Haunting and raw, My Last Innocent Year explores consent and what it means to “grow up” blurring lines along the way. The writing is achingly beautiful leaving me with a handful of quotes woven into my memory. A true masterpiece debut.

My Last Innocent Year was a really strong debut that I wanted to push a little further. I feel like it just scratched the surface especially when it came to the student/teacher relationship and I wanted more. While I liked the epilogue, I feel like the end of her school year wrapped up really quickly—would have been nice to have had one more confrontation between Isabel and Connelly.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked the setting (mostly at a college), and the timeline. The writing flowed from 90s, past and present. And it wasn’t confusing, the jumping back and forth, sometimes it can be. She took us through time and it was beautifully written. It just flows. The story itself just needed more plot. It’s very character driven. It’s a story of a girl’s last year in college. It’s like she’s in the room with you and telling you about it and then she adds in what she feels about it now or what she learned later on, and that I loved. This is a debut and I’ll definitely be looking for her next book.

It felt like this wanted to be a character study, no plot just vibes kind of novel - but it never went deep enough into the protagonists psyche to make it there. It kept me in the story well enough that I blew through it, but it was more like I was floating above it that actually grabbed & kept there. It feels like it is just on the precipice of something, but lacked the emotional punch it seemed to promise.

This book is raw and real! I like the voice of Isabel because she is so confused and unsure about so much which is so relatable for a college aged protagonist. Especially on the cusp of graduating and needing to make tough decisions about what is realistic and what is a fantasy. Exploring some of the more serious sexual themes was also refreshing. While not a major theme, sexual assault doesn’t always look like they tell you on the news. There’s a quiet resignation that goes on in so many sexual situations where women simply don’t say no…but they’re not saying yes either. Absolutely loved the way Daisy navigates that.

This was difficult and powerful to read. I saw some people mention the main character's unlikability, but that speaks a lot to the annoying nature of society to need women to be these pure, flawless, "perfect" victims before they're worth empathizing with (which sucks). This book excellently shows that unfortunate reality, even through fiction -- just read the reviews.

I loved this, and found it moving but also really hard to read at times. Mistakes and bad choices (on our ends, or other people's ends that end up impacting us) during our youth will often come back to haunt us later in various ways, and a duel timeline is one of my favorite plot devices to convey/show growth or change over time. Will definitely be checking out more from the author.

One of the main critiques I've been seeing for this book is that the main character, Isabel, is unlikeable and hard to empathize with. I think that it was actually really easy to empathize with her, because I feel like the decisions we make in our early 20s are not always the best. A lot of our choices from this period of time come back to haunt us later in life, and I love how the author allowed us to see Isabel in the future and see how these choices affected her life post-college and how she grew from her experiences. I loved how Isabel often had to grapple with her own desire versus doing the right thing, and it made the story that much more compelling and true to life for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I thought it was an interesting and intimate coming of age story that deals with many difficult topics, such as consent and domestic violence, in a sensitive way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the e-ARC.

Beautifully written, but the MC was hard to like and root for. Many hard topics - be sure to check trigger warnings. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an early read.

A cliched story about a young Jewish woman's last year of college and all the travails that come with it. Of course she ends up having an affair with her professor/advisor. Of course she wants to be a writer when college is all said and done. But first some growing up to do.
The writing in this novel is beautiful but I just couldn't connect with Isabel Rosen. Even going through some of the same sequences and graduating college in the late 90s, I just couldn't relate. The pacing is good, however, and there's enough going on that interest is kept.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt for this e-arc.*

🪷 My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin🪷

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an ARC copy of this novel.

