I read The Best Laid Plans last month have been mulling it over trying to decide how to put my thought into a review. On paper, it’s everything I love in a book.
Keely stuck as the last virgin in her group of friends (and maybe the entire senior class) when beautiful and popular Danielle hooks up with Chase at a party at Keely’s best friend Andrew’s house. The thing is, Keely doesn’t want to date any of the guys she’s known her whole life. I can’t really blame her. Except for Andrew, they’re all kind of terrible. Misogynistic and generally pretty gross (I say this as a female only child mother of daughters, so maybe this is exactly how guys talk and act, and I just don’t want to believe it). Even Andrew, who’s pretty delightful when it’s just him and Keely, becomes Party Andrew pretty quickly in public. When Keely meets Dean, a gorgeous film-obsessed college student (Keely wants to be a filmmaker), she finally has someone worth wooing. The only problem? She lies and tells him she’s not a virgin, and decides to ask best-friend Andrew for “lessons” so she’ll know what she’s doing with the guy she really wants. I think we can all see the myriad of problems this proposition presents, and where this book is headed.
Things I loved: I really liked Keely, Andrew, and Keely’s best friend Hannah. I loved the will-they-or-won’t-they build up with the best friends and the writing in this book was really fun. Things I wasn’t as crazy about: Dean was not dreamy to me at all. It made it hard to buy that Keely was trying so hard to please him when he seemed like a complete idiot. That said, I’m an adult reading YA. Maybe a teen would find Dean dreamy. I’ll also admit that Dean’s particular mystique—laid-back-whiskey-drinking-fake-philosophizing-motorcycling-riding-without-a-helmet charm is not my bag. I’m not a huge fan of any of those things. And I don’t have a problem with sex in YA, but there were aspects of this book—marketed as sex positive, and I’m sure that was the intent—that didn’t feel that way to me.
I did race through this one, and I’d definitely recommend it to YA fans who like love triangles/squares with best friends at the center.
Keely stuck as the last virgin in her group of friends (and maybe the entire senior class) when beautiful and popular Danielle hooks up with Chase at a party at Keely’s best friend Andrew’s house. The thing is, Keely doesn’t want to date any of the guys she’s known her whole life. I can’t really blame her. Except for Andrew, they’re all kind of terrible. Misogynistic and generally pretty gross (I say this as a female only child mother of daughters, so maybe this is exactly how guys talk and act, and I just don’t want to believe it). Even Andrew, who’s pretty delightful when it’s just him and Keely, becomes Party Andrew pretty quickly in public. When Keely meets Dean, a gorgeous film-obsessed college student (Keely wants to be a filmmaker), she finally has someone worth wooing. The only problem? She lies and tells him she’s not a virgin, and decides to ask best-friend Andrew for “lessons” so she’ll know what she’s doing with the guy she really wants. I think we can all see the myriad of problems this proposition presents, and where this book is headed.
Things I loved: I really liked Keely, Andrew, and Keely’s best friend Hannah. I loved the will-they-or-won’t-they build up with the best friends and the writing in this book was really fun. Things I wasn’t as crazy about: Dean was not dreamy to me at all. It made it hard to buy that Keely was trying so hard to please him when he seemed like a complete idiot. That said, I’m an adult reading YA. Maybe a teen would find Dean dreamy. I’ll also admit that Dean’s particular mystique—laid-back-whiskey-drinking-fake-philosophizing-motorcycling-riding-without-a-helmet charm is not my bag. I’m not a huge fan of any of those things. And I don’t have a problem with sex in YA, but there were aspects of this book—marketed as sex positive, and I’m sure that was the intent—that didn’t feel that way to me.
I did race through this one, and I’d definitely recommend it to YA fans who like love triangles/squares with best friends at the center.