Monday, December 28, 2015

Firsts

Firsts
by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Mercedes had a First Time that was truly horrible. Now she's determined to make the Firsts of other girls at her high school as perfect as they can be. And she does this by "tutoring" the girls' boyfriends.

Her only requirement is that her time with the boyfriend is that boyfriend's First Time. 

Mercedes teaches virgin guys how to be their best.

She starts out with just a few boys and a ton of good intent. Her "sessions" include how everything from the events of the date on that night, to how to speak to their girlfriends, to how to make sure that those girlfriends have the best time possible in all ways.

In the beginning, it works as planned. The guys keep her a secret and the girls speak of their Firsts with joy.

But things get out of control and strange as more and more guys show up to ask Mercedes from help and not all of them really seem to be honest about what they want.

Things are unraveling quickly and Mercy doesn't know how to make it all just stop.

Final thoughts: This is a realistic fiction story about a girl who suffered some seriously messed up stuff in her life (at 13) and she is now trying to control her world the only way she knows how. Sex is Mercy's control and she's desperate to keep control of things. She loves chemistry because it always makes sense; humans are too difficult to predict and Mercy is really bad at human interactions. She believes that her sessions with virgin boys is honestly something good for them and their girlfriends. Her reasoning may be confusing to some, but makes sense esp. to those who have also suffered similar events in their past. This book isn't graphic about sex, but it is pretty open about it, so it's for more mature readers.

Rating: 3/5

ARC Received from NetGalley

The End of FUN

The End of FUN
by Sean McGinty

In the future, nearly everyone is having FUN. 

Aaron is one of the first to have FUN installed as a beta tester and his days are filled with FUN. Every day, Homie pops up right in front of his eyes to help him have FUN with everything around him. He plays virtual games, rates friends and parties, and spends quite a bit of money online.

Of course, it's the spending that really gets him in trouble. Soon, Aaron is in FAIL and he's not having much FUN at all. On top of that, his grandfather dies and leaves all his property to Aaron, which doesn't make Aaron's dad or sister very happy. There are also rumors of buried treasure hidden on his grandfather's property, which could be exactly what Aaron needs to pay his bills, get out of FAIL, and permanently end FUN.

If only real life wasn't so very difficult.

Final thoughts: Too many messages. Too many existential thoughts. Too esoteric. There's the constant theme of cyber reality vs. actual reality. There's a hint of environmentalism with the deaths of millions of birds being blamed on technology. And there's the never subtle message about how much better and more lasting face-to-face interactions are to virtual ones. It's far too pushy with the messages and not very well written overall. I've given up on a number of books in the past, more than I ever have before, so when I started this, I was determined to finish. Unfortunately, this one took weeks to read and days to process. I couldn't help but constantly put this book down and then delay picking it back up again. Even when I finished, I had to wait a few days (and even read another book) before I could write about it. Dullsville.

Rating: 1/5 

ARC Received from NetGalley

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