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Firsts: A Novel av Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
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Firsts: A Novel (utgåvan 2016)

av Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (Författare)

MedlemmarRecensionerPopularitetGenomsnittligt betygOmnämnanden
12217222,301 (3.77)1
When word gets out that seventeen-year-old Mercedes has been sleeping with virgins so they can give their girlfriends the perfect first time she never had, she must salvage her reputation and determine where her heart belongs.
Medlem:janersm
Titel:Firsts: A Novel
Författare:Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (Författare)
Info:St. Martin's Griffin (2016), 333 pages
Samlingar:Ditt bibliotek
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Taggar:Ingen/inga

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Firsts av Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

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Visa 1-5 av 17 (nästa | visa alla)
4.5 Stars. I loved that the book didn't hold back!

When I first heard about this book, I was completely intrigued. It was recommended to me by a friend, and then the publisher contacted me about the blog tour, and I was SO feeling it. I couldn't believe that there would be a YA book coming out that was willing to center on high school sex. I love a book that goes for the hard issues, and this one was no exception!!

Mercedes is a girl who (for reasons) has sex with virgin guys who want to be able to give their girlfriend's a great first time without all the nervousness and awkwardness. She teaches them the tricks of the trade (by doing the sex) and then helps them plan out the most special night possible for their girlfriends. With a premise like that, I totally wondered where this could go?? I was cringing all over the place because I just knew that this would not end well. While Mercedes thought (however misguidedly) that she was HELPING these guys, anyone who really takes a look at the situation can see that sleeping with someone else is NOT the way to give a girl a great first time. Not just the cheating, but also the whole idea that these girls believe it's going to be BOTH of their first times... something that they're BOTH going to be going through together... and yeah, most people can see just how wrong on so many levels that is.

As Mercedes goes along with her helping plan, she starts getting lazy with her own rules. Rules that she designed to keep everything on the DL and to keep her from getting too close. Her screening process became completely blasé, and it started to become pretty clear that she was doing this whole thing for herself and not for the joy of helping. As things started to blow up, I couldn't help but feel relieved because this shizz just could not keep going on this way. The way it blew up became really heartbreaking though. I wanted to hug Mercedes and shield her. Luckily she has 2 amazing friends that do that for me. Zach (the only non-virgin guy in her bedroom) and Faye (the new girl that latches on) both go above and beyond in ways that bordered on unbelievable. While I really loved Zach and wanted to squish his face, I felt like he was too good to be true. And Faye was total stalker-vibe. But without them, I don't know how Mercedes would have made it through.

This book centers so much on sex and control. Mercedes thinks she's in control of her sex life, but it becomes pretty obvious she's not. And that's before her religious BFF's boyfriend blows up her spot. Once that cat's out of the bag, some pretty extreme bullying goes on. It's very sad to read a girl being treated the way Mercedes gets treated, even if what she did was wrong. She wasn't the only one rolling around on those sheets. The guys were just as much at fault, but they didn't get "Whore" written on their locker. Or physically assaulted in the hallways. I kept wondering where the hell the cops were, because a video gets leaked and it's pretty obvious that it's child porn. The person who made the tape and posted the video should be facing some hardcore jail time.

In the end, I wished things didn't wrap up quite so cleanly. This was a messy book, I thought it wasn't as true to the story to have things so HEA. Although, there was a part of the ending that my heart just wanted to BURST of happiness from. I had SO many feelings reading this book... not all of them good. A lot of those feelings were frustration and anger at the situations, but I still HAD to know where this crazy-train was going. I loved that it explored family issues and friendships and letting people "in". I loved that it was a teen sexuality book, but I also kind of wished that the sex didn't have to lead to a whole big lesson thing. On another topic- I would LOVE to read a book about teen sexuality where the teens don't have a giant lesson to learn. Where it's healthy, happy sex and the teens are fine with it. Sometimes sex is just sex. Sometimes.

OVERALL: LOVED that a book dealt with teen sex so unashamedly. I could not stop reading it because there was so much going on that kept me NEEDING to know!! I am so happy I read this and hope you guys will all give it a chance too!

My Blog:

( )
  Michelle_PPDB | Mar 18, 2023 |
This was a very sophisticated novel that explored a lot of themes very important, and I wish a younger me could have read it.

This book obviously has a lot of sex, but it works it. It shamelessly attacks the stigmas that society often projects and I absolutely love that. Instead of getting too philosophical, however, it perfectly melds this into a very teeny young adult plot that makes it a lot of fun to read and easy to follow.

I've been waiting forever for a character like Mercedes. She's spunky but really kind hearted and a lot of what she does is genuinely to help other people. Underneath her exterior we get glimpses of the self she's not letting others see. She works hard, but isn't single minded. She's dynamic. I love her, and more importantly, I love reading about her. She's interesting. The science element was very well played, and added to Mercedes's character while showing the way she thinks and adding to the plot.

Faye added what I thought was going to be a more interesting dynamic than it was, but provided a great inspiration for Mercedes to work with. Angela, too, was, in addition to a great friend, a fabulous foil. Of the whole book, Zach was probably my least favourite part as his character did feel rather flat, and I would have liked to see him expanded more.

I loved the way the story worked around and led up to the final revelation. I wasn't surprised by that point, just sad, but the way it had all cumulated was very effective as I initially had an entirely different and incorrect theory.

