3.5⭐️

“A First Time for Everything” was a cute romance, predictable but not 100%! It was a quick and easy read…in fact, I read it in one day! This was my 2nd K.L. Walther book, and while I did enjoy it, I didn’t like it quite as much as the other. This would definitely be a good book for younger populations!

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an advanced copy!

Thanks to RBmedia and NetGalley for the advance listener copy and to SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the advance reader copy! I did an immersion read and really enjoyed the experience—especially with the excellent narration, which brought Mads and her world to life beautifully.

A First Time for Everything is a fun, engaging story that captures the highs and lows of being a teenager. K.L. Walther does a fantastic job portraying the complexities of growing up—figuring out who you are while juggling school, sports, friendships, and family expectations. The story had an authentic voice and great emotional balance.

I really liked Mads as a character, and her relationships with her friends and family were believable and well-developed. Her journey felt genuine and relatable, with moments of both vulnerability and strength.

My only critique is that a significant portion of the conflict centered around her future sister-in-law, Katie, and the resolution felt a little too neat and rushed. It also left me feeling that Austin, Mads’ brother, came off as a bit insensitive for not doing more to help integrate Katie into the family sooner.

Still, this was a heartfelt, enjoyable read with strong characters and real emotion. A great pick for readers who love contemporary YA with depth and charm.

This was really not for me. I actually had to push myself to finish it. At the end of the day, it was a cute YA romance and there were some fun moments, but it was definitely not my favorite from KL Walther.

I struggled the most with Mads. I know she’s a teenage girl, so I can’t really say she needed to grow up, but she read as really negative and pessimistic about, well, everything. It made the book hard to get through for me. I did love her friendship and growing relationship with Marco - every interaction they had was super cute.

Not gonna lie, this book was super slow the first like 35ish percent, but it definitely picked up and I’m so glad I read it! It wasn’t a bad book at all, just a little slow in the beginning, but at about 35-40% it definitely picked up and I couldn’t put it down!! I loved the relationship in this book. I’m so grateful I got this as an ARC.
I love Marco, he’s so sweet. And I need a best friend like Connor in my life.

Madeline, better known as Mads, is a high school student who seems to have everything figured out. She knows what she wants, whom she wants, and whom she would like to cut out of her life. Until circumstances change, and she is forced to see the people around her differently.
Mads' personal growth, the friendships, family devotion, and slow burn of the romance were all written so beautifully . The way the topic of alcohol abuse is handled was also well done. The side characters were quirky and memorable which I loved!
I highly recommend this book to YA and NA readers!

A First Time for Everything - K.L. Walther

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

"I'm shy, I'm an introvert, so you have no idea how intimidating it is to meet and connect with such an extroverted family.”

Mads is thrust into the world of dating when she’s unexpectedly chosen as a bridesmaid for her older brother’s wedding. Navigating a series of matchmaking attempts and romantic entanglements, Mads must confront her feelings for longtime friend Connor and classmate Marco, all while balancing family dynamics and personal growth.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC! I really enjoyed some aspects of this book but I felt other aspects were disjointed at times. While I know Mads is a teenage girl, her ever fluctuating feelings were up and down for all of her suitors, changing on a dime. The pop culture references were perfect for a YA book and would have had teenage me kicking me feet. However, YA books obviously don’t hit like they used to for me but Walther is always a good and nostalgic read!

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcefire books for this ARC!!

OH MY GOD!!!! To say that I love K.L. Walther would be an understatement. As a die hard Swiftie her books make me feel the same way that my favorite Taylor Swift songs do, at home. Part of that may just be the constant Taylor Swift refrences in all of her books, but it's also the world she created with all of her books.

A First Time for Everything was everything I needed for my first book of the summer. As The Summer of Broken Rules has stood as my favorite book of all time for 4 years now, this book made me feel at home like no other. To start Mer and Wit being featured so much made me SO happy!! I won't say who but I squealed when I realized Mads would in fact end up with who I was rooting for!

