Past Perfect

Past Perfect by Lelia Sales follows Chelsea who is spending the summer, like every summer before working at a colonial historical village.  Chelsea has spent the past several months getting over a breakup and is not happy when her Ex Boyfriend is at orientation.  To make things more complicated Chelsea has been elected second in command of the War between her colonial village and the Confederate one across the street and when she's kidnapped she falls for Dan who is one of the enemy.

I LOVED this book.  It was hysterical.  I couldn't get enough of the historical village and the prank filled war between the two battling sides.  The details in the small characters were great and made the book from the dorky boy with a big crush to her father the history buff and her best friend who is joining her in becoming an ice cream connoisseur.  The romance is a very small part of the book with a larger part being Chelsea getting over her ex-boyfriend and realizing that perhaps things were not as perfect as she remembered.  I loved this book, it was laugh out loud funny.

 Appropriateness:  There are some drunken party scenes in the book although Chelsea does not get drunk.  The romance is limited to kissing (although they are hot kisses) and the kids pull a lot of pranks that ride the line in their legality.  I would recommend this book to readers 12+ who are fans of romantic comedy and chic lit.

If you liked this book and the reenactment village setting then be sure to pre-order Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm which comes out in May it has a similar feel to this book.