Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for this E-ARC in exchange of my honest opinion!

TW: rape, physical abuse, verbal abuse, mention of depression, mention of death, suicide attempts, cheating, alcohol, death, child neglect, kidnapping, and mention of miscarriage

This book follows Isabel, an English major college student in her final semester at Wilder University, and includes a nonconsensual sexual encounter with a friend that she thought she could trust, multiple affairs with her substitute writing professor, her father and his appetizing store in the Lower East Side of New York City, and a lot of flashbacks in regards to Isabel's mother, who passed away.

This book was written in a unique but beautiful way. The pacing and time of this book was done with care, especially with diving into the characters past and future, and then going back to being in the moment. Also, I enjoyed learning small thing about the Jewish culture, which is one of the big things that is written in this book. I really liked how the author implemented a small mystery aspect as well. This book is advertised as a book that tackles consent, which it does, but it's not what the book is about. As stated above, multiple things happened throughout this book, which made the book to feel like it was all over the place, but it actually was not. The author wrapped up each encounter perfectly. I would definitely read more from this author!

It’s a trope we all know well: lost young woman goes to college, lost young woman wants to be a writer, lost young woman catches the eye of her older, married professor, complicated and unfulfilling illicit affair ensues. My Last Innocent Year doesn’t stop there, though, both to its credit and sometimes its detriment.

It’s hard to say something new on power dynamics, manipulation, and desire through the affair-with-a-professor trope, which is perhaps why the author included so many other plots: a sexual encounter the narrator, Isabel, spends most of the book trying to define as either nonconsensual or consensual, domestic abuse and toxic marriage, Jewish identity, reckoning with the death of a parent, the art of literature, and more. And because the bulk of the plot is set in the late 90s, the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal is ever-present, clearly a mirror for Isabel and her professor’s affair, at times a little too obvious and convenient. It’s interesting that this book is set around the same time as Elif Batuman’s The Idiot, which is less sinister but more original.

The string that’s supposed to tie all the storylines together is the theme of consent, which felt very on-the-nose; no one will come away from this book confused on what the message was. But sometimes that string is stretching too far, from the very first semi-consensual encounter — the reaction to which felt out of place within the novel, so much more like one we’d see today, with the context and understanding of not only rape culture but informed consent, than in the 90s — to Isabel middle-aged and reflecting back on her life and its place in the post-Trump world we know today. The string does tie together at the end, but the bow is pristine, meant to remind us that the past informs the present, and the present redefines the past. So it goes.

Despite Isabel being unoriginal, she is still so painfully relatable for a certain time in many women’s lives. Part of me wants to say, “great, we don’t need anymore white, young, female narratives,” and the other part of me, the part that felt like Isabel a decade ago, wants to hold her story up to the world as a warning — this still happens on college campuses. It happens in workplaces. It happens in the home. Young women have always had their agency removed by men who promise to grant them some. Saying no is a privilege, and women have always had to weigh the danger of saying it.

3-3.5/5 stars

I haven’t had a reading experience like this in a very long time.
My Last Innocent Year is about Isabel, who is entering her final semester at school. After an unwanted sexual experience, she feels a pull towards her writing professor. This turns into an affair.
While the main arc of the story could easily be described as a dissection of a power dynamic between a younger woman and older man, what I found more gripping was a young woman’s navigation through grief and a complicated relationship with her father. How much do we owe our parents? Do we owe them more when they’re gone?
I lost so much of my time reading this. Became completely absorbed by it. I can’t wait to see what’s next for this author.

I wanted to read this book because nothing calls to me more than the words “coming of age” and “college” in a novel’s description. I know that we read to lose ourselves, to escape reality, but I believe that we also read to find ourselves. In Isabel I had a painful glimpse of who I was in college, the things that I longed for, the things that I thought I knew about life when in reality I was so naive, and the things that I didn’t realize I actually knew the answer to all along.

