No matter how many boys Claire kisses, she can’t seem to find a decent boyfriend. Someone who wouldn’t rather date her gorgeous best friend, Megan. Someone who won’t freak out when he learns about the tragedy her family still hasn’t recovered from. Someone whose kisses can carry her away from her backwoods town for one fleeting moment.
Until Claire meets Luke.
But Megan is falling for Luke, too, and if there’s one thing Claire knows for sure, it’s that Megan’s pretty much irresistible.
With true love and best friendship on the line, Claire suddenly has everything to lose. And what she learns—about her crush, her friends, and most of all herself—makes the choices even harder.
In her moving debut, Rachael Allen brilliantly captures the complexities of friendship, the struggles of self-discovery, and the difficulties of trying to find love in high school. Fans of Sarah Ockler, Susane Colasanti, and Stephanie Perkins will fall head over heels for this addictive, heartfelt, and often hilarious modern love story.
ABOUT RACHAEL
Rachael Allen lives in Atlanta, GA where she’s working furiously on her PhD in neuroscience. When she’s not doing science or writing YA, you can find her chasing after her toddler and her two sled dogs. Her debut YA novel 17 FIRST KISSES, is forthcoming from Harper Teen. Rachael may or may not have had 17 first kisses…luckily she doesn’t kiss and tell.
Jaime’s Thoughts
17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The title, 17 First Kisses may lead you to think that this is a fluffy contemporary YA novel… and it is that, but it’s absolutely so much more as well. It’s about friendship and family and it tackles a few topics I was surprised to see included.
Claire and Megan are best friends living in a small town. Claire is convinced she’s never going to find that one person she wants to date, and of course kiss until she meets Luke, the new kid. Everyone seems to fall for the amazing Megan before they can even get to know her. But Luke seems like the perfect guy, they both love soccer and she’s absolutely comfortable with him for once, and she met him first… that should be enough right? But she quickly finds out Megan is also interested and suddenly their friendship could be on the line all because of a boy!
I really loved Claire, while being one of the popular girls, she managed to not succumb to the stereotype that is so typically found in YA and I have to commend Allen for doing that. I loved that she had interests other than becoming the most popular. She was smart and athletic and it was refreshing to read, but she isn’t perfect. You know I loved my flawed protagonists! I loved the pacing of the story told in present time but including flashbacks to the many kisses she has had. It was a great way to work our way through Claire’s story … and her friendship with Megan.
Megan… *sigh* I don’t even know what to say about her. I’m not even entirely sure what to make of her. I really, really liked her… but there were times that I really, really didn’t like her, and maybe that was intentional, but it really made it hard to understand why Claire stuck around. Her underhandedness was a bit cruel, yet she was a bit more complicated than we’re led to believe. She definitely has her own issues.
Now for the boys… in all honesty I didn’t really connect with any of them. I mean for the majority of the story the boy I really liked was dating someone else, and Luke… *sigh again* He too has issues and ultimately he isn’t the person these girls thought he was and that was a little depressing.
I really liked that this went a bit deeper than a fluffy contemporary romance. This addresses issues of family and friendship, depression and abuse, and puts it in a setting that will appeal to many readers all while never making light of the issues. I also really liked that these to completely different girls were able to form a friendship and while they definitely had issues, ultimately their friendship holds up for all the right reasons.
I definitely recommend this for fans of Sarah Dessen or Huntley Fitzpatrick… readers who are looking for a bit more depth to their contemporary YA.
Thank you to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for the advance copy in exchange for my honest thoughts!
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