Originally posted at Small Review. 
 I almost DNF-ed after the first chapter 
 The story starts out with Justina waking up in a ditch with no memory of what happened the night before. But she very quickly begins alluding to events from the previous night, so she sort of does remember. And then she does remember. Confusing? Yeah, I was confused, too. 
 To make it even more confusing, Justina's first person narration started out relating the events in a broken, cryptic, half-explained manner (frequently noting "but I'm getting ahead of myself" and then dropping that train of thought!) and I had NO CLUE what was going on. 
 I wanted to shake her and tell her to just spit it out already--COHERENTLY! I don't like feeling lost as to what is going on in a story, so the whole first chapter really bugged me. I almost DNF-ed right there. 
 Like a teen movie 
 But I WAS intrigued so I kept reading and I'm glad I did. Once Justina gets to the 7-11 and starts telling her story to the cashier, the story picks up and the narrative smooths out a lot. I wasn't confused anymore. 
 At this point I totally felt like I had been sucked into a teen romantic comedy movie. Even the narrative style (tone and execution) made me think "MOVIE SCRIPT." This is a good thing. I love those kinds of movies, and I loved this book version just as much. 
 It goes something like this 
 The book alternates between the present in the 7-11 and the events of the night before. 
 The 7-11 chapters are short and serve as little interludes where the 7-11 cashier and, later, one of the customers who stays to listen, chime in with their opinions and sympathy. I liked these sections and they made me feel like I was another random person who stopped to listen to Justina tell her crazy story. 
 I also liked how these chapters provided a frame for the plot to work within. Justina's story can be mapped by the stains on her dress, and each interlude nudged Justina toward explaining how she got every stain, rip, and bruise (and tattoo). 
 Between each of these interludes is a larger chapter chronicling a part of Justina's prom night. These parts were the meat of the story. 
 Since I knew Justina ends her night alone, dumped out of a car, and hating the guy she was supposed to be in love with, my curiosity was super high. I read these chapters with rapt attention, trying to piece together the events of her evening and guess how she ended up where she did. It was almost like a mystery, complete with clues, red herrings, and suspects. 
 Feeling sorry for yourself? Read this book 
 I decided to pick up Ditched because I was in one of those two-ice-cream-tubs pity party moods. I put on my pajamas, curled up in bed, grabbed a chocolate bar and settled into Justina's tale. It was perfect. Perfect. 
 Ditched made me smile and laugh out loud. I commiserated with Justina and snacked on junk food right along with her. I groaned out loud as her night went from bad to unbelievably worse. I grinned with fluffy happiness when the most unexpected people came through for her. Ditched was exactly what I was looking for. 
 Bottom line 
 After the rocky start, Ditched held my interest completely. The story moved along at a good pace with pieces of the puzzle coming together in each chapter. Ditched is a standalone. 
 Ditched is Robin Mellom's first book and already I can't wait to see what she writes next. Definitely a good pick if you're looking for a fun romantic comedy. Only drawback is that the guy is absent from the story for a large chunk of the book, but, don't worry, Justina more than makes up for that. 
 Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 
 Originally posted at Small Review.