Sooo good!! It was exactly what I needed after a terrible reading slump.

I knocked off a star because sometimes Mercedes could be really annoying. There was great character development but sometimes her meanness/aloofness/whateverness just went a bit too far for me and I'd resent her. I wanted to smack her and be like, JUST BE REAL WITH PEOPLE!!!!!!

But whatevs.

Still a fabulous book and I did sympathize with her pretty well. I could really see the complexity of the situation and how she got to where she was, but then was like, "How the hell did I get here?" Good intentions gone bad, I guess.

Ok so I found this a hard book to get into. I think I get what the author is trying to portray but it wasn’t excuted very well. I hate given a negative review but some issues it tackled well and some not so good. I get the impression at some points the author is trying to portray Mercedes as being selfless but then that’s conflicted by the lies she tells and her actions. Sorry but this one is a no for me.

I loved how honest and unflinching this book was in dealing with sexuality. It dealt with heavy topics deftly and still felt like a fresh, fun, contemporary read.

I enjoyed this book! The characters are great and even though I wished the plot worked more for me, I still can't wait to read more from the author

Reviewing this book was so difficult for me. It's a well-written book. The story is compelling. But it's an upsetting read for so many reasons. Probably, why it took me so long.

1, Mercedes thinks she is the one in control, but she discovers that she is ultimately not. The boys she thought she was helping were using her.
2. The double standard of it being totally cool for boys to be sexually active but if girls are, they are "slutty and it's okay to talk about them and treat them poorly.
3. The near and total absence of a parental figure to be there to provide boundaries.
4. It was disturbing for someone so young to be so blasé about sex especially when it is never fulfilling or fun her. While she tells herself that she's doing the girlfriends a solid by helping their boyfriends to be better lovers and to give them a better first time, she's depriving herself.
5.Believing that having sex with the boyfriend of her best friend, who is deeply religious and judgmental about premarital sex, could ever be a good idea,
6. I hated how she is treated by her peers when her secret comes out. All the blame is heaped on her while the boys who are not at all innocent join in and get off easy. But so true to life.
7. Finally, the most difficult thing about reading this book is that I don't doubt this is reality for more teens than I want to imagine or believe.

I just hurt for Mercedes, though she felt like she had things all under control and worked out. She was so young. And at the core she was hurt because she is still a young girl engaging in conduct that is much to adult for her. Maybe a bit of an indictment on a complete lack of parental responsibility and presence in your child's life during important times too. All that said, I guess I did enjoy the ending, more or less. I just really did not feel too good after reading this one. Definitely not a feel-good read. More of a morality coming of age, learning from other's mistakes kind of read.

A mediocre contemporary novel for young adults that really didn't hit the mark for me. And, I read this book so long ago that I can't remember a thing that occurred.

I loved this - really thought provoking and a really good novel about sex and about romance. Would love to read a sequel!

When I read the synopsis for this book, I was intrigued to read it, but also a little bit nervous. I could tell it was going to be one of those books I either loved or hated. It's safe to say, I loved it. It wasn't perfect, but it was completely addicting. I had no respect for the next day when I read this book. I started it and finished it in the same sitting, staying up way past my bedtime, but it sucked me in and I couldn't put it down.

Firsts is Mercedes Ayres story. Mercedes is a 17 year old high school senior. She's a good student, seems a bit shy in school, and attends the prayer circle her best friend runs. No one would ever suspect that she's deflowered a many of the guys she goes to school with. Guys with girlfriends. But Mercy doesn't do this to be vindictive, no. She's actually trying to help. She wants the guys to be good for their girlfriends, wants things to be everything her first time wasn't. It sounds messed up, she knows that, but for some reason, she can't seem to stop.

Really, this is all about the control for Mercy. She controls how it happens, when, the rules, how many times, all of it. She calls the shots. I was curious to what made her this way, why she ticked. When you find out what happened in her past, it's understandable. I'm not justifying anything she does, but looking at her past, family situation etc, it's something you get.

Unfortunately, Mercedes isn't immune from getting hurt in this situation, and she hurts a lot of other people on the way, whether it's intentional or not. One of those people is her best friend, and the other is Zach (my favorite of the book) the guy who likes her for her, even when he finds out all her dirty little secrets.

