Firsts
by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Published on January 5th 2016
by St. Martin's Press
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Goodreads
Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself.
Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.
When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.
I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
While it did not blow my mind or ripped my heart out or anything, Firsts turned out to be a pretty good and quite original YA Contemporary. It was exactly what I wanted but never exceeded my expectations.
Firsts is about Mercedes, who helps boys in getting their awkward first times over with. All she asks in return is for the first time with their girlfriends to be perfect, the kind of perfect first time Mercedes never got. But things get complicated when her best friend Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services, while Angela herself is uber-religious and wants to wait until marriage to have sex. She also didn’t count on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.
The negatives for this book are kind of minor and personal to me so I’ll get them over with. I wasn’t really comfortable with Mercedes’s “services”. It felt like she encouraged guys to cheat and I don’t like that. It was really uncomfortable to me. I also felt that, at times, there was a bit too much drama and those who’ve read my reviews before, know I’m not a big fan of books that are heavy on the drama. Unless it’s really necessary for the plot, which wasn’t always the case in this book.
As for the positives, I actually really liked the plot (aside from what I mentioned before), as it felt really original. I like the realistic take on teenagers and sex in this book. It was nice change of pace and felt very fresh. Teenagers have sex and I feel like a lot of YA authors shy away from that way too much. But where this book really shined for me where most of the characters.
I loved Zach, Angela and Faye. The latter really stood out to me in the later half of the book, she was just plain awesome. Zach was so wonderful and perfect for Mercedes. I liked Angela, even though I couldn’t really relate to her points of view, but I loved that she and Mercedes were best friends even though they were complete opposites for the most part. I also really liked the main character Mercedes and how confident she was with her sexuality. But I also liked seeing her vulnerable side when her world started to crumble around her. The romance was very sweet and Mercedes and Zach are perfect for each other.
Firsts is a sweet, realistic and quite original YA Contemporary you should read when you get the chance. I recommend it to all fans of YA Contemporary books and fans of the movie Easy A, as this book reminded me of that one a lot while I was reading!
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I know this one deals with controversial topics and from the sound of things I wasn’t sure about reading it. But Lekeisha is a blogger whose opinion I trust and she recommended this one to me so I am going to be reading it eventually. Great to hear your thoughts on it ^^
This book has intrigued me ever since I first found out about it. It sounds like an interesting premise and I like the way the romance between Mercedes and Zach sounds. But at the same time, I feel the same way as you about the encouragement of cheating… If I was one of the girlfriends, I would feel so hurt! I might give this a go anyway because it sounds like a fast-paced and cute contemporary.
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Yeah, so far all the review I’ve read where pretty positive outside of the cheating element. 🙂
I am going to read this because I am so curious about it. I don’t get why anyone would want to use her services to give their girlfriend a better first time. I mean, seriously. It’s your first time TOGETHER, you shouldn’t be a bloody expert at it. I am really curious to read it and see how it is justified within the book. I feel like any person would rather their partner just learn as they go, rather than going to have sex with someone else first. That sounds like the weirdest thing ever haha. I do want to read this though, it sounds so intriguing and I have seen so many good reviews.
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Indeed. xD I’d kick his ass, lol.
Twitter: Liza
Firsts has not been in my radar at all! Well., you know I tend to go for fantasy before contemporary, but I do like unique. I’m not sure about the cheating part since it’s a pet peeve of mine and I’m almost never okay with it. Great review Bee!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Thanks Liza! 🙂
Twitter: Emily
EASY A? That’s it, if I have to sell my soul to get this book I’ll do it. LOVE that movie (although the book, admittedly, does not have Emma Stone…quite the drawback). Anyway, I’ve seen heaps of positive reviews for this lately so despite my slight qualms about these “services” I’m very intrigued 🙂
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
You can always imagine Mercedes being played by Emma Stone? I hope you end up enjoying! 😀 I love that movie too. 🙂
Twitter: CG Paper Fury
I was really surprised at how much I liked this book!! ;D I’m like a BIG fantasy person so I was kinda taking a risk requesting it in the first place? But I really really liked the characters although not so much Mercedes because HELLO how did she think it wouldn’t blow up in her face?!?!? The ridiculousness of her justifying what she was doing didn’t make sense to me. *sigh* But I like how it contrasted her want for sex with Angela’s abstaining and how the book didn’t say EITHER was wrong. I thought that was really nice.
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Yeah I get that. 🙂 And yes, I liked the parallels between Angela and Mercedes. 🙂
I LOVED Zach!!! Also Faye. Their personalities really shined the second half of the book. I felt like we got to know them all so much more as the story progressed, which I loved. I really enjoyed this one too!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Same here 🙂
I’m not very religious or anything of the sort, but there are some things that I disagree with in this book, but I really love the overall story. I think it’s pretty ballsy to write a book such as this one anyway, and I’m glad the author didn’t take the easy route with this. Great review!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Indeed. 🙂
Twitter: The Infinite Limits of Love
I felt similarly about this book although I never quite lost my feelings of discomfort over Mercedes nor was I okay with the reasons why she did it.
The writing was great though and I liked Zach and her friends a lot!
Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Yeah I can understand that. 🙂 I guess for me the positives weighed heavier than the discomfort I felt over Mercedes’s actions. xD