Firsts - Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Mercedes wants to help the male population make their girlfriends happy. How? Well she offers to sleep with them so she can tell them how to improve and make their girlfriends first time perfect. Mercedes keeps a book documenting exactly what she thought of each person that she has send with which reminded me a little of the Burn Book from Mean Girls. Somehow all Mercedes cares about is the guys making their girlfriends happy but of course things don't always run as planned.

When I read the synopsis of Firsts I thought I'd hate Mercedes. I mean on paper a character that sleeps with as many virgins who are in relationships as she can find? That doesn't sound like someone you'd like. However, when you read the book she is surprisingly really likeable and although I think what she's doing with guys is mental and I don't agree with it at all, she does have her reasons for doing it. It only dawned on my just how much I started to like her when, as I kept on reading and the closer Mercedes got to her secret being revealed the bigger the knot that appeared in my stomach got. At times I did want to go and shout at her to think about what she was doing but as the book progressed I genuinely wanted things to be ok for her.

My favourite thing about Firsts is the friendships. Mercedes discovers along the way exactly who she can trust and when she discovers that the people who stand by her really do have her back. I won't spoil the book for anyone who wants to read but two characters in particular stick by her and are a delight to read about particular when times get quite bad for Mercedes. 

I was pleasantly surprised by Firsts and I think you will be too if you read it. I thought when I picked up Firsts that I would enjoy it but didn’t expect to like the lead character at all so I was surprised at just how much I did end up enjoying it and I think you will too. Firsts is the authors debut novel so I'll be eagerly waiting to see what she writes next. To be honest, I don’t think the synopsis does the book justice at all, it is so much better than I anticipated and I definitely think you should pick this book up next.

Synopsis -

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.