The family atmosphere, the wedding, the boys!! Everything in this book was perfect and Mads was one of most relatable charecters I've ever read. I hands down loved it and was giggling the entire time. I reccomend this book to anyone and everyone who even remotley likes rom-coms and especially anyone who has a soft spot for personal nicknames!

I honestly went into this book knowing that I would likely really enjoy it, seeing as I loved many of K. L. Walther's other works. This book made me very nostalgic about when I was younger and longed for romance.

The novel follows Madeline, as she navigates her feelings about her brother's fiancé, while also finding a love of her own. Walther perfectly centers themes of young love without giving into cliches, allowing readers to better connect to both the characters and the plot.

This book is perfect for those who are fans of Jenny Han or Sarah Dessen, as "A First Time for Everything" provides a heart-felt story with a relatable protagonist.

I adored this sweet, YA romance by K.L. Walther!

Mads is surprised to learn her brother is engaged to a woman she never expected to see become part of her family. It's more important to her than ever though that she and Katie find some common ground so she spends the time leading up to the wedding trying to get to know her better. Insert here a moment where Mads is forced to admit that she's never been kissed. Now everyone in her life decides to set her up, leading up to the wedding. Who will Mads choose?

This was so adorable and I smiled my way through it. K.L. Walther has such a way with words.

4.25 ⭐️
this is my first book by k.l. walther and i am pleasantly surprised! i thoroughly enjoyed this- it was such a fun, cute read. this is what i want when picking up a YA romance.

i enjoyed the different types of relationships that mads had throughout this - romantic relationships, family relationships, platonic friendships- they were all well fleshed out and well developed. the plot was entertaining and didn’t drag, which i was worried i would get bored of but i didn’t. the different aspects of the plot (the wedding, mad’s love life, her relationship with katie etc) kept it entertaining and also gave the reader enough diversity to not feel like we were only focusing on one aspect the entire time. I was happy with the resolution of the novel and overall how mad’s reasons through her dating experience.

i’d definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a fun and heartfelt romcom that also focuses on the importance of family!

A First Time For Everything follows 17-year-old Mads as she navigates her junior/senior year of high school, choosing a college/Field Hockey scholarship, and her older brother’s wedding. She struggles to connect with her future sister in law (relatable) and struggles with the task of finding a boyfriend/date to the wedding. She is a bit out of her depth with the much older bridal party, but as anyone who has been a bridesmaid before can relate to all that it involves.

I feel for Mads and her desire to fit in and to find someone she wants to date. She has all these guys to pick from! (not relatable haha). I loved the local nods to the PA/NJ area. Overall, it is a well-done YA book with some flaws.

Thank you Sourcebooks Fire, NetGalley, and K.L. Walther for an advanced digital copy of this book.

KL Walther has done it again. This book made me laugh, cry, kick my feet while giggling (I’m looking at you Marco Álvarez).

This book is perfect for anyone that loves a good romance. The book follows Mads Fisher-Michaels through a year in her life as her brother gets engaged to Katie, her now future sister in law that she really isn’t fond of.

Mads also is navigating the dating world, trying to find her perfect match. This book just made my heart warm and reminded me of why I love KL Walther’s writing so much. She is truly a master in romance writing!

I finally know what my second favorite book of Walther's is--and it was this one!

SOBR will always reign supreme in my heart, but A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING was special in its own ways. The story follows Mads over the span of a year, who's gearing up to be a bridesmaid in her brother's wedding--to a person she isn't sure he should be marrying. In the meantime, the other bridesmaids are trying to set Mads up to help her find her match.

One of the bridesmaids? None other than SOBR's Meredith! Not to mention, a generous helping of Wit appearances as well. It goes without saying that I loved those moments a lot.