This book is a story of growth. It's a story of friendship, forgiveness, making mistakes, owning those mistakes, and learning from them. It's got some controversial topics for a YA book, but it was a great read. The writing was fantastic, the story compelling, and the heroine, oddly relatable and lovable. I truly enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to more from this author.

Yes, you read that copy correctly. This book centers on a girl who sleeps with virgin boys so that they can get their awkward first time out of the way. Without a doubt, the premise will be absolutely scandalous to some readers. However, I felt that Flynn handled the issues that come with subject matter very well.

Mercedes is not always a likable character which made me like her instantly. There’s something very real about how she can be both cruel and well-meaning. She has a certain air of dissatisfaction that keeps her just a little out of touch with reality. It’s a feeling I think a lot of teenagers experience. She certainly has cause for these feelings. She’s been through an emotional ordeal (that is uncovered later in the novel). On top of that, her mother has a kind of hands-off approach that borders on neglect. It’s not until her secret activities with other girls’ boyfriends are uncovered that she begins to see the true consequences of her actions. I did feel those consequences were a little sugar-coated, as I can imagine teen girls treating each other much worse over something like this.

If this were simply a book about a girl who sleeps around and gets shunned by her classmates when they find out, I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. This is about much more than that. Certainly, the ramifications of slut-shaming are a large part of the novel’s message. There are also some good moments about the way sexually active girls and boys are treated differently. What appealed to me more was the commentary on fidelity and infidelity, trust in relationships, and sexuality itself. This isn’t a novel that tells the reader how normal it is for teens to engage in sex. That’s understood from the beginning. Flynn takes the conversation beyond whether teens should be having sex and deals with how sex changes relationship dynamics. She gives the characters in the novel an opportunity to learn about the importance of trust and fidelity. There are so many great discussion points in this book.

Now, here’s where I take my reader hat off and put on my librarian hat. This may break some librarian hearts, but I won’t be buying this for my library. I serve a conservative community and I feel that the detail in which the sex is depicted is just a little too much. I think I’ve raised enough eyebrows by adding great queer books to the collection. It’s all about baby steps. However, I’m still recommending the book. I just have a little caveat. I think this would be an excellent book for parents to read with their teens so they can have some conversations about all this.

VERDICT: Recommended to school libraries serving progressive communities. Definitely recommended to public libraries and parents. Read this book with your teenager and talk to them about this stuff!

This may be a tough read for many adults, because of the ages of the characters and some of the heavy topics covered, but I found it to be pretty realistic - which is probably why it would bother many people.

3.5! This was... well, I'll admit it was a weird concept for me, and an extremely tricky one. I appreciated how the author went about with the story though!

*I never got around to reading and reviewing this book. I may do so in the future*

So, this one is just 100% not for me. I'm sure there are girls for whom this is their life, but that grieves me and kind of bums me out. In seeing GR reviews, I see I'm not alone - both in the YA target audience and in adult readership. I think the characters are vivid and the writing is good, but it just wasn't for me.

Firsts was a great and original look at what it's like to be a teenage girl. I loved how realistic it was and the fact that it actually focused on the sexual activity of a girl and didn't make it out to be this completely horrible thing that she needed to be ashamed of. Yes she was ashamed of the amount of guys that she had been with but I felt like the topic was handled perfectly. It's really refreshing to see this as a topic in YA and hopefully help break the stigma against sexual activity.

The writing was great, it flowed well and the pacing of the story was perfect. I greatly enjoyed all aspects of this book and will be looking out for more books by this author.

Mercedes provides a certain service for virgins,sleeping with them for their first time to give them pointers for their girlfriends, so that those girls’ first time won’t be as terrible as her own.

It all spirals out of control, however, when the wrong kind of guys get wind of what she does, and her BFFs creepy boyfriend begins blackmailing her.

Then there is Mercedes’ hook up, her lab partner Zach. Zach keeps pushing her for a real relationship, but Mercy is afraid to let anyone into her heart.

I read around 30 pages of this book, and it didn't grab my interests, so I stopped reading. Sorry.