Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom

Justina never saw herself going to the prom. She definitely never saw herself going in a big, poofy, satiny prom dress. And she certainly never saw herself going with Ian Clark, her best friend and the one person she can always count on. But of all the things that she never thought about, she never imagined that she'd be ending the night in a ditch! Now, with the help of some women at the 7-Eleven, she must piece together - bruise by bruise, stain by stain - exactly what happened and how she ended up ditched on prom night.

I had a hard time getting into the story at first. It was difficult to wrap my head around a teen girl climbing out of a ditch, bruised and with a torn dress, and be in the mood for a comedic romantic story (I had a similar reaction to Caroline's subplot in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, where I was so worried about a drunk girl in a van with strangers that it was hard to keep my mind on the main plot). But as the story went on, I saw that nothing terrible had happened (at least not in the way that I was fearing) and I could settle in and enjoy the story. And I did enjoy it. Justina is an engaging narrator and protagonist and I really did want to know what happened at the prom - but even more than that, I wanted her to have her happy ending. The back-and-forth between the morning and the night before broke up the narrative in a way that kept the story moving and allowed for lots of dramatic tension in a Hangover sort of way. The ending might come across as a little neat but, after all of the drama in getting there, it felt very satisfying.

Don't miss Robin Mellom's website.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley courtesy of Disney-Hyperion.

Find it at IndieBound. 

Read it with:
The Classroom by Robin Mellom
The Darlings Are Forever by Melissa Kantor
Prom by Ellie O'Ryan