Book Review: First & Then

I can't believe I haven't given you the review for this one! I don't think it comes to anyone's surprise I picked this one solely for the cover, it is absolutely stunning and colorful. I'm a sucker for a rainbow, lambs. 

First & Then - Emma Mills

Devon Tennyson wouldn't change a thing. She's happy watching Friday night games from the bleachers, silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon's cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent for football, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra, right where she doesn't want them: first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life.

Pride and Prejudice meets Friday Night Lights in this contemporary novel about falling in love with the unexpected boy, with a new brother, and with yourself.

With the school year coming up this one has all of the vibes you'd expect from a high school based young adult novel. We have Devon, slumming it through high school, with a best friend named Cas who she has a crush on. Her cousin Foster (who I kind of wondered if he was maybe on the autism spectrum?) comes to live with her family after his parents have issues and its under the guise of temporary. Foster finds out by accident that he's a really great football kicker so he finds himself on the team, being coached by Ezra, the football star of the school. 

High school happens and then we have relationship switcha-roo and mostly Devon learns that a person isn't just what is face value. All kinds of life lessons. 

Let's talk review though, this book was a bit slow for me. I kept waiting for something big to happen and it never really did? Devon was the selfish in the way that teenagers are by nature, and she makes assumptions of people and get embarrassed when it turns out she wasn't right at all and in fact. I didn't totally love Cas, but he's a typical teenage boy. I really loved Foster and he actually ended up being the star of the book for me. I was most tuned into him and I wanted to know about his life before he came to live with the Tennyson's, and when he has his "big moment" in the book my heart broke for him in both a bad and good way. I actually really liked Ezra because if there was ever a character who had a lot on his shoulders and for no reason and every reason at the same time, it was him. He was far too good for Devon and this could have, should have, been his book. Devon was easily the least interesting person in this book and that was the shame. 

Now, does it compare to a Jane Austin in modern day? I don't know, Jane Austin wasn't ever my thing. COME AT ME, DON'T CARE. I didn't love this one but I can absolutely see why this would be a hit with teens and mega fans of young adult alike. I felt like the author did a good job capturing the atmosphere of high school and the confusing first feelings with crushes and first love, raging hormones, and teen angst. It was primarily Devon's character that brought this down for me. 

⭐⭐⭐

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