Review: Firsts (Laurie Elizabeth Flynn)

Firsts
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Publication Date: January 6, 2015
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Note: This review is for an ARC and is my unbiased opinion.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Synopsis:

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.


Firsts was a tough book for me to read. While the storyline sounds new and fun, it wasn’t fun to read most of the time. It was actually kind of depressing. There were so many tough issues going on in this book.

I felt bad for Mercedes. Her parents sucked and she had no support system. She was so busying trying to hide who she really was and what she was doing that even her so-called best friend didn’t really know her.

When things started to take a turn for the (even) worse for Mercedes, the story became uncomfortable for me to read. I honestly considered putting the book down and marking it DNF. I know what happened to Mercedes happens to people all the time in real life, but it didn’t make it any easier to read.

I also think the author could have done a little bit more with the story to deal with the reasons behind Mercedes’ quest. I felt like I was told why she did what she did but there wasn’t any resolution to the reasons.

So, obviously, this book wasn’t my favorite. BUT I do think it was well written and would be a good book for teenagers to read. It does a great job at getting across the point that anything that is written down (even if it’s private and hidden) can find its way to the public. Same with anything that’s said or done. You never know if someone is recording your actions. With technology, you can’t be 100% sure anything is private.

4 thoughts on “Review: Firsts (Laurie Elizabeth Flynn)”

  1. I almost didn’t want to read your review on this one because I’m so excited to read the book, so I’ve been debating on it! But I love your reviews so I had to see what you thought!

    This book does sound fun, but you’re right – the subject matter in question could make for a depressing book. It seems like it has a really great message though, which could be great for older teens to read like you pointed out.

    As always, great review!

    1. I saw your post that you wanted to read it. I didn’t comment because I didn’t want to influence you! I’ll simplify it this way. Mercedes is a train wreck. She’s a horrible, horrible person no matter what way she excuses herself. But the book itself wasn’t necessarily bad. I just don’t like to feel uncomfortable all the time. This book made me feel that way. It has high Goodreads ratings, so other people obviously really liked it. Maybe you’ll love it. I got it from NetGalley, so that would be a good way to read it if you’re interested.

  2. Oooh, our ratings are actually exactly the same for this book! I just had it on my TTT mostly because I have no other book to mention, haha.

    I never thought about DNF-ing it and picked out different themes from it, but I agree that there wasn’t any real resolution. I also took issue with the fact that what the boys are doing with Mercedes is cheating, but it never was called out or explicitly phrased that way… which is problematic in my opinion. 😛

    1. Haha! Really? That’s funny. I totally agree with the double standard thing. 🙂

Comments are closed.

Discover more from A Novel Glimpse

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading