First & Then

By: Emma Mills
Published Year: 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co
Pages: 267

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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

                                                                           First Impressions

I have to admit I was a bit torn by this cover. I like the colors and that definitely caught my eye, but the actual cover which is kind of like tear drops or rain drops didn’t grab me right away. The summary and the marketing for this book were what drew me in. I saw it advertised as a modern day Pride & Prejudice with high school football. Pretty much anything with football I am immediately sold, add in Pride & Prejudice and it becomes a no brainer.

                                                                            What I thought

I loved this book! Everything about this book is a Lindsey book and I enjoyed it. I read it all in one day in pretty much one sitting.

Devon is starting her senior year of high school. Her cousin Foster is a freshman and just moved from California to live with Devon and her family. Devon’s best friend Cas plays for the varsity football team, so Devon has spent a lot of time at football games and going to football after parties. Ezra is the star, All-American football player who moved to the high school in his junior year. He is aloof and a lot of people assume that he is a conceited jerk. Devon is the same until she begins to get to know him.

I loved all of the complexities with the relationships. Each relationship had more to it than what it seemed. For example, without giving anything away, Devon has had a crush on Cas for years. It was fun to read about two characters and their relationship and then find out that there was another layer to it. Devon is a bit closed off so you don’t get a huge insight into all of the characters, but definitely enough that you can form opinions about them and form attachments.

Football plays a pretty big part in this story. Ezra, Cas, and even Foster are involved with the team so by association Devon is involved with the team. A lot of the setting of the story occur at football games or football practices. It’s not overly heavy on actual football play references, more the atmosphere of the football life. I am a huge college football fan, but enjoy reading about football at any level so I loved the feeling that these settings gave me.

This book was really easy to read and while there were complexities to the story line, it moved quickly and easily. I would say that the big story line is relatively predictable (it even states it’s similar to Pride & Prejudice), but the nuances of the story were not. There were some twists and turns within the stories and relationships that I did not predict.

I’ve been in a bit of a reading funk lately and this one was just so refreshing and enjoyable to read. This is Mills’ debut novel and I am truly excited to read books from her in the future. Part of me does wish that she would write a sequel to this one as it ends just where parts of the story start, but at the same time it’s refreshing to have a story end on a happy note and allow my imagination to run with what happens after.

I loved so many aspects of this book. The relationships, the characters, the romance, it was all great. It’s not often that I have a book that I finish in one sitting and this one captured me. If you enjoy football I would highly recommend this book. I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on the similarities between this and Pride & Prejudice as it’s very loose. I would definitely read this book again and have already recommended it to friends. I can’t wait until Mills comes out with her next novel!