Rating: two stars

What I Liked:
🪷 Jewish representation
🪷 Grapples with the gray areas of consent
🪷 Coming-of-age
🪷 Displays in two different ways how women can be taken advantage of by men in power (the MC and Monica Lewinsky)

What I disliked:
- Future reflections are sprinkled into the book that writes as if it's present tense. These reflections are not separated out making the writing style choppy. For example (this is not in the book just an example of the style) 'I was in my room writing about the night that occurred. Later, as a writer I would learn that these writing sessions were important. I continued writing about that night until 1 am.'
- Too many topics were being tackled at once. Some big events that happened to the main character fell to the wayside for a hundred pages before resurfacing. Almost as if she forgets these things happened to her.
- I didn't feel drawn to any of these characters. I didn't like nor dislike them.


#netgalley #bookreview #ARC #arcreview #mylastinnocentyear #jewishreads

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Sex, nonconsenual sex, grooming, death of parent, death, suicide attempt, depression, grief, physical abuse, emotional abuse, harm of child, man in power taking advantage of younger women, blood, violence, miscarriage

This is not the first book I’ve read with a “teacher manipulates and sleeps with younger student” trope recently, but it wasn’t one of my favorite ones either. I just couldn’t sympathize with the main character. She was insufferable, and everything just happened to her rather than her taking any accountability for her part in it. I did like the literary reference, and the way the author writes, just not necessarily the character herself.

Isabel finally realizes a lot of things her last year of college. She realizes things aren’t always what they seem, but I wondered if she really got it.
She seems disaffected through the entire book. She didn’t seem very attached to her mother and she always referred to her father as Abe.
I didn’t have much regard for Isabel. It seems as if she was just going through the motions and seemed surprised when there were consequences for her actions.

I’ve read several dark academia slash teacher/student affairs books and this one was enjoyable and not as depressing. The late 90s setting + the small liberal arts college made it feel really believable (easier to get away with things pre social media). I liked reading from Isabel’s POV and was impressed with her handling of the situation considering her age. I would recommend if you liked the Secret History, My Dark Vanessa, Prep.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Co and Netgalley for the ARC!

Isabel Rosen is in her last semester of her senior year at Wilder College in New Hampshire. Isabel is not from a wealthy family, like most of the other students, so she's always felt out of place there. She's dealing with the aftermath of a nonconsensual sexual encounter with a fellow Jewish student. Then Isobel meets Professor R.H. Connolley, her new, married writing professor. Connolley praises her writing, makes her feel good about herself, and accepts her for who she is. They end up having an affair, but Isobel feels like he's hiding something from her.

My Last Innocent Year was an amazing debut novel by Daisy Alpert Florin. This novel delves into some heavy topics, so make sure to check out trigger warnings before reading. This story is told from the first person pov of Isobel as she navigates her senior year of college, relationships, her future, and early adulthood. The writing in this novel was absolutely addictive. It was so beautifully written that I could not put it down. Isobel's story just sucked you in and didn't let go. I like that there's added foreshadowing in the story, so we know early on the path that Isobel's life ends up taking. The other characters weren't as well developed as Isobel, but that's okay because everything else makes up for that. This novel leaves you with a lot to think about after you finish reading. I enjoy reading these types of deep thinking, well written academia novels.

I really loved this book. The writing is beautiful, first of all, while also being compulsively readable. The story follows college student Isabel as she navigates her senior year at prestigious Wilder university. One of the college's few Jewish students, Isabel has a confusing "nonconsensual sexual encounter" (what I would absolutely call rape) with another Jewish student early on in the book. Her friend, a kind of riot grrl feminist tries to avenge her, with mixed results. Isabel later begins a relationship with an older, married professor. Simultaneously, she is struggling with the dynamics of her thesis advisor who is crumbling before her eyes as his marriage to another professor dissolves.