The topics this book works with are important, and this is the beginning of what could be a great forum.

For challenging stigmas that society has set alone, this story would be worth reading. However, with a fantastic lead and an interesting plot, I highly recommend this inspiring book.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )
  whakaora | Mar 5, 2023 |
I received a copy via net galley.

This book just charmed me. It deals with some rather large subject matters that many try and fail at but it was damn near perfect. The characters were beautifully flawed and real, storyline crisp and well paced. I highly enjoyed it. A bit of the decisions might've left me feeling slightly meh, or a side charater I felt kinda got the short end of things but still great read, would definitely recommend. ( )
  HookxWendy | Sep 2, 2022 |
Ooo I have complicated feelings about this one. They're hidden because they're going to get spoilery.

(Also CW: discussion of rape and incest in the last paragraph)

So I really liked that Mercedes/Mercy was doing something bad - sleeping with boys in relationships - and... that’s her! That’s her character! Let female protagonists be complicated and do the wrong thing!

A lot of the Goodreads reviews are critical of her behaviour and that’s totally fine (I also don’t agree with what she’s doing) but it’s not a reason to dislike the book because people do dumb shit all the time, especially teenagers. Her parents’ divorce and her mother’s absence and fucking terrible parenting are shown as reasons for her behaviour and maybe they’re kind of shitty reasons but??? So what. You don’t have to agree with her behaviour, sayin’ it again for all those who missed it the first time.

Also I loved that there was no drama or homophobia around Mercy finding Faye attractive. It was just... “hey there’s a cute girl and I think she might be flirting with me and I’m not sure if I like her or Zach more”. There was no guilt or questioning her sexuality - it just was. BUT I have some... reservations? with Mercy being shown as promiscuous and overly sexual and breaking up relationships and possibly bisexual because that’s a really harmful stereotype about bisexual people that needs to be taken out the back and shot. (I’m also not bi myself so probably not the best person to weigh in but yeah there were good things and dubious things about that representation.)

There were also elements of the plot that didn’t entirely sit right with me - Charlie’s villainy was cartoonish (why would he try so hard to marry Angela instead of just dumping her or cheating on her) and I didn’t like Faye and Zach’s video as a “solution” to the problem (I think accepting that she did the wrong thing and learning to live with other people’s judgement should be a big part of Mercy’s development, not having her friends try to deflect the attention).

Zach was basically the stand in, “perfect” boyfriend who is just there to be the love interest who’s still around even though Mercy’s fucked everything else up, and to keep coming back no matter how many times she pushes him away. It also deeply irritated me that the only authentic part of Mercy’s character was her love of chemistry and her drive to attend MIT and then once she hooked up with Zah there was the line about “I could drive away in a few months like I planned and start fresh. Or I could stay here and love the people I’m with and the life I have with them.” And I was just screaming at the book “No! You worked your guts out and got into MIT don’t you dare give that up for a boy!”.

Deep breath.

ALSO I was definitely expecting that the big reveal was going be that “Luke”, the guy who raped Mercy when she was 13, was going to be her father and it would be an added layer of horror to the whole scenario. (I’m not totally convinced that wasn’t the author’s plan at some stage, because the reveal scene would have been so perfect, with her Dad asking “Why do you call your mother [Kim]?” and it could have been the perfect lead in to him saying “But you don’t call me [Luke].” and just... I was so sure it was going to happen! Plus Charlie showing up to be their gardener felt weird and kind of shoehorned in just so he could remind Mercy of their old gardener Luke. If Luke was originally going to be her Dad that wouldn’t have been necessary... But now I feel like I’m complaining that there wasn’t enough molestation in this book which is super weird but please tell me if you read/have read it and also picked up on those vibes or if it was just me.)
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  a-shelf-apart | Nov 19, 2019 |
Read the full review on my blog!

First off, I would just like to mention this is the first book I have done a proper review for from Netgalley, and I just want to thank St. Martin's Griffin from giving me the opportunity to read this book!

Firstly, I found the start of this book to be a little slow. It wasn't a bad part, it just felt like a description of Mercedes having sex with multiple guys, and saying each one would be her last. Also, I'm kinda glad Mercedes was able to admit to herself that she wasn't just having sex with them for their benefit, because it was easy to tell she wanted it too.

I'm not entirely sure how to write this review properly without giving away much of the plot of the book, but I think it was easy to presume what w0uld happen to Mercedes system right from the start of the book, however I didn't think he would be the one to do it. I thought Mercedes must be pretty naive to not even consider the system would fall apart at some point, and before she started she should've considered the consequences of what would happen if people found out. However, I still wasn't expecting exactly what happened.

It was quite annoying that Mercedes wouldn't admit to herself that she wanted to be with Zach, and when she became annoyed with Freya I found myself getting annoyed, because it wasn't fair for her to lead Zach on and then expect him to just wait around.

I could comment on so many different areas of this book but it would ruin what happened overall, so I think it's time to stop. The final thing I want to say is that I'm kind of disappointed that Freya and Mercedes didn't happen. Overall though, I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely buy it when it is released. ( )
  perksofbeingpeculiar | Jan 17, 2019 |
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When word gets out that seventeen-year-old Mercedes has been sleeping with virgins so they can give their girlfriends the perfect first time she never had, she must salvage her reputation and determine where her heart belongs.

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