I was very glad to be able to review this. So, first of all, I have to
thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with the ARC, on
a read-to-review basis.
In sum, Mercedes lives in a
dysfunctional family. Her father left home when she was younger—and
named her after a car—, her mother is never really home except to push
for unhealthy diets and to give not-very-age-appropriate advices, and
the person she used to love used her, fooling her into sleeping with
him. When she was thirteen. Thus, she decides to help other girls have a
better first sexual experience by teaching their virgin boyfriends how
to treat a girl right. She surrounds herself with numbers and formulas,
and try to follow logic, patterns. At school, she is friends with the
person who wouldn't pry into her secret life, who also happens to be a
convict Christian. At home, she refuses to call her mother by name. She
also won't accept that her "Wednesday friend" becomes anything beyond a
one-day-a-week fun time. For Mercedes, life can be fit in a formula, and
if she balances right on one side, she'll know what to expect on the
other. She follows her strict rules. Until she doesn't.
The
five-virgins pay-forward deal becomes ten going to eleven, and she
doesn't even enjoy going through planning the big date prior to the act,
or giving detailed instructions. Maybe the last few weren't even
virgins but she did enjoy it. Sometimes, not even that but she did agree
to it, so she has to go to the end. One day, it is her best friend's
boyfriend who asks for her help.
I really enjoyed how the author
conducted the organization of chaos Mercedes so desperately tried to
force. Mercedes herself was a great character for a third of the book.
To be honest, I liked most of the characters portrayed here. Even when
they didn't act ideally, I could understand them. Like how Angela
doesn't seem to notice much about her friend or perhaps not care, in
case she does notice how on the verge of a collapse Mercedes finds
herself. I loved Faye in that aspect. She was always there in a very
believable manner.
And I'll start my critics from here. I feel
the author got lost on what she was going for in the middle of the
story. I asked myself many times if this wasn't LGBT because Mercedes
friendship with Faye was time and again questioned as a possible
physical attraction (and Mercedes being as methodical came to terms
rather easily). Mercedes's mom was great. You know, she is responsible
for her daughter's state of mind but I was unable to hate her, it was
more like a love-to-hate feeling? I found her very charismatic and proof
the author is very capable of building antagonizing characters. And
then there was Zach. I found him cute from the start but I wasn't sure
if I should cheer for them. Especially when he's not even mentioned on
the summary.
Now I mentioned it, the summary is almost a spoiler,
because the boyfriend, Charlie, only does anything at around 61% of the
book. He's also my big no-no. The author recognizes by the ending
Charlie seemed to have changed overnight. But why? Indeed, because
Mercedes never got close, we don't know much of Charlie but this
overnight observation comes from his very own girlfriend. Is he mentally
ill? Was there a good reason? I feel the author should have spent more
time there instead of villainizing him, black on white. It was a
let-down because for 61% I impatiently waited for his proposition to
Mercedes, but he wasn't himself by then. Moreover, we didn't need a bad
guy for Mercedes's charade to fall through, and we reach the climax. I
was biting my nails knowing it would all come down pretty soon. It's
obvious the world has too many elements for someone to bring it to a
formula—and the book recognizes that. Last, I don't want to spoil it but
I didn't like Faye's plan by the end. I don't think it equalizes with
what had happened. And I can't criticize this point but neither can I
help not liking how the boyfriends were never much of the focus, though
I'll give it to the author for at least acknowledging their share of the
blame—through Faye's lines, have I mentioned how much I like her?
Summing
up, I loved the author's style and would like to read more by her from
now. This didn't get a higher grade but I can see her reaching five
stars with other stories, Preferably if they are as daring as Firsts.
She got me for follower.
Rate: 4 out of 5
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