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A review by maggiemaggio
17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen
3.0
3.5 stars
I said in My Week in Books post last week that there were things about 17 First Kisses that I really liked and things about it that I really didn’t like. And that’s definitely the case with this book, but in the end I decided that the good outnumbered the bad and I would definitely recommend it.
My favorite part of this book was the main character, Claire. For me, and maybe it’s just because I liked this part the best, the book is really about Claire figuring out who Claire wants to be and I love that. It’s something that seems to be popping up more and more in YA and even though this book puts a lot of focus on boys, Claire’s strong, interesting personality manages to make the story really about Claire.
Basically the idea of the story is that Claire is trying to find the perfect guy and we get to see her quest for the perfect guy, mostly for Luke, a fellow soccer player who she’s really into, and also flashbacks of the other guys she’s kissed. I always worry about flashback books, will I be more interested in the present? Will the flashbacks make it drag? At first I was worried here, the story goes back to when Claire is pretty young and some random boy kisses her while they’re playing. But then the flashbacks become about more than Claire’s history with boys. Through the flashbacks we see the boys, but we also see her friendship with Megan develop and also get to learn more about Claire’s family and why her mother is so depressed.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually enjoyed the Megan/Claire storyline. Megan is kind of a witchy popular girl who, in middle school, takes Claire under her wing. Claire has always been a soccer-playing tomboy, but Megan, and Megan’s friends, who are part of this ridiculous clique, which I think is called the Crowns (such a stupid part of the story), give Claire a makeover and get her interested in boys, but Claire is still strong enough to maintain her love of soccer and her own personality. Claire and Megan’s relationship isn’t always smooth sailing, but Rachael Allen did a good job of making Megan more than just a vapid, mean girl and knowing more about Megan made it easier for me to see why Claire wanted to be friends with her, which saved me a lot of frustration.
Since my favorite part of the story was Claire it makes sense that I also really enjoyed her family. Her mom used to be the perfect, caring, doting mother, but after a tragedy, I’ll let you read it and find out, she’s turned into kind of a hermit and pretty much lets Claire’s father try to take care of Claire and her younger sister. Claire’s love of her mother and her desire for her mother to get better was really sweet and Claire’s entire family added a really well done, interesting layer of depth to the story.
Then there are all the boys. I’ll be honest and say that the boys weren’t my favorite part of the story. The whole Luke storyline, with Claire seeing him first and seeming to have a deeper connection to him, but Megan, who always gets the boy, going after him too, kind of bothered me. It’s like I thought Claire was better than all of that. I did however like the ups and downs of Claire and Megan’s friendship. As an adult it reminded me of a lot of friendships I was involved in or observed in high school.
So that’s all the good. The bad is mostly made up to two things: stereotypes and foreshadowing. As I mentioned Megan’s the leader of this clique of girls called (I think) the Crowns and a clique like that is such an overdone, silly idea. There’s also a fair amount of other stereotypes, there’s some maybe not slut-shaming, but slut-categorizing; Claire’s guy BFF who used to be fat, but lost weight and now gets a popular girl; and just kind of a lot of cliche high school roles. Then there’s the foreshadowing. Rachael Allen did a lot of things at the end of the chapters like (I’m paraphrasing) “and after that our kisses would never be the same” or “if only I knew my whole world was about the change.” I have no clue why authors do this or think it’s a good idea, it’s just totally unnecessary and lazy.
I haven’t heard anything about what people think of the end of this story, but I imagine it will be something people either love or hate. Personally, I loved it, it went along really well with the idea of the story being about Claire discovering herself, but I could also see why other people might not be into it.
Bottom Line: I really liked what Rachael Allen did with Claire’s story. 17 First Kisses is another book, like Nantucket Red and Since You’ve Been Gone, that’s a great example of a teenage girl finding her way in the world. The friendship and family secondary stories here were also compelling and gave the story a nice depth. Even though I had some issues this is the best type of debut; it left me impressed, but also excited to see how Rachael Allen continues to develop.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
I said in My Week in Books post last week that there were things about 17 First Kisses that I really liked and things about it that I really didn’t like. And that’s definitely the case with this book, but in the end I decided that the good outnumbered the bad and I would definitely recommend it.
