The Book: 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. (From Goodreads)
My Feels: My friend Joan absolutely adored this book, so I knew I had to give it a go, and I'm SO GLAD I DID. This book is layered, filled with complex characters, and gave me such a mix of emotions. I gobbled this up so quickly immediately hooked by Mercedes voice. For someone who's sleeping with other people's boyfriends, I didn't think I would sympathize with the MC as much as I did. And because of that, I have to applaud Flynn for her characterization. She's developed fascinating characters and relationships that prompt the reader to keep reading. This is definitely a bang of a debut, so I'm excited to see what else Flynn comes up with next. If you haven't read this yet, I highly recommend putting this on your TBR list!
