Okay, A First Time for Everything totally charmed me!!

First of all, the A Summer of Broken Rules cameos?? I was LIVING for them—seriously squealed out loud. Emily Walther knows how to sprinkle just the right amount of magic from her past books to make longtime fans feel right at home.

In this one, Maddie’s world gets turned upside down when her brother proposes in Paris (dreamy, right? except... plot twist) in front of only his fiancée’s family. Cue awkward family vibes, especially since Maddie barely knows the bride-to-be. But then she's asked to be a bridesmaid (despite being the youngest by a whole five years), and things get interesting. Think: Bachelorette-style blind dates, chaotic wedding planning, and a swoony slow-burn romance with two potential love interests—her longtime bestie-next-door and the mysterious family friend who’s suddenly everywhere 👀.

This one is a bit of a shift for Walther—it spans a whole year instead of her usual week-long timelines, and I honestly loved getting to grow with Mads. Yes, the romance took its sweet time (and maybe fizzled a bit at the end), but the girlhood, the sisterhood, the found family vibes?? Chef’s kiss. The dreamy descriptions of every place they visit made me feel like I was right there, sipping coffee in a cozy Parisian café or dancing barefoot at a lakeside wedding.

This book felt like a warm hug and a love letter to all the chaos, beauty, and magic of being a girl growing up with your heart wide open 💕

The KLW universe never disappoints! Ms. Walther came back with an absolute dream of a book! I felt that the premise was executed beautifully and the descriptions of the setting were so detailed that I felt like I was there with Mads through everything. I also loved the call backs to previous KLW books because I felt like I was catching up with old friends when characters were mentioned. This was such a sweet, heartfelt book, and I fully recommend anyone who enjoys a cute romance with an ensemble of characters who just want the best for the main character.

Thank you Netgalley for the digital advanced copy!

This was such a cute read, K.L. Walther really knows how to write a fun YA summer/beach read. This one takes place over the course of a year, all leading up to Mads' brother, Austin's wedding to Katie. I really enjoyed getting to know Mads and her whole family was so much fun! I had trouble with some of the characters at the beginning, especially Kate but I really ended up liking her in the end. The cameos from A Summer of Broken Rules were such a perfect touch and such a fun peek into their lives a few years later. The setup dates for Mads made me so sad, I wish she didn't have to go through everything she went through but the end was just so perfect. I was so happy for her and her whole family too!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

First and foremost, the cameos in this book were EVERYTHING to me. I honestly couldn’t stop smiling every time I saw familiar names. As for the rest of the book, it was simply amazing. This book was emotional, infuriating, funny, tense, and romantic all in one. I loved it. I would definitely reccomend any K. L. Walther fan read this one!

Another fantastic read by K,L. Walther, A First Time for Everything is an enthralling feel-good story that captures the readers attention immediately! I loved the dual-plot between the looming wedding and the “Ready, set, date” storyline while Mads was still working to maintain the other aspects of her life with colleges and friendships. This book incorporated themes of family, love, and friendship all while engaging the reader in a drama-filled plot. I especially loved the way K.L. Walther designed this plot to subtly hint towards Mads and Marco having chemistry while waiting to establish their relationship until further in the book. This kept me on the edge of my seat in the best way possible while reading this book! A First Time for Everything is another five-star YA read by K.L. Walther, and I am looking forward to re-reading it in the future!

Maddie’s brother drops a bombshell when he proposes to his girlfriend in Paris—surrounded entirely by her family, and none of Maddie’s. Even worse, Maddie barely knows Katie, her brother’s new fiancée, as she hardly seems to tolerate Maddie’s family. Nevertheless, Katie invites Maddie to be a bridesmaid, and she accepts, despite being younger than the rest by a minimum of 5 years.

With the wedding set for the end of the year, the bridesmaids decide to set Maddie up on a series of Bachelorette-style blind dates to determine who she should bring as her plus-one. Maddie has never had a boyfriend (she’s very focused on her career in field hockey), and the bridesmaids bond with her by choosing boys with whom she can practice dating. But of course, Maddie has two perfectly viable options right under her nose: her boy-next-door best friend who is chronically in a relationship, and the family friend who keeps appearing everywhere Maddie looks, and who isn’t at all who he seemed to be back in high school. Hijinks, wedding shenanigans, girlhood, and romance ensues!

This latest novel diverts from Walther’s typical YA. Normally Walther loves a story that takes place over a night or maybe a week, but A First Time for Everything covers a year, from engagement to wedding, junior to senior year. I appreciated how well we got to know the couples, and as a current bridesmaid, I loved the wedding drama and bachelorette weekend (although my experiences have been much less crazy). I will say the romance was a slow burn with a slightly lackluster payout, but Walther makes up for it in strong examples of female friendship, girlhood, sisterhood, and family. This is a love letter to best friends and what it means to be a girl, and I quite enjoyed the change in pace for Walther!

