Past Perfect

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…(from Goodreads)

I don't quite know what the cover has to do with anything. It never rains in the book, and most of the summer is spent in the Essex colonial village, wearing a colonial gown. I think something relating more to that would have been better, but whatever. I'm not reviewing this based on its cover. 

My favorite part of this book was the setting. Yeah, I know it sounds dumb, but the whole colonial-village-reenactment was pretty cool. Especially the whole war between the colonials and the Civil War-ers. That was really fun, and added a whole element of forbidden love.

The ending was slightly letdown-ish. I mean, I knew exactly what was going to happen and all that, but this book was one really that, with a different ending, could have been a lot stronger. I still liked the book because of characters and such, but a less cliche basic plotline would have been nice. 

Chelsea was okay. She wasn't an amazing character that sticks with you long after you've closed the book (say, Anna and the French Kiss), but she wasn't a huge bitch who I hated from page one. She was simply there, just your average MC. 

Fiona was funny, and she really added a lot to the story. When Chelsea started to forget her and her friendship, she didn't put up with that. It was easy to see that she cared about Chelsea and their friendship, but she wasn't going to put up with much blowing off. She has a small subplot which was pretty cliche, but it still worked. 

There wasn't a lot of physical romance, as is often the case with these sorts of books. Most of it was Chelsea thinking about it, and learning from the past. That was fine, as she really got over her breakup with Ezra and into this new relationship.

If this book had had a less cliche ending, this would probably be five stars. The plot itself was pretty cliche, but the secondary characters and setting made up for it.