Book Review: First Time by Stella Starling

Blurb:

Cody McPherson is a high school senior everyone says is destined for the NFL. Simon Andrews is the transfer student who doesn’t want any attention. It’s 2007 and no one is out at Hamilton High School, but there’s a first time for everything, and when biology tutoring sparks the kind of chemistry not found in textbooks, 2007 starts to look like the year that there will be a lot of firsts at Hamilton…

First Time is a coming-of-age gay romance novella of approximately 34,000 words. Every Stella Starling romance takes place in the same interconnected, contemporary world, and First Time is a prequel to Cody and Simon’s present-day love story, which will be told in the novel Second Chance, scheduled for release in 2019.
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Todd's rating:

Totally fucking YA-dorable!

This story was pretty much everything that I hoped it would be. Two sweet 18 y.o.'s finding one another, falling in love, and dealing with coming out as a couple at school.

I adored Cody's friends, Jessica and Brian, when they both had Cody's big ole' gay number right from the start, and were fully behind him and his feelings for Simon.

The scene where Brian forces the issue at lunch, in front of half the football time, God, so priceless. Gasp, smile, snort. Yep, all of the emotions on that once.

The feelings between Cody and Simon felt very believable, especially for high school seniors.

However, the fact that the entire story happened without ever being introduced to or dealing with Cody's ultra-conservative, strict parents, well, that felt a bit forced and unrealistic -- especially after they'd dated for six whole months.


The teen angst and manufactured melodrama were kept to nice, healthy levels, plus there was one pretty steamy sex scene right at the end. And wow, there was no skimping on the prep time. heh

What SUCKS though is that the cover touts this story as being "a second chance prequel".

Translation... THEY BREAK UP at some point before their next book begins, I'm assuming when they go away to different colleges. *sigh*

I'm NOT looking forward to that, but I'll gladly read another story about these two, preferably sooner than later. ;- )

Overall, I'd rate this novella at 4 stars and recommend it to any fans of YA.

This novella is *FREE* on InstaFreebie.

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