Monday, May 14, 2012

Book Review: First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky




Title: First Comes Love
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
# Of Pages: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin 
Publication Date: May 8, 2012
Level: Young Adult
Rating: 2 Hearts

Many thanks to the wonderful Houghton Mifflin for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.






Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

Like his name, Gray is dark and stormy. Dylan, a girl always searching for what's next, seemingly unable to settle down, is the exact opposite: full of light and life. On the outside, they seem like an unlikely couple. But looks can be deceiving and besides, opposites attract.
What starts as friendship, turns into admiration, respect and caring, until finally these two lone souls find they are truly in love with each other.
But staying in love is not as easy as falling in love. If Dylan and Gray want their love to last, they're going to have to work at it. And learn that sometimes love means having to say you're sorry.


My Verdict

This book just wasn’t for me. I absolutely loved Katie’s first book, Awaken, and couldn’t wait to read anything else by her. I knew this book would be different; Awaken was dystopian this was contemporary. The writing was just as wonderful as her first book but I didn’t care for the story at all.

This is a story of firsts. First encounter, first kiss, first love, first obstacle, so many firsts.

The story is told from alternative points of view, which I really enjoyed. Sometimes it switches perspective in the middle of a chapter but it’s clearly marked when it does, so as not to confuse the reader. 

Gray has done nothing but build walls around himself, ever since his twin sister died, in an attempt to block out the rest of the world. That is until Dylan shows up and starts to break down those walls.

Gray & Dylan meet at community college were they are both taking summer courses. During their first conversation Dylan asks Gray to give her a tour of the city, talk about being blunt, but that is just Dylan. She is outgoing, goofy, honest, and completely her own person; she doesn’t care what other people think of her. At first Gray thinks she’s completely weird but slowly he realizes his feelings for her have taken a complete 360.

I honestly didn’t care for Gray or Dylan. Gray was kind of blah, and Dylan was really annoying most of the time.

This book is definitely NOT for young readers. There was a lot of sexual content that even at age twenty-one made me squirm.  There are multiple sex scenes where TOO MUCH INFORMATION! TO MUCH INFORMATION! Was blaring like a siren in my mind. There was also a bit of swearing, including the F word.

Overall, between the swearing and level of sexual content, this just wasn’t the book for me. I like reading about cute & sweet romances not hot and heavy ones. Despite my disappointment in this one, I’m still a big fan of Katie and can’t wait to read Middle Ground (sequel to Awaken!)  when it comes out.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting. The same issues that you faced for not liking the book, I might feel the same way. Sometimes I think authors try too hard to be edgy and it doesn't fit for the story. There needs to be a reason for what they use in the story.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To be honest the synopsis slightly confused me. It really doesn't explain what the story is about and is not captivating at all. Thanks for the review!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the honest review. Bland characters/relationships ruin the book for me. The synopsis seems a bit eh but I'm intrigued enough to check it out. Have lowered expectations for it now though. Thanks for your review :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmm...I'm looking forward to reading this book, but I'll definitely keep your opinions in mind. They're very valid and definitely things that could bring down my opinion of the book.

    ♥Jessica(:
    Just a Booklover

    ReplyDelete

What are you thinking? Let me know! I love hearing from you and read each and every comment. I always try to respond or visit your blog in return so leave a comment. I know you want to ;)