Continuing my journey of reading books based solely on cover and having a great time doing so.

I really enjoyed this book! I'm looking forward to purchasing a physical copy. I thought the writing was good, I loved the way the story was told as a reflection of Isabel's past. There's a lot of interesting sub plots/ events happening in the story that all come together in the end.

This is a really solid debut!

Full review: (with some spoiler-y things)
https://burkec94.wixsite.com/whatyareadin/post/my-last-innocent-year-arc-review

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I wasn't exactly sure how to review this book, because on the one hand I really liked it, but on the other it feels strange to enjoy a book that is full of such sad topics. I adored the main character and her development throughout the timeline was so interesting, and to get to see her looking back and interpreting things. This book did a great job of dealing with a complicated issue, allowing the reader to empathize with her and to wish they were there to fight for her. You could see where she would be drawn to Connelly, even though you knew she shouldn't. The part about the professor and the kid was very original.

For readers of My Dark Vanessa that don't want quite as dark of a novel. It still deals with the same content but it doesn't feel as hopeless in this one, which I enjoyed because I wanted her to be okay.

All this being said, there is SA in this book as well as the sexual manipulation/abuse of a young girl, so if these things are triggers to you then it may be best to skip this one.

I didn’t expect to relate to this book so much but I was very pleasantly surprised. this book chronicles Isabel Rosen who is going though her last semester in college when she gets twisted up in an affair with her professor. obviously, I was expecting dark romance, secrecy and bad decisions (and yes there was a lot of that in this book), I was also met with a coming-of-age story about a young woman trying to find her place in the world.

maybe the fact that I just graduated college in the spring makes this book hit so close to home but I liked this book for very different reasons than I anticipated.

firstly, this story is told from the perspective of Isabel looking back at the time in her life. and though she is involved with her professor we also see her navigate relationships with her family, friends, other professors, and peers. the story is told as though Isabel is reminiscing on a blip from her adolescence. I thought that was so refreshing because too often do books feel as if the story begins and ends on the page. Isabel’s story makes it clear that college and our early 20’s are far from our prime.

I was expecting a romance, a love story. but this is not one, at least not in the traditional sense.

now i’ve given the book nothing but praise, why the 3 stars? the reason being this book has very little plot. there seemed to be a big potential for a plot towards the end, but it happened too late for any real development to occur. while I loved reading the inter-workings of Isabel’s mind, that’s all it is. a look into a young woman’s mind.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Where do I begin? Isabel Rosen is attending a prestigious college in New Hampshire. She has a close knit group of friends, and is a literary major. Unfortunately she has a nonconsensual sexual encounter with a Jewish boy who she had trusted.
She is struggling with the passage from youth to adulthood when she crosses paths with Professor Connelly, who only makes matters more difficult.
Thank you Net Galley for this wonderful ARC that will stay with me for quite some time.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of My Last Innocent Year.

I have so many thoughts and feeling about Isabel and her story. This is an amazing debut novel by Daisy Alpert Florin.

Set during the late nineties you follow a young women entering into her last semester of college. After having a nonconsensual sexual encounter Isabel begins processing the events of that night. In the midst of processing her abuse she begins to have an affair with her English professor who sees her as an equal. Isabel is also starting to see there is very thin line between youth and adulthood.

This is a character driven, true coming of story and something I would love for every college aged person to read. Isabel is truly searching for her place and voice in the world during her last semester in college. Throughout the story you can tell this is someone recounting their own life events. The author adds in information about characters as they come and go. She builds that feeling we all have in college, young, connected and almost invincible but fragile.

This could have easily become trauma-porn for the author to write. Instead they took a time in history when sexual assault was finally being addressed in colleges and a character who represented women who were learning how to process their abuse.
Isabel's abuse and affair opens her eyes to gray reality of life. Even the commentary Daisy (the author) has about the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal can be compared to Isabel and her own affair.

Isabel begins to question life markers on when girls become women. Are there milestones? How can we tell if we truly have agency over our lives?

I have far too many thoughts on this book. I truly would have loved reading this at age fifteen or seventeen just like I did reading it now at twenty-two, a college grade.

This book is something I wish I would have had when I was younger, the way it addresses so many topics and you just feel like you’re talking to an older friend and being told her story.
I wish I had this book when I was younger because of the way she talks about this nonconsensual sexual encounter. I feel like that is so important for young people to read. The way she took so many years to realize that it wasn’t okay and that it was wrong, it’s something that happens so often but isn’t always addressed.
I have so many thoughts and feelings about this book, first of all W O W.
It’s beautifully written and has a lot of important topics. One of my favorite things is that it’s written in the perspective of her older-self reflecting and talking about her life.
I feel like I read something important, something that could make an impact on the people who really truly read it and understand it.
I feel like her friends, specifically Debra, are amazing additions to the story. The time frame it’s set in adds so much to the background and really is just very symbolic of the young woman’s journey. Read it!! I devoured this story in two days, it was beautiful and amazing and overall just WOW.

