Book Review: First Love by James Patterson & Emily Raymond

Title: First Love
Author: James Patterson & Emily Raymond
Published By: Little, Brown and Company on 13th January 2014
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Setting: Klamath Falls and somewhere around U.S.
Format: Trade Paperback, 278 pages
My Copy Source: Bought [Powerbooks]

Axi Moore is a "good girl": She studies hard, stays out of the spotlight, and doesn't tell anyone that what she really wants is to run away from it all. The only person she can tell is her best friend, Robinson--who she also happens to be madly in love with.
When Axi impulsively invites Robinson to come with her on an unplanned cross-country road trip, she breaks the rules for the first time in her life. But the adventure quickly turns from carefree to out-of-control...
A remarkably moving tale with its origins in James Patterson's own past, First Love is testament to the power of first love--and how it can change the rest of your life.

"The best thing in the world is to know how to belong to someone else"

I have a lot of issues with this book, I didn't love it because as a reader, one would definitely try to find all the back stories to every situation; one would always want to know! And this book did not gave me the satisfaction of knowing everything! It's such a short story with very short chapters. It would have been more of an adventure if I knew the characters well, but I think the adventures solely depended on their trip around U.S. and the nefarious activities they have engaged in while on their trip.

To get this out of the way, this book is a rather compressed journey. It doesn't make you want to go places, it's not an invitation for a reader to plan a road trip on the places they've been to.

Please stop right here if you haven't read it yet so as not to spoil you with anything. I just can't get this review through without saying these things!


Note before you read the book: Don't read if you've read The Fault In Our Stars, most especially if it's your fave because this book will disappoint you big time if you did.

This is me the whole time I was reading it:

Woah, they're best friends and they kissed once... Ooooh, Love, Rosie!

There's cancer! They're like crossing off items on bucket list while touring the States! Oooh, a hint of A Walk To Remember.

There's vomiting in the car! And visiting an author and woah, The Fault in our Stars all over again.

I don't know why, but this story is a mix of three books, in my opinion. The whole ride was like me in different stories but me still stuck in the same one. It is not as unique as I expect it to be because I thought James Patterson is a big name in the industry and Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas is a good one for me (it made me drop a tear), so I was shocked to have to compare the similarities it had most of all in TFIOS. A lot of similarities, by the way.

But anyway, the story did not contain the "feels" of TFIOS that made us all cry buckets of tears, so I guess this is a poor attempt at retelling the great Hazel and Gus' love story, I'm sorry.

Am I happy with the book? I think the two-star rating would tell you that (my lowest rating so far). One star for a beautiful book cover, the other? I enjoyed some parts,yeah. :) And since I'm happy with the book cover, I'd still have it in my Book in Focus feature some time this week, even though I won't recommend it to my fellow book wormies. That feature is actually for book cover appreciation so I'd definitely put it on spotlight.