Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales.

Posted September 28, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 7 Comments


Main Character: Chelsea Glaser
Love Interest: Dan
Series: None
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.

Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….

This was the perfect book to end the summer on a high note. I’ve never really thought about re-enactment camps one way or another, at any part of my life. They never made it to my radar apart from the hour and half that I spent watching Sweet Home Alabama all those many years ago but after reading this book, I wish I had spent a summer of my youth at a reenactment camp. I wish I had a war going with the Civil War kids, pranking each other and falling for the wrong boy. This was such a fun book, I couldn’t put it down. Leila Sales did a fantastic job of making me laugh at least every other sentence.Chelsea was a fabulous main character. Most of the time, I’ll love a main character if I want them to be my best friend but with Chelsea, I wanted to be her. She was that awesome. I spent most of this book laughing because of the things that went through Chelsea’s head. The things that she thought, she things that she said, everything was just awesome. Her thought processes had me cracking up no matter where I was when I was reading this book (mostly at work). She’s not always right, she’s not always happy or depressed or sad but it didn’t matter because no matter what she was, or how she was feeling, I adored her.

The secondary characters in this story stood out for me as well. I mean, her best friend Fiona was fabulous and the boy Brian who had a massive crush on Chelsea kept me giggling all throughout the book. Even the others like Tawny and Nat and Dan. Whoa boy, that Dan. I adored him and thought he was just the cutest thing. I felt for him after everything went down with Chelsea but man, did I adore that boy.There was a time or two when I wanted to knock some sense into Chelsea but never once did I think, “Oh man, I think I may hate her” because she was just too much fun to not like. Watching her stumble her way through her forbidden romance, her feelings for her ex and everything made for such an entertaining story that I’m trying my darndest to not shout from the rooftops that this book is great and you need to pre-order it now. This book is full of the good stuff and anyone who is a fan of awesome contemporary stories will enjoy this one, I promise!

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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7 responses to “Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales.

  1. Bookworm1858

    Definitely wanted to knock some sense into Chelsea at times but for the most part I loved her and Fiona; the book overall was pretty funny. Less enthused with her love interests but they didn’t play that big of a role.

  2. Rowena

    You didn’t like Dan? I thought he was a cutie patootie and I really enjoyed the scenes between him and Chelsea.

    But Chelsea cracked me the heck up but I do agree that there were times when I wanted to pull her hair but overall, she rocked.

  3. This has been HIGH on my pile, and now I’m going to have to push it to the top. Awesome 😀

    Also – I was SO worried because I love this cover, and I hate being disappointed by cover art.

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