The Best Laid Plans by Cameron Lund
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book): High school senior Keely Collins takes on firsts, lasts, and everything in between in this sweet, sex-positive rom-com for fans of Meg Cabot and Jenny Han.
It seemed like a good plan at first.
When the only other virgin in her group of friends loses it at Keely's own eighteenth birthday party, she's inspired to take things into her own hands. She wants to have that experience too (well, not exactly like that--but with someone she trusts and actually likes), so she's going to need to find the guy, and fast. Problem is, she's known all the boys in her small high school forever, and it's kinda hard to be into a guy when you watched him eat crayons in kindergarten. So she can't believe her luck when she meets a ridiculously hot new guy named Dean. Not only does he look like he's fallen out of a classic movie poster, but he drives a motorcycle, flirts with ease, and might actually be into her.
But Dean's already in college, and Keely is convinced he'll drop her if he finds out how inexperienced she is. That's when she talks herself into a new plan: her lifelong best friend, Andrew, would never hurt or betray her, and he's clearly been with enough girls that he can show her the ropes before she goes all the way with Dean. Of course, the plan only works if Andrew and Keely stay friends--just friends--so things are about to get complicated.
Cameron Lund's delightful debut is a hilarious and heartfelt story of first loves, first friends, and first times--and how making them your own is all that really matters.
MY OPINION: *****
I LOVED this book. My roommate was also immediately obsessed with it when she first read it and passed it along to me and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree with her (this is a rare occurrence, give us a round of applause).
This has surprisingly low reviews for a book I loved so much. I guess I literally never agree with the majority opinion because all the books everyone loves are the ones I generally strongly dislike. I do not want to read the bad reviews and tarnish my love for this book but I'd expect that people didn't like the simple writing or general plot-line for a YA novel. That being said, I loved it.
The writing is definitely geared towards a young adult audience, which I've taken a very long hiatus from for a bit. However, it was definitely fun to read a book super fast without having to put too much thought into it. I've been mostly focused on "higher literature" and classics recently so this was a much-needed break from the intellectual, thought-provoking, analytical readings I've been doing lately.
I will say that this book did tackle the topic of "virginity" in a fairly negative light, treating it like a disease or a problem that needs to be fixed. Virginity is literally a social construct and even so, it shouldn't be seen as something "bad." I think especially for a YA novel, we should as a society be promoting sex-positivity, but that didn't feel like the case in this one. There was also a lot of slut-shaming and just generally, sex-negative dialogue. Even so, I managed to look past it because I understood the protagonist's perspective and where she was coming from. I just think that the author could have added some third-party commentary on the subject. Maybe I shouldn't be looking past it but something about the book really captivated me, so I had to keep reading.
I absolutely hated Dean. I'm sorry, but this man pressured Keely unfairly and then acted butt-hurt about it when she denied his advances. A relationship should make you feel safe and comfortable but he unnerved me with his dialogue and actions and I was glad that he wasn't the end goal for this book's main relationship.
I loved Andrew and Keely. I am NEVER a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope but something about this one got me. I was "awwing" every five seconds that they were together and I just loved watching them realize they felt more for each other than the platonic relationship they've always had since birth. This is one of the rare times when I supported the childhood-friends-to-lovers cliche because it was so well-done and you really found yourself rooting for them throughout the whole book.
Keely herself was a very naive, almost immature character at times but you couldn't help rooting for her in the end. I wasn't the biggest fan of her as an individual and the way that she constantly looked down on others, especially the other female characters. She also was super oblivious and acted like the victim constantly when she caused her own downfall. However, I also didn't hate her like I normally do with these YA protagonists and I was glad to see her undergo significant character development throughout the book. She was honestly just like most of us teenage girls: emotional, overdramatic, confused, and misunderstood.
Sometimes this book was giving Wattpad in 2014 with the tropes and general cliches. However, I still loved it and I am not ashamed.
Did I see the ending coming? Yes. Did I predict literally the whole book? Yes. Could I have written this myself? Probably. But I ate it up. It was so good for no reason. I flew through this book and literally read it whenever I had spare time (which is very rare in college). I even brought it to read with me on the BUS because I was so obsessed. I had to end up giving it back to my roommate but best be known I'll be picking this one up the next time I stop at Barnes and Noble.
I'd definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a cute romance to read over winter break. It's very fluffy and a little cringe at times, but the flutters and swooning make up for it!
Main Character: Keely
Sidekick(s): Andrew, friends, etc
Villain(s): Dean, pressure, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was a contemporary real-to-life YA novel.
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