This book is also full of rich descriptions of Isabel’s Jewish heritage and culture and what it was like to move from a primarily Jewish neighborhood in NYC to a place where no one knows anything about your culture. I absolutely loved the rich descriptions of Rosen’s Appetizers, Isabel’s trip home for Passover Seder, and the way that she examined and confronted her relationship with her father and his expectations for her as an adult.

This is also a book about consent that is set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. It explores what consent means to the people in our lives, how we ourselves classify sexual assault, and how sometimes we confuse ourselves with what we want or think we should want or don’t know how to say that we don’t want.

This is a book about all the ways in which you’ll forever be a girl even once you’re in a woman’s body.

The year is 1998. Monica Lewinsky is at the center of the media. Shania Twain is “still the one” and Isabel Rosen in a senior at Wilder College in New Hampshire.
Isabel is a Jewish New-Yorker aspiring to become an author. This last year year takes a bit of a turn, when right before winter break she has a nonconsensual sexual encounter after a party and is unsure how to react to it.
When she returns to campus, she's propelled into an affair with her married professor 20 years her junior.
The writer did a really excellent job of capturing what it's like to be in college at this time and confused with life. Not only was Isabel trying to navigate her way through different relationships, she's also trying to figure out what she wants to do after college.
I surprised myself by liking this one so much. I found the main character really likable and relatable, and even though her story is less than the ideal college experience, the author does such a good job of creating an authentic university atmosphere that I found the reading really nostalgic.
Overall, I would recommend reading this book. It does deal with some heavy, dark themes, so make sure to read the description first. Rape, mental illness, sexual experiences, grief, loss.
Debuting 2/14/23.
If you were a fan of “my dark Vanessa” this I would consider her milder step sister book.
Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This one was a bit of a slow burn; I read through it quickly, but the pace at the beginning is quite slow. The author does an excellent job of gradually building the protagonist and the world around her, but the pacing is the sacrifice for that. I enjoyed the novel, though I think it's one of the stories where it's very much inside the narrator's head and untangling her experiences to figure out how she can move forward. There are some aspects of the novel that also lean towards tropes, especially her relationship with her professor and art school/creative life in general.

This fairly short novel (300 pages) packs a big punch! The opening scene immediately hooked me in & I devoured this book in a couple short days. We follow Isabel through her journey at Wilder College, including her affair with one of her married professors.

This novel makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. It covers consent in sexual encounters and the nuances that can change everything, it covers affairs and secrets and the power and thrill you feel from keeping those secrets close. This book covers marriage and death and family and growing up poor. The narrator was so interesting, perfectly balancing the recklessness and naïveté of youth with the nostalgia and wisdom of someone looking back on things later.

This book has such parallels to my own life & college experience (minus the affair with a professor 😂), and really made me nostalgic for those magical years where you’re playing at being adults but really have absolutely no idea about anything. This was such a fascinating read set against the backdrop of the late 90s and the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal.

I can’t wait to see what Daisy Alpert Florin does next!! 😍

ARC from Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co

After losing her mom to cancer, Isabela Rosen’s heads to Wilder College. Her last semester in college as an English major includes a nonconsensual sexual encounter, an affair with her married professor, and much more. She finds herself in the middle of gossip and messy situations. This girl seems to be a mess until the end when you think maybe she finds herself. She is trying to figure adulthood out and a lot of times her character made me cringe. It was painful as Isabel navigated her way to graduation and beyond.
The plot was slow and had a consistent flow. This story made me question a lot of things and a lot of Isabel’s choices. The way serious subjects like rape, mental health and domestic abuse were treated baffled me. It felt as if the characters all walked around with their head in the sand. I was uncomfortable with how things were handled or not addressed. In the end, there was no resolution or it was just empty.

This story was beautifully written - though highly difficult to read at times, given the content.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company, Henry Holt and Co. for the chance to read this book!

I wanted to love this story but I DNF. It could be because the storyline did not hold my interest or the genre was not my type.

This book was absolutely beautiful. The writing, the themes it deals with, the characters fleshed out so well. Absolutely a banger of a debut novel. Will love to read more from the author.

Thank you @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for this ARC!

