Title: Year of Mistaken Discoveries
Author: Eileen Cook
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Release Date: February 25th 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: ARC received as part of a gift bag for review

Purchase
Amazon | Indigo | TBD | Goodreads





Friendship is a bond stronger than secrets in this novel from the author of The Almost Truth and Unraveling Isobel.

As first graders, Avery and Nora bonded over a special trait they shared--they were both adopted.

Years later, Avery is smart, popular, and on the cheerleading squad, while Nora spends her time on the fringes of school society, wearing black, reading esoteric poetry, and listening to obscure music. They never interact...until the night Nora approaches Avery at a party, saying it's urgent. She tells Avery that she thought she found her birth mom--but it turned out to be a cruel lie. Avery feels for Nora, but returns to her friends at the party.

Then Avery learns that Nora overdosed on pills. Left to cope with Nora's loss and questioning her own actions, Avery decides to honor her friend by launching a search for her own birth mother. Aided by Brody, a friend of Nora's who is also looking for a way to respect Nora's legacy, Avery embarks on an emotional quest. But what she's really seeking might go far deeper than just genetics...


I will admit right now that I am on a YA contemporary kick right now and I am loving it! There are so many amazing books coming out in this genre and I have to say they keep getting better and better. The Year of Mistaken Discoveries is a book that I had read specifically because of the author Eileen Cook is an author that I have read for years and she is an auto read no matter the book. Although this book was not my favourite, I will say that it deserves a read.

What I liked the most about this book was the way it turned convention on its head. Take for example the love story. Normally it goes, girl falls for boy, girl wants more from boy in their relationship and there begins the problems. But in this book it was the exact opposite and I have to say I loved it. Not only did it showcase the fact that boys can have strong feeling and be emotional, but also that girls can have a need to be independent and separate from a love story. Although I did find Avery and Brody's relationship to be adorable and very realistic at times. It was very hot and cold, then hot and heavy.

This book did an amazing job of highlighting what it would feel like to be adopted and because this book is essentially a story about two friends, Nora and Avery and how they reacted very differently to the fact that they were adopted, and it is not until Nora's death that Avery realizes how much Nora impacted her life, and I loved that even though one of the characters was not physically there in the story, she was still present. Her journal was my favourite part because it showed a very different character in comparison to Avery, and i have to say that I wanted more from Nora. Her journal was fascinating, even though it happened outside of this book, I wanted Avery to connect with her a little bit more.

If I had one large problem with this book it would have to be the length. It was too short for me. I wanted so much more from these characters. There were stories that could have been flushed out, characters that could have had more page time, and I felt like Avery and Brody each deserved more of an in depth look. But overall this book was a great read and will i not go unnoticed because these character were real and broken and their story needs to be shared.