Fans of Lynn Painter, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Sarah Dessen, and Becky Dean will love.

I was thrilled to receive this book and even more thrilled to read it and discover this is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year! It follows Madeline, a seventeen year old girl who is inexperienced in dating. When Madeline is asked to be a bridesmaid in her brother’s wedding, the other bridesmaids are determined to help her get more dating experience. It has the perfect amount of romance, but also a heartwarming side plot of Madeline bonding with her soon to be sister-in-law. I was so drawn in by it and it was exactly what I needed. It’s a fantastic ya romance and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre.

I am so sad to give this book 2 stars because I LOVED the Summer of Broken Rules. This book fell flat on its face for me. First- Mads has to be the most annoying character possible. She was so irritating, I could not get over how annoying she was. Second- why were they so awful to Katie? It's never explained in a way that made any sense. And how they treated Austin's ex-girlfriend would make any fiance upset! Third- why are a group of twenty-somethings so invested in Mad's love life? It was just so, so, bad. Skip this one. Wait for more pleasant characters.

Not exactly my cup of tea, but gave it a go and found it enjoyable enough. Better suited to younger readers

I have read a few by Walther now, and I have to say she knows how to write a sweet YA novel. This story was so cute and believable. I feel this book could be more categorized as new age than YA compared to previous books I've read of hers. I really enjoyed Mads and found her love interests fun and charming. I actually loved who she ended up with! I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a fun heartfelt story.

generally pretty cute story, but with the factor that most of the main plot appears to be unwilling, that sorta puts a ding on it. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
this book was sooooo super cute. it of course had romance elements but the friendships and family dynamics were my favorite part of this book. the main character acted her age and wasn’t annoying in the slightest. all of the different types of relationships romantic,platonic, and familial were all sooo natural and believable. i felt like the characters were people i knew in real life and couldn’t put this book down. i think this author has truly mastered writing the new age ya book. some older ya novels read as too young sounding and some newer ones are obviously not written with actual teenage readers in mind. i’ve loved all of her books and i would highly recommend this one!!

I have really enjoyed K.L. Walther's characters and stories and was so excited to dive into this one. I did struggle a bit with how to rate it, waffling between 3 and 4 stars, but ultimately decided on 3 because the issues I had with it really got me riled up. I will more than likely still buy the book when it releases.

What I liked:

-Meredith and Wit. Look, I know they have their own book and this one wasn't about them, but I LOVED seeing them again. As I mentioned before, I've liked all of Walther's characters, but Meredith and Wit are something special to me and by far my favorite. Having them appear in this book felt like a little extended epilogue of "The Summer of Broken Rules" where we get to see them and their relationship in the future. Did I mention that I loved it? 5+ stars for Mer and Wit!!!
-Field Hockey. This is not a sport that is especially popular or well known where I live, so I thought it was cool that Mads not only played it, but played on a club team. My daughter plays club soccer and I liked that we got a glimpse of Mads' love for the sport, as well as the dedication that goes into playing for a club team.
-Marco. Such as sweetie pie, who isn't perfect. Despite his faults (did I wish he were a real person so I could smack him upside his head? Absolutely), his positive attributes outweighed the not-so-positive. Conner might have been her proclaimed BFF, but her friendship with Marco felt deeper and more nuanced.
-Mads' friendship with Conner and her journey through discovering her true feelings regarding their relationship. Took me back to my own teenage years.
-The deep familiar ties and love between Mads, her brother, and dads. Were they perfect? No, but no family is, and it was obvious that they had each other's back and would move mountains for the other.
-The ending result for the couples.

What I didn't like:

-The family's treatment of Katie (brother Austin's fiancee), as well as the character of Katie herself. I didn't feel like evolution of discovering Katie's true motives/personality was as well done as it could have been, and her character revelation felt jarring. With that said, I do sympathize with her and felt that the entire family was awful to her. Mads is more easily forgiveable, as she is a teenager and her emotional immaturity is quite evident. However, the dads, as leaders of the family, did not do enough (in my opinion) to bring Katie into the fold and to curb Mads' unfair accusations. Even if they agreed with what she said and felt towards Katie, as parents they should have put their feelings aside, trusted her brother and guided Mads on how to be more supportive. Mads is quite immature, even for her age, and the dads don't do much, if anything, to help her evolve. Which leads me into my next complaint.
-Austin. He had potential, but he was an awful fiance to Katie. He did not do enough to incorporate Katie into the family or adequately defend her to them. I do believe he truly loved her, but he still sucked.
-Austin's best friend (I can't remember her name). I get that the point of her was to be a justaposition to Mads' relationship with Conner, but her and Austin's relationship was a giant red flag for me and no one can change my mind on that. I didn't get Mads' devotion to her when it was obvious the sentiment wasn't returned. Maybe it was supposed to be, but that wasn't communicated at all and I felt that while the family adored the BFF (ugh another pet peeve is how the dads made it seem like she was their pick for Austin over Katie), she liked them only because they were Austin's family. Also, she supposedly is in love with Austin, but decides to confess her love at the bachelor party, which shows her selfishness and makes me question her love. And finally, Austin doesn't do enough to distinguish his feelings towards BFF as platonic rather than romantic and I felt that it in turned was leading her on. I'm trying to wrap this up because I'm being wordy, but I could write a 5 page paper on how their relationship was not ok and contrubuted to Austin's neglect of Katie.

