Title: Firsts
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Genre: Romance/Contemporary/Young Adult
Publisher: St. Martins Griffin
Publication: January 5th, 2016
Pages: 320
Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills 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 really wanted to read this book because it is a contemporary and the synopsis sounded like something different and maybe something that I would like. But as I started reading, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
The whole concept of Mercedes being the one that takes the virginity of boys is just weird when I think about it. She wants to learn the boys how to actually have sex – so that their girlfriend enjoy their first time as much as they probably could. Why Mercedes did this? Her first time wasn’t that great at all so she wanted to pass the knowledge so that the girlfriends wouldn’t have to experience it they way she did. I get that, but why would you want to sleep with so many guys and let them be cheaters?
The thing is, that those boys chose for themselves. It wasn’t like Mercedes pushed them or anything, but we all know how boys can be and I actually think Mercedes seduced them someway just to take their virginity and just as she said at the end of the book – to be in control. I think it’s just really selfish and just really weird and wrong, but that didn’t stop me from reading the book.
Even though I didn’t like all of that, there was something about it that I still wanted continue reading. I guess it was because of Zach, and if he finally gives up on Mercedes or just kept chasing after Mercedes forever. Because I think the way Mercedes treated Zach was kind of awful, she knew she had him eating out of her hand and still every Wednesday, she ripped his heart right out when she told him she doesn’t want to be his girlfriend. It was so selfish of her to choose for herself – and I’d actually wanted her to cut things off and don’t give Zach false hope, but well, she didn’t.
At some point, I thought the book would make an LGBT turn, but surprisingly it didn’t. I kind of liked it that Laurie didn’t shy away from her character being gay and I think that is great. Even though Mercedes isn’t gay – she doesn’t shut it out and I liked that about her.
Another thing about this book was that I didn’t felt anything at all when things went down for Mercedes. At some point, I felt pity, because it happened to her, but just at the same time I was like – No, she caused all of her own problems so I don’t even pity her at all. Normally I would think that I would have to feel that connection to a character for liking the book, but with this book, it’s surprising to actually feel nothing at all. It’s new, I’ve never experienced something like that at all.
Even though I thought the book was totally crazy, it did send out a great message when it comes to friendship and I think it resembled it pretty well actually. Every friendship has its ups and downs and it’s only good Laurie put this into the book too.
I would have to admit that this is by far not the best book I’ve read and even though I didn’t like the concept at all, it somehow still managed to touch me in some sort of way.
So if you want to read a contemporary with something totally different as a storyline – Firsts is definitely the one you should be reading.
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