“It’s like everyone else in school is competing to beat each other’s high scores and I’m still trying to put the batteries in my controller.”
4.5/5 stars!
I absolutely loved this book! It’s super funny, fun, and full of high school drama you can lose yourself in! It’s everything that I love about high school rom-coms, including really great commentary on how virginity, as a concept, gets discussed.
This book is about Keely, who’s just about done with high school and has her next four years lined up and ready to go. However, she finds herself the last virgin in her friend group and starts to panic. She doesn’t want to go to college a virgin, but the guys at her high school aren’t really doing it for her. So when a cute college guy, who’s just as into films as she is, becomes her co-worker, she becomes determined to lose her v-card. But the more her new relationship starts to cause turbulence between her and her best friend since forever, Andrew, the more it seems like Keely hasn’t been honest with herself about where her feeling lie.
Ok, so apparently I’m a big time sucker for a best friend longing for their best friend, but the friend is too oblivious to notice. I guess I had no idea until this book absolutely stole my heart and refused to give it back until I reached the last page! I could not put this book down!
This book gave me big-time high school nostalgia. Not that I ever dated in high school or cared about anyone’s virginity status. But a lot of the book places attention on how ephemeral high school is. And how, when you finally leave high school, you suddenly don’t care about all the drama that haunted you for so long. I really felt that in a number of ways. Keely’s friend group and all those dynamics were explored really well and really genuinely. I would have immediately flashbacks to people I knew in high school that made me feel the same way.
Keely was such a fun main character, though I will admit, a tad frustrating. Only because it’s so clear as a reader what she should do, but she is completely on her own to navigate really confusing icky teenage problems. Overall, she was fun and cool. I loved her love of film and Hitchcock. To be honest, I’ve only seen Psycho, but after this book, I might just have to watch a few more.
I also really loved the subtle feminism of the book. Especially with virginity being a hot topic of conversation, everyone knows that it’s this made up thing that shouldn’t matter. But this book shows why it still matters to some people, it’s about how you want to be seen and how you want to see yourself. In the end, all that matters is being comfortable, which the book puts a huge emphasis on. The book also does a really great job of showing casual sexist comments that are too commonly heard in high school. From the way that girls are treated and expect to be treated after losing their virginity to the way that boys put up an act to avoid getting teased. It’s really important stuff that the book goes over well.
Of course, it’s not all serious. This book has the cutest love story at the center of it! While it was slow-rolling at first, once the drama set in, I was hooked! It was full of humor, pining, angst, and misunderstandings. I never expected to love a friends-to-lovers like this, but oh well, there ya go! Andrew was funny and cute. I was rooting for him the whole time, even when I didn’t agree with some of his choices. He’s a sweetie, he can make a few mistakes.
TL;DR: Full of laughter and drama that will keep you entertained every second your eyes are on the page! It’s cute and sweet and it’s a relatable high school rom-com that takes you back. (only for the good parts, of course)
4.5/5 stars!
I absolutely loved this book! It’s super funny, fun, and full of high school drama you can lose yourself in! It’s everything that I love about high school rom-coms, including really great commentary on how virginity, as a concept, gets discussed.
This book is about Keely, who’s just about done with high school and has her next four years lined up and ready to go. However, she finds herself the last virgin in her friend group and starts to panic. She doesn’t want to go to college a virgin, but the guys at her high school aren’t really doing it for her. So when a cute college guy, who’s just as into films as she is, becomes her co-worker, she becomes determined to lose her v-card. But the more her new relationship starts to cause turbulence between her and her best friend since forever, Andrew, the more it seems like Keely hasn’t been honest with herself about where her feeling lie.
Ok, so apparently I’m a big time sucker for a best friend longing for their best friend, but the friend is too oblivious to notice. I guess I had no idea until this book absolutely stole my heart and refused to give it back until I reached the last page! I could not put this book down!
This book gave me big-time high school nostalgia. Not that I ever dated in high school or cared about anyone’s virginity status. But a lot of the book places attention on how ephemeral high school is. And how, when you finally leave high school, you suddenly don’t care about all the drama that haunted you for so long. I really felt that in a number of ways. Keely’s friend group and all those dynamics were explored really well and really genuinely. I would have immediately flashbacks to people I knew in high school that made me feel the same way.
Keely was such a fun main character, though I will admit, a tad frustrating. Only because it’s so clear as a reader what she should do, but she is completely on her own to navigate really confusing icky teenage problems. Overall, she was fun and cool. I loved her love of film and Hitchcock. To be honest, I’ve only seen Psycho, but after this book, I might just have to watch a few more.
I also really loved the subtle feminism of the book. Especially with virginity being a hot topic of conversation, everyone knows that it’s this made up thing that shouldn’t matter. But this book shows why it still matters to some people, it’s about how you want to be seen and how you want to see yourself. In the end, all that matters is being comfortable, which the book puts a huge emphasis on. The book also does a really great job of showing casual sexist comments that are too commonly heard in high school. From the way that girls are treated and expect to be treated after losing their virginity to the way that boys put up an act to avoid getting teased. It’s really important stuff that the book goes over well.
Of course, it’s not all serious. This book has the cutest love story at the center of it! While it was slow-rolling at first, once the drama set in, I was hooked! It was full of humor, pining, angst, and misunderstandings. I never expected to love a friends-to-lovers like this, but oh well, there ya go! Andrew was funny and cute. I was rooting for him the whole time, even when I didn’t agree with some of his choices. He’s a sweetie, he can make a few mistakes.
TL;DR: Full of laughter and drama that will keep you entertained every second your eyes are on the page! It’s cute and sweet and it’s a relatable high school rom-com that takes you back. (only for the good parts, of course)