Now, I will say this book was not without its teenage angst. Meredith starts the book as a 17-year-old junior and ends it as an 18-year-old senior, and her plights would've felt very relatable to me when I was her age. Now, being 10 years older than her (yikes), it sometimes felt a bit trite, but such is life with YA novels.

Something different about this book compared to others in Walther's catalog is that it didn't have that underlying thread of grief/pain beneath it all. I do think Walther juggled a LOT of plotlines in this story, and it's entirely possible that adding one more would've felt like too much, but I also think it's possible that if that had been present, this might've been a closer contender with SOBR. We'll never know for sure, but it was something I thought about as I was reading.

While I enjoyed getting to know Katie as a character, sometimes her reactions didn't make sense to me. Being shy is one thing--I would know--but being standoffish and even rude can't be hand-waved away just because you're "introverted." I didn't love how that makes introverts look and thought that could've been represented better.

Otherwise, this book was a lot of fun. I loved seeing Mads go on dates, expand her circle of friends, and get to know the bridesmaids and Katie better. The subplot of Mads's brother, Katie, and Samira certainly had me on the edge of my seat as well. And of course, I adored who Mads ended up with!

This is one I would recommend--if you go into it looking for a good time, that's what you'll get. (3.5 stars rounded up to 4).

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars. This book is exactly what i want from a KL Walther book. It was such a good time, a fast read and I loved the characters. Our female main characters was relatable to me when I was in high school and I loved the picture Walther painted of her family and her childhood home, I wanted to live there! I loved the evolution of her relationship with both Marco and Katie. I loved that the bridesmaids weren’t mean girls but really embraced Mads in their group. The whole book was well rounded and so much fun!

I really enjoyed A First Time For Everything! It’s about Madeline trying to find a plus-one to her brothers wedding, but I loved that we got to see the family dynamic and friendships too. It was super cute, easy to read, lots of pop culture references, which I liked, and it didn't feel cringy. I really liked reading this book and will definitely be reading more of K. L. Walther’s books. A perfect book for summer.

To be quite honest, this was not my favorite K.L. Walther. Katie came off so cold to me, and I did not think she ever redeemed herself. Overall, I was bored with this one. I don't have much else to say. It didn't leave much of an impression, but it also wasn't a bad book.

K.L. Walther never misses - Absolutely loved this story!.
The Mads x Marco banter was so fun to read, and there may have been a few tears in my eyes when they ended up together.

While I got frustrated at Mads for her actions at a few of the wedding events, it felt true to her character and the resolution with Katie was deeply satisfying.

I loved this book!! The characters were so lovable and relatable! Madeline’s devotion to her family and sport all while balancing a good social life with her people pleasing and overthinking tendencies was such a real and important aspect of her that I loved as it helped me connect with her because I felt like I understood her in that way! The love interest Marco was absolutely wonderful the moment he appeared on page I was rooting for him to the final love interest! He and Madeline was such a good match and I love them together. Katie at first glance seemed stuck up and rude but once you got to know her you realize how wrong you were about her and it shows how you shouldn’t judge off of first glance I loved Katie just as much as I love Madeline she’s so precious! This book is a fast paced YA book and was such a cute romance book and I am so grateful I was able to read it! Thank you Net Galley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for giving me the chance to read this!!
K.L Walther you are such an amazing author and I hope you keep reading because you bring joy to all your readers through your books!

This book felt like a part two of something, when it wasn’t advertised like one?
I’m afraid I missed something 🤷‍♀️

What a cozy, lighthearted romance!

I thoroughly enjoyed how well the the story played out, and definitely loved the family dynamics at play. Madeline's bachelorette style dating as a hoot to follow along with, as well as watching her relationships with every other character flourishing.

However, one thing to note is how much underage drinking there is. Nearly every time Madeline is with the bridesmaids, she's drinking, and her parents are totally okay with it. While I did like the viewpoint of her parents having stipulations to drink responsibly, the fact there were so many scenes featuring drinking felt odd for a young adult novel.