all in.
•Pro: There was a lot of focus on family. Parents were present, and siblings played a actual role in the story.
•Pro: Some social politics are explored, and I liked the small challenge to the school social hierarchy, and I am always a fan of that.
•Con: I really thought this was going to be a romance. There was romance, but it was not the central focus of this story. Regardless, I still enjoyed the story, though I wished for more of a romantic slant.
•Pro: Friendships are at the heart of this story. It explores the way secrets and lies can impact those important relationships, reinforcing the idea of how vital honesty is in a friendship.
•Pro: Ben was seriously the best guy ever. I wanted to yell at everyone, who was not appreciating him properly.
•Pro: After spending so much time finding out what everyone was hiding and why, I was happy to see Ciocca give all the characters good endings. The ending was really strong, and left me with a very favorable impression of this book.
Pictures don't always tell the whole story. Sometimes they are worth a thousand words, and other times they tell a thousand lies. But then there are the times when photographs capture perfectly the things we failed to see, things we didn't even know about ourselves.
Overall: A mystery, that led to repairing broken friendships, finding romance, and finding one's true self.
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
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