Tag: friends to lovers

The Best Laid Plans by. Cameron Lund | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: The Best Laid Plans

Author: Cameron Lund

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 368

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: 4/7/20

Categories: Young Adult, Coming of Age, Romance, Contemporary

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. 

First times are so awkward and I think the author captures that perfectly in this story. Keely is a virgin, and she thinks she’s the only one left at school who hasn’t done it. But when she meets a college guy who she wants to lose her virginity to, she doesn’t know how to go about it and asks her best friend Andrew to help her out.

Keely has a pretty good high school life. She’s part of the “in” crowd and gets invited to all the parties. Andrew’s best friends even consider her one of the guys. Her group of girlfriends are varied, Hannah, she totally clicks with, and Danielle not so much. These kids party, hook up a lot (except Keely) and they are soon going to graduate and get out of there – they definitely have that last hurrah vibe going on.

Keely and Andrew’s relationship is super cute. They are best friends but when things get hot and heavy, they try and go back to being best friends but it’s hard because Keely is starting to have feelings. It doesn’t help that Andrew is liking a new girl every week!

I like how the story shows how different everyone’s first time experience is with sex. It’s also awkward, and hopefully not humiliating (like Danielle’s experience), but no one wants to seem inexperienced even though they are! Also the story delved into the double standards of what happens when a girl loses their virginity, versus a guy losing theirs – totally not fair that right away a girl can be called a slut and a guy a stud.

Content Warning: slut shaming, underage drinking, misogyny

I wished Andrew and his friends stood up for Danielle more when someone was writing stuff about her on school walls. Or when Ryder was mouthing off and saying stupid things. It doesn’t seem like the girls at that school did much to defend her either, which was interesting so both guys and girls were slut shaming her. A lot of the guys in this book got away with being players and boy behaviors, which was annoying but I guess that was the point – to show the double standards between guys and girls.

Why you should read it:

  • sex positive
  • best friends to lovers
  • high school dating dramas

Why you might not want to read it:

  • high school dating dramas
  • the boys are so annoying 🤦🏻‍♀️
  • slut shaming and virgin shaming

My Thoughts:

The guys in this book are getting it way too easy. I liked how the story showed the double standards that girls face when it comes to sex. I thought Keely and Andrew’s friends to lover arc was cute. I found Keely’s concerns about being a virgin something that girls can relate to and all the other girl’s thoughts about sex was something I heard over the years from friends growing up as well. So overall I enjoyed the story and all the high school drama going on.

📚~ Yolanda

People We Meet on Vacation by. Emily Henry | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: People We Meet on Vacation

Author: Emily Henry

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 364

Publication Date: 5/11/21

Publisher: Berkeley Books

Categories: Romance, Vacation, Contemporary, Friends to Lovers

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. 

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

People We Meet on Vacation is such a fun summer read! From the book cover to the story premise, it is meant to be read during summer.

Alex and Poppy are best friends since college, and travel buddies every summer until a trip where events happen that made them not talk for two years. Alex is a travel blogger but she’s lost the happiness she felt when traveling and thinks vacationing with Alex again will help her find that spark she lost, plus she misses him like crazy.

The connection between Alex and Poppy is effortless, minus their first few encounters in college. As they grow together, they become like peanut butter and jelly or peas and carrots, two things that work well together despite major differences in them. Alex is the responsible one, Poppy is the wild one and together they balance each other out. I love how they interacted with one another. The dialogue between them is funny and you could feel how tight their friendship is. Also, you can feel the underlying love with the potential for more between them. It’s a relatable story especially if you’ve ever been in this type of situation where you have a friendship that eventually turns into something more, or the fears about having it be more. No one wants to wreck a good friendship – and sometimes taking it to the next level does damage it and that’s where Poppy and Alex is at.

The ending when they finally try to work things out is very heartwarming and so emotional. And of course we get the happily ever after moment, which is sweet.

As the title suggests, Alex and Poppy do meet a bunch of different people on vacation, but not as much as I expected. There were few here and there but for the most part, this story is Alex and Poppy’s relationship story.

The story moves from past and present as we lead up to the last vacation where they don’t talk afterwards.

Why you should read it:

  • quick, summer read, and the characters travel (fun since we are living in a time where traveling is risky)
  • cute and emotional romance between Alex and Poppy
  • happily ever after feels

Why you might not want to read it:

  • friends to lovers (if that isn’t your kinda thing)
  • Alex and Poppy date people throughout their friendship

My Thoughts:

I can see why everyone hyped up this book and it’s a perfect summer read. It’s funny, cute, and has a very emotional ending. I enjoyed it very much and I think this would actually make a cute rom-com movie.

📚 ~ Yolanda