I don’t read much literary fiction but I’m glad I gave this a try. It kept me up thinking the night I finished. The book is a well-done coming-of-age story and is beautifully written. There are dark elements to the storyline but nothing overwhelming. While I felt parts of this could have been taken further and I wished there was a little more to the plot, I enjoyed it and read it quickly. This is a debut novel and I look forward to more from this author.

My Last Innocent Year is a thought-provoking story about growing up and reflecting on the choices you’ve made in your young-adult years. We meet Isabel in her last year of college as she is making decisions for her future. Her father owns an appetizing store in the Lower East Side, her mother is dead, and she wants to be an author.

The pacing of the book is a bit slow at the beginning, but once it picks up, it’s up. She has an affair with her (married) professor which causes her to believe in herself in ways she didn’t before. It is interwoven with updates on the Lewinsky/Clinton affair. I enjoyed the fact that the story was written from a future perspective with Isabel looking back on this time. It was nice to read how the relationship impacted the rest of her life after it happened.

Overall, it’s a beautifully written and complex novel that I know I’ll be thinking about for a while.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a wonderfully compelling read about a young woman’s last semester at an elite college. Even though most of the book revolves around the relationship with her married professor, it felt so much more than that. It was a story about the hardships of friendships, boys in general, and a very personal look into daughter/father relationships. I enjoyed this debut novel so much. I can’t wait to read more from this author!

To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about this book. It was well written and makes for a great debut but it just didn’t work in my opinion. This book deals with some heavy topics that didn’t bother me but please make sure you check out the tw’s just in case. This book talks about consent which is an important topic to discuss. I think my main issue with this book was the main character. She obviously went through some traumatic situations, but I never felt like she reflected or gave anything any real thought. I wish the author gave her character more depth. I also didn’t care for any of the side characters; they felt too one note and almost just like generic college kids. I almost DNF this one and part of me wished I did because there was no payoff in the end. The ending left me unsatisfied. While I found the writing to be good the pacing was all over the place. It started out strong but then became so slow. It stayed slow and repetitive for the majority of the book. This book will definitely make you think and ask questions, but it won’t give you any answers. Overall, it was okay. It’s a book that I’m not sure if I would recommend but I’d say give it a try for yourself. Just because I didn’t vibe with it doesn’t mean you won’t.

Thank you so much @henryholtbooks for the gifted copy on Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Loved this book! The campus trope is a fave. I was rooting for the character and enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book as well. I would read more from Alpert Florin.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy for the purpose of this review.

Thank you Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co for allowing me to read the digital arc of My Last Innocent Year in exchange for my honest review.

1/5 ⭐️

I didn't finish the novel as one of the characters was a member of the Israeli Army and the use of women (which is almost exclusively used in TERF rhetoric).

I didn't feel comfortable continuing with this book.

Will be reviewing a physical copy of this one. Thank you again for the ARC and hopefully this opens up a space for someone else.

For me, setting is everything. The story line itself, a coming-of-age, isn't usually what I'd crack open. But I am so glad I did. The author did an incredible job placing us in a 1998 small liberal arts college, both in characters and setting. And then, the setting of a Jewish family still running an appetizing shop in New York's Lower East Side! I'm sold. I love the Jewishness of this story set amidst a setting that historically hasn't been welcoming to Jews - the waspy exclusive school. And then you up the ante by making her family very relatable to this secular Jewish New Yorker. Make no mistake, this is a story about being a woman. But it is also very much a Jewish story. And we don't often see that without it being pigeonholed. Excellent writing on a word and sentence level. I was riveted from the get go.

The situation Isabel was in is one many women have seen themselves in. They are put in an intimate position with a man, and they have sex with them, not necessarily because she wants do, but because that's what she feels she has to do. And it feels icky, but we wonder if it was rape, because did we really express that this isn't what we wanted? That part was really relatable and well done. The last 100 pages felt like it kept trying to wrap things up. Things were summarized and I thought it was the end, but then it would move on to something else and then go back to the part that I thought we had wrapped up. That could have used some additional editing because it felt unfinished, and maybe it will be for the final copy.