My favorite part of this book was the main character, Claire. For me, and maybe it’s just because I liked this part the best, the book is really about Claire figuring out who Claire wants to be and I love that. It’s something that seems to be popping up more and more in YA and even though this book puts a lot of focus on boys, Claire’s strong, interesting personality manages to make the story really about Claire.
Basically the idea of the story is that Claire is trying to find the perfect guy and we get to see her quest for the perfect guy, mostly for Luke, a fellow soccer player who she’s really into, and also flashbacks of the other guys she’s kissed. I always worry about flashback books, will I be more interested in the present? Will the flashbacks make it drag? At first I was worried here, the story goes back to when Claire is pretty young and some random boy kisses her while they’re playing. But then the flashbacks become about more than Claire’s history with boys. Through the flashbacks we see the boys, but we also see her friendship with Megan develop and also get to learn more about Claire’s family and why her mother is so depressed.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually enjoyed the Megan/Claire storyline. Megan is kind of a witchy popular girl who, in middle school, takes Claire under her wing. Claire has always been a soccer-playing tomboy, but Megan, and Megan’s friends, who are part of this ridiculous clique, which I think is called the Crowns (such a stupid part of the story), give Claire a makeover and get her interested in boys, but Claire is still strong enough to maintain her love of soccer and her own personality. Claire and Megan’s relationship isn’t always smooth sailing, but Rachael Allen did a good job of making Megan more than just a vapid, mean girl and knowing more about Megan made it easier for me to see why Claire wanted to be friends with her, which saved me a lot of frustration.
Since my favorite part of the story was Claire it makes sense that I also really enjoyed her family. Her mom used to be the perfect, caring, doting mother, but after a tragedy, I’ll let you read it and find out, she’s turned into kind of a hermit and pretty much lets Claire’s father try to take care of Claire and her younger sister. Claire’s love of her mother and her desire for her mother to get better was really sweet and Claire’s entire family added a really well done, interesting layer of depth to the story.
Then there are all the boys. I’ll be honest and say that the boys weren’t my favorite part of the story. The whole Luke storyline, with Claire seeing him first and seeming to have a deeper connection to him, but Megan, who always gets the boy, going after him too, kind of bothered me. It’s like I thought Claire was better than all of that. I did however like the ups and downs of Claire and Megan’s friendship. As an adult it reminded me of a lot of friendships I was involved in or observed in high school.
So that’s all the good. The bad is mostly made up to two things: stereotypes and foreshadowing. As I mentioned Megan’s the leader of this clique of girls called (I think) the Crowns and a clique like that is such an overdone, silly idea. There’s also a fair amount of other stereotypes, there’s some maybe not slut-shaming, but slut-categorizing; Claire’s guy BFF who used to be fat, but lost weight and now gets a popular girl; and just kind of a lot of cliche high school roles. Then there’s the foreshadowing. Rachael Allen did a lot of things at the end of the chapters like (I’m paraphrasing) “and after that our kisses would never be the same” or “if only I knew my whole world was about the change.” I have no clue why authors do this or think it’s a good idea, it’s just totally unnecessary and lazy.
I haven’t heard anything about what people think of the end of this story, but I imagine it will be something people either love or hate. Personally, I loved it, it went along really well with the idea of the story being about Claire discovering herself, but I could also see why other people might not be into it.
Bottom Line: I really liked what Rachael Allen did with Claire’s story. 17 First Kisses is another book, like Nantucket Red and Since You’ve Been Gone, that’s a great example of a teenage girl finding her way in the world. The friendship and family secondary stories here were also compelling and gave the story a nice depth. Even though I had some issues this is the best type of debut; it left me impressed, but also excited to see how Rachael Allen continues to develop.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.