My Last Innocent Year is a riveting, coming of age college novel set in the pre-Me Too late 90s (disclosure: my favorite decade for contemporary literary novels) when Monica Lewinsky is being scapegoated for her affair with Bill Clinton as women across the country argue about culpability and power. Months before graduation, Isabel navigates her last semester at an elite college her father cannot afford, facing an uncertain post-grad future where she wants to be a writer but doesn't know how to pursue that type of creative life, and where the dreams of her appetizing store-owning father and artist mother (dead since Isabel was a teen) weigh against Isabel's own. Within these last months of college, she is involved in two sexual encounters that explore the concept of consent--before most women had the language to articulate confusing experiences that didn't fit into the narrow definitions they understood about rape and assault and abuse of power--that shape much of who Isabel will become. Both propulsive and reflective, I read this through in one morning and look forward to discussions once this book is published.

This was a really stunning debut. Because they share a very similar premise, it was hard not to compare it to <i>My Dark Vanessa</i>, however, I thought this novel was successful where MDV was not. The MC was much more fleshed-out, the central relationship more organic, and the overall execution more understated (in a good way), which, overall, made the whole novel feel more natural and realistic.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Co. for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

For fans of My Dark Vanessa, this one is for you. Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

A beautifully written and vivid coming-of-age-ish story. The vibes are immaculately conveyed and I was surprised by how much they drew me in. The first half of the book is pretty much purely an exercise in tone, establishing such a specific picture of the time period, setting, and general air of academia. I could have lived in the details of those pages. It was all familiar enough for me to feel a sense of personal connection and context, but different enough to my own experiences to make it alluring. I can imagine the architecture of this fictional college (fictional but undoubtedly informed by the author's experience at Dartmouth), I can imagine the trees, the river. It's not something I myself have experience with- I go to a small liberal arts college and have been in creative writing courses, but nothing about the setting around it can be compared. I don't know how to make it clear just how much the vibes clicked with me - they're a massive chunk of why I loved this book.

When the book heads into more plot-heavy territory, it's a slightly difficult adjustment. While the first half of the novel primarily serves to establish tone and Isabel's characterization/voice, the novel takes a turn halfway through (which is handled fairly gracefully) and then ramps up the plot development pretty heavily in the final quarter or so. I was also not totally on board with the epilogue portions, as I would have preferred some things stay open ended from the time she finishes college, but this portion is ultimately pretty important to the way the novel as a whole ends. Maybe I just think it could have done with less detail regarding her post-college life and instead focused more on the ruminations of a woman clearly looking back on this period of her life. That's pretty nitpicky, though, and I don't think would-have-dones and could-have-dones are that useful. I appreciated the way it ended as was.

And man, did this book make me angry at some men - there are some good ones who stay mostly in the background, but the guys we hear most from are just terrible in their own little ways (exception being Isabel's father). Professor Connelly seemed to be begging to be punched in the face during his last interaction with Isabel, and I was glad Zev somewhat got what was coming to him, even if it caused internal conflict for Isabel throughout the entire novel.

Thank you so much to Henry Holt Publishing for sending me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Where do i begin with how i feel about this story? I was looking for something that had an academia kind of feel to it mixed with coming of age and this story perfectly captures that. We follow Isabel whose senior in her last year of college who goes through these intense experiences, like losing her mother, being assaulted, and having a relationship with her professor. You really begin to feel how unsure of herself she is, as we all are in our 20's. But as the story goes on, You see her really evolve and grow up and i won't give too much away about the plot because i went into it blindly and i think readers who are interested should as well. but this story was everything i never knew i needed with the state of the world and I will be getting my own finished copy. So thank you again for letting me read it early.

This was very hard for me to read, not because of how it was written or anything wrong with it… but because of my personal trauma and the triggers. That being said I think this was a beautiful story and I loved it. It took me a while to read because of the triggers but I would recommend this to anyone!

3.5 ⭐️

I’m thankful to NetGalley for offering this book to me in exchange for an honest review.

This book brought with it a cold & dreary vibe. It took place in the era of the Clinton administration specifically when the Monica Lewinsky scandal took place.

It follows the life of a young girl who has to grow up quite quickly as her mom becomes ill with cancer and her dad is busy manning his deli.

Some of my favorite underlying messages were how everything isn’t always black and white, right and wrong. And it begs the question to be answered when does one truly grow up? Is it a binary experience or is it progressive?

The authors relationship with her professor taints the protagonists future with desire for hidden affections even after she is married with a life she always longed for.

This book wasn’t necessarily a favorite of mine, but I always appreciate a book that makes you ponder situation and experience you may not have questioned prior to reading the book.