TLDR: I really liked the Meredith and Wit cameos, as well as the ending result for the characters' romantic relationships, but the characters themselves fluctuated between leaving something to be desired and just straight up giving me rage.
Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the ARC in return for my honest opinion!

The romance is wonderfully cute, filled with tender moments and emotional authenticity, while the characters feel like people you’d love to have in your own life.

I am a big fan of K.L. Walther's other books so I jumped on the chance to read the ARC of A First Time for Everything and I'm so glad I got the chance to as I really enjoyed this book. This was a cute book and I really liked the fact that while it was about finding Mads a date, it wasn't just about that I had other subplots and sprinkled many other themes into the story. My only complaint is I feel like some parts of the book were rushed and there. were 1 or 2 things mentioned that I wished we got to see fleshed out. But overall a very feel-good and sweet book.

Madeline, Mads, has a great family, she is talented at field,hockey and is completely adorable. I loved her and her family. Her brother just got engaged and Mads does not like his fiancee, although she tries to get along with her. She is going to be a bridesmaid and the bridesmaids discover she has never had a date or been kissed so they resolve to fix this. Here begins the fun and much hilarity. Delightful!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you SO much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC! I was seriously so excited to read this one because I adored The Summer of Broken Rules and this completely lived up to my expectations! It had all the fun, swoony energy I was hoping for. Think weddings, high school romance experiments, and the thrill of first love!

Mads was such a fun main character. She’s full of life and energy, her inner monologue had me laughing, and she felt so authentically teenage. Following her journey was such a joy and she made the whole story sparkle!😍

The family dynamics was also pure gold. They were sweet and chaotic in the best way, like a warm hug you didn’t want to end. And the friendships were just as heart-melting. Every character brought something special and I loved watching their little moments together.

And don’t even get me started on Marco Alvarez! From the moment he showed up, I knew he was the one. He’s that effortlessly cool guy with just the right amount of charm. Total book crush material!🥹🫶🏼

Even though the focus is on Mads and her growth, the romance still delivered all the feels. Their chemistry was adorable, their moments together made me grin like an idiot, and yes, the Taylor Swift references made everything even better!🤭🤍

This one follows Mads through a full year so you get all the seasons and all the vibes. It’s the perfect light and feel-good read when you want something fun, sweet, and totally heartwarming. I couldn’t stop smiling!

Highly recommend if you’re in the mood for something that feels like sunshine in book form ☀️

3.5⭐

This was such a nice YA read: the whole story revolves around a teenage girl, Mads, her brother’s wedding and her first love.

I really enjoyed this book. I must say it took me a little to get into it, just because I needed to click with the writing first, but after that, I found the story very nice. It was fast-paced and it was pretty predictable, but enjoyable at the same time.

Starting off with the characters, Mads was written in a very realistic way in my opinion. I’m a teenager myself and I found some of my personality traits and characteristics in her as well. I found her very outgoing, a bit of a people-pleaser and very good in relationships with others: both her family and her friends/romantic interests.
Katie, Mads’s brother’s fiancée, has a very nice and satisfying character arc. At first you find her pretty cold, almost not participating in Mads’s family life, but in the end the author shows her true, hidden side, which I thought was beautifully done.

Plot-wise, there isn’t much going on, because it all revolves around the wedding and Mads trying to find her “plus one” with the bridesmaids, but how it was told and being in our main character’s point of view made it very entertaining. Reading Mads's thoughts and feelings really added something to the story that I feel like wouldn't have been there if it was told in 3rd point of view.
Finally, the writing was very easy to follow and, though it was simple and understandable, it was nice to read.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend for everyone to read it when it comes out, ‘cause I think K.L. Walther, once again, did a great job!

Such a beautiful, fun story. Mads is figuring out how much more there is to every person with every interaction she has. With all the dating she’s been doing, she’s diving deeper into her feelings for her best friend Connor. I loved Marco from the very beginning. Katie seems so closed off, but man do we get to know her. I was happily surprised by the outcome of all the relationships.

This book was so cute!! I love KL Walther’s writing and this book was no different. I loved the setting of a wedding and all the side characters and I especially related with Mads, so her journey to find a wedding date was so entertaining to read. This was the perfect coming of age story for the summer time!