Firsts

by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

The description of Firsts is so unique and bold! I knew I had to read it, and I'm so glad that I did! Mercedes isn't like other girls. But not in that annoying way that all other YA heroines aren't like other girls. Mercedes gives sex lessons to virgin boyfriends so that they can make their girlfriends' first times not suck. So yeah, she has sex with other girls' boyfriends, but not in a malicious way. She's helping. Or at least she thinks so, as long as the truth doesn't get out.

Firsts was wonderful! I loved Mercedes and her thought processes! She's clearly a caring person, even if maybe her way of helping others is unorthodox. But she's also a scientist and approaches her lessons that way. She's very logical about how she handles these boys. Of course, her process gets thrown off and things start slowly unraveling until she's left with a big ol' mess!

There's just two minor things that nagged at me about Firsts. The first being Mercedes' mother. She's one of those women who cannot deal with getting older. She's had plenty of cosmetic procedures, she dates younger men, dresses way younger than she is, and is generally just not very grown up. She also basically encourages Mercedes to have boys over and skip school. Not very good parenting. However, there's never any explanation for her behavior, and at times it just felt unbelievable. Almost like a convenient way for Mercedes to do what she's doing without getting caught. Mercedes hates her mother, and there's no resolution to this at the end either.

The second thing, was that after the big drama happens (and it's great drama!), I couldn't help but wonder why no one thought about taking legal action. I honestly didn't expect Mercedes to actually do it, because she didn't want this thing to become a bigger thing than it was. But it doesn't cross a single character's mind that Mercedes is 17 and what's been done to her is illegal. It was the first thing that popped into my head when it happened.

But other than those two things, Firsts is pretty awesome. I have never, ever, ever read anything even remotely similar to this before. It's was so refreshing! Teenage girls have sex! Most of them probably don't teach hands on sex ed to other girls' boyfriends, but they're doing it! They can enjoy it (Mercedes also has a guy that she regularly sleeps with for fun)! It was just a really great read and covered an important topic in a unique way.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.