Cameron Lund

When eighteen-year-old Keely Collins decides to lose her virginity, she fears Dean, a college student, will be turned off by her inexperience, so she decides to start with lifelong friend Andrew.

The Best Laid Plans

Joana da Silva

10th book of my Covid-19 isolation. This was ok. I liked the characters, the movie references and the dialogue, but that was about it. The story developed in a pretty predictable way. However, this is a pretty cute book.
I think I have to stop reading so many YA Rom-Coms in a row, because they're all starting to sound the same to me.

celene

friends to lovers sometimes be like idiots to lovers,,, and u know what i respect that,,,

Leí este libro por recomendación de mi amiga Eliza (tqm hermosa <3), y quise creer que sería igual a la película The First Time, la cual no me gustó mucho pero me parece aceptable. 

Sin embargo... si me lo preguntan, no le recomedaria este libro a nadie.

Por ahí vi que se refieren a la autora como “una Anna Todd sana y feminista” y la verdad es que eso me pareció un poco contraproducente por cómo se abordan varias cosas en esta historia. 


  ¿Cuál fue mi problema este libro?


Todo el fkn tema de la virginidad. 

A ver, el título te lo advierte, la sinopsis te lo confirma, y tras leer el primer capítulo era obvio por dónde iría la cosa, pero aún así pensé que la historia mejoraría un poco…

Para mí, el peor personaje de este libro fue Danielle, más que nada porque es la típica chica de la vida real (me he conseguido a varias así lastimosamente) que anda de aquí para allá metiéndole presión a sus “amigas” para que se pongan las pilas y pierdan la virginidad, y suelta comentarios tipo:

“Vale, puede que nos hayamos acostado… Adivina quién es por fin toda una mujer.”

“No puedo creer que haya sido virgen durante todo este tiempo. Qué vergüenza.”

“En la universidad, ser virgen es como tener una enfermedad.”

“—¿Insinúas que no soy lo suficientemente buena para él?

—Eres virgen. Eso es lo que pasa. Él no lo sabe, así que lo que probablemente trata de hacer es acostarse contigo y convertirte en un rollo habitual. En cambio, si