17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen | Rating: ★★★★☆ | Release: June 17th 2014"But we never had the kind of relationship where I talked to her about serious stuff. And we don’t live in the kind of house where you yell and cry about your problems in the open.
Sometimes I wonder if that’s part of the reason she’s like this. She kept her feelings hidden, and they ate her from the inside out.”
On first inspection, I had assumed that this novel would be something of a cutesy romance and tales of friendships coming to an end because of a romance. But as I dived further into 17 First Kisses it became more and more obvious that the time wasn’t bringing much in terms of justice to the story — don’t get me wrong, though. 17 First Kisses does have the makings of a YA romance and the title is relevant to some of the plot.
There is, however, more to the story than what initially meets the eye. And that’s what I loved most about it: it had the romance you’d expect, a little drama here and there; but the end product isn’t what I expected. Isn’t that what makes novels good at the end of the day?
17 First Kisses starts with an introduction, briefly, to the friendship between Claire and Megan. It’s light, it’s funny and it’s totally the sort of antics you’d expect from two teenage girls. You see right away that these two have a genuine friendship — in spite of flaws — and have a great time together. In my opinion, I spotted many similarities between the relationships of Claire/Megan and Blair/Serena from the Gossip Girl novels when you compare them. It’s very parallel in terms of the bond that they hold.