Set against the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, this book is a beautifully subtle exploration of consent and the myriad ways that we violate it and each other. It could so easily have been heavy handed, but it never is. I loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you enjoy beautifully written stream of consciousness noting the life lessons of a Jewish girl in college, this is for you. If you want plot or anything of the such, maybe don’t pick this one up. This story has explicit scenes of sexual assault, yet (as a survivor myself), it didn’t pack an emotional punch. I’m not saying I wish it had been gruesome or it isn’t a possible trigger, I just think there was a better way to depict it and get the right feelings across to the reader.
The writing is where this excels. It is rhythmic. You know that almost weightless feeling you get when floating on water? That’s kind of what the writing was like for this. I usually love and adore that, I just wish there was more depth and emotion put into it. This has the potential to be a tragically beautiful book but ultimately left me unfazed.

It's the winter of 1998 at a prestigious college in New Hampshire and Isabel Rosen has one semester left before graduation. Still reeling from the recent death of her mother, Isabel is adrift in the sea between being a teenager and being an adult. In the tradition of novels like Lolita or My Dark Vanessa, an older, handsome poet, and stand-in professor waltzes into Isabel's life, making her feel seen and feel as though she has value. However, it's a disservice to this novel to say this is the story of their affair. Rather, this is a story of a young woman chewing over the tough questions we inevitably run into at this cusp of adulthood; who are you without the influence of friends, family, or society? What choices will you make? What is love, actually?

I personally requested an early copy of this novel from NetGalley with high hopes after hearing comparisons to some of my favorite books, and if I'm honest, I was underwhelmed by this one. While technically well-written, I never found myself particularly empathetic or drawn in by any of the characters. The progression of plot points is sometimes meandering, sometimes abrupt -- toward the end, I had the overwhelming sense that there was just too much left to be said and not enough pages to do it in. There were too many thoughts competing for their time in the light.

This book is neither good nor bad in my opinion, it just... Is. I wanted to be emotionally damaged from the journey but came out with a clean bill of health. I think it'll find its people, it just wasn't enough for me.

3.5 rounded down.

I was very excited for this as someone who loves campus novels, coming of age novels, and Jewish representation, but overall I was left a little disappointed in this one.

Our protagonist, Isabel Rosen, has left her father in NYC to attend Wilder College in New Hampshire. We discover that her mother passed away right before she graduated high school, but of course, her legacy and memories live on with Isabel. Isabel narrates the story of her final year of college, including a sexual encounter with a fellow Jewish student that is messy and largely nonconsensual, her friendships with her roommates, the divorce of two famous professors in the English department, and the affair she has with her professor. I really liked the writing style of the book, and the fact that Isabel is narrating this from decades later means the reader gets occasional insights into the future that I found worked very well and kept me engaged.

However, I didn't realize that the affair with her professor would be the main storyline of the novel, which maybe was my fault, but it was so hard for me to empathize with Isabel as she keeps making very naive decisions and remains obsessed with the professor many decades later. I would've found the naivete more palatable if she had grown out of it in the final chapter, but she doesn't, which I found very frustrating as a reader.

Overall, I'm glad I read this one, but I was left wanting. Nothing objectively wrong with the book, and again, I enjoyed the writing, but it just didn't quite work for me.

I ABSOLUTELY loved this book! This was one of those reads that just stuck out to me, I HAD to get my hands on it and I am so excited and thankful to NetGalley for that!

This book reminds me so much of myself when I was younger, always wanting something or someone that didn't belong to me or fighting for someone to love me and being completely delusional with everything going around me.

I loved Isabel because I was Isabel, I loved her story, I loved how she had some really high highs but also mentioned her really low lows. I loved how real and how raw this story was.

I think My Dark Vanessa ruined me, as my expectations for this novel were matched to the absolute genius that MDV was.

My Last Innocent Year is good--in a similar fashion, it follows a woman who has a consensual relationship with a college professor, and shares the profound effects the affair, and its ramifications, left her with.

This was more than just the affects of the affair: it was also the effects of a relationship and friendship with the professors contemporaries.

I enjoyed this, but going in with MDV expectations is my own fault--that book was an absolute work of genius, and it isn't fair to compare, but unfortunately I did. I still definitely recommend.