It was captivating, the first chapter immediately pulls you in, however, after a couple hundred pages the books loses the captivating factor. The subject matter is also tricky it feels like it’s questioning the morality of rape culture. I didn’t like that the character was forced into a corner by her friend and then abandoned by her friend who seemingly no longer cared. Which if that’s the message i wish there was more payback. It was beautifully written and the main character was enjoyable, It was a 3.5 but i rounded up to 4 because although it wasn’t right for me i believe its right for someone else.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #MyLastInnocentYear #NetGalley

I hate to say it was a great start to a book because of what happens, but it was a great hook. I knew the characters and got a feel for what was happening was big and then a really difficult rape scene. It was a hell of a way to get me into the story. And the lack of comeuppance was appropriate, but still frustrating.

For not a lot happening plot-wose, the story was a quick read and really captured the feels of being a girl in college. The main character makes mistakes and learns from them, but you never hate her. I really connected to Isabel and this really captured that metamorphosis females go through from being a girl to being an adult women and that it's not linear and not consistent. And the focus on female relationships was great throughout; how all women relate to each other for better or for worse. The Lewinsky scandal felt a little superfluous but also too on the nose. It gives us a time period, and what happened to Monica reflects a little in the protagonists story, and I'm glad there was one comment about how Monica was victimized, but it was a lot to juggle. There was also the abusive and dissolving marriage of two other English professors that felt unimportant to the story. But then again, this story was very much an observational, day in the life story. I read it quickly and I very much enjoyed it.

DNF

I was in the first few pages of this book when Isabel mentions that Zev -her abuser- was two years in the Israeli army "defending the Jewish homeland". So yeah, I will not be reading a Zionist author

I was fortunate to receive this ARC from Netgalley.

Wow!
This story was beautifully written and wonderfully paced. It was an emotional and impactful coming-of-age story. I am in the same stage of my life as the protagonist, and I think I felt a bit too close to the story. That being said, it's not for everyone.

It's like a beautifully crafted and woven train crash. It was vulnerable and raw.
The book was hard to put down at times.

I gave this book three stars immediately after reading it. However, once I sat with the ending and digested it all. I gave it 4 stars.

TW: sexual assault

"All I did was write stories about 'girls with feelings'"

Isabel is a girl growing into a woman throughout college, faced with the unique experiences related to being a woman in a world largely created by men.

The actions, decisions, and consequences perfectly sum up the constant need for Isabel to be the perfect feminist, student, wife, etc. The juxtaposition between being at the mercy of the men in her life and trying to pave a way for herself leads to important questions of what one truly wants in life.

The sexual assault scene and following discourse lent itself to this overarching theme, in which Isabel's "friend" Zev is somewhat pitied and claims that his culture is just "sexually aggressive". Zev feels as if Isabel's actions have ruined his college experience, and he is seen as a "social pariah". On the other end of the spectrum, Isabel's outspoken roommate Debra immediately becomes outraged and takes things into her own hands. The volatility of reactions leads to more confusion for Isabel, which is often how people in similar situations feel as well. I think that many women would be able to find themselves within Isabel in this situation.

"as small and unimportant as I mostly felt, the egotism of youth hadn’t left me, and I placed myself firmly and squarely at the center of the universe."

I found myself blown away by the way that the author was able to put these unique yet communal experiences into words that felt so spot on.

She also captured well the outside perspective of women that we notice and use to "make ourselves small", as Isabel did: "We identified with her, which should have made us kinder but instead made us mean. We felt more comfortable siding with guys like Doug because their side was safer.... Her desire made her unseemly."

Overall, I felt that this book had a powerful message, but it is not a book you look for for plot. It is, at it's best, a book about girls with feelings.

"Girls with feelings. If it had felt like a poverty before, now it felt like a gift."

It seems I'm going 2 for 2 on books read on July 1st that have Zionism! I was barely halfway through the first page and there is a line about Izzy's sexual assaulter joining the Israeli army to "defend the homeland." While being Jewish is a big part of her character, I can't help but feel as if these details were unnecessary (though maybe they are details to make him wholly unlikeable who knows).

I was looking forward to reading this as I had seen reviews comparing it to My Dark Vanessa, another book I had thoroughly enjoyed. The title and cover drew my eye originally but they aren't enough to hold my attention.

I knew My Last Innocent Year was going to be one amazing story!
Florin did an absolute phenomenal job writing her debut novel!

This beautiful coming of age story is just heartbreaking but yet so beautifully written.
The characters are so believably raw and real. Instantly they draw you into the story.
I was hooked once I opened the book. The story kept me turning the pages.
A story about manipulation, feeling lost and confused, overcoming some rough shit and finding hope.
A captivating read with a fantastic build and details, I was completely pulled in.
This was fantastic, I was so excited reading it and rushed through it in a few hours…
One of my favorites so far this year!

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Henry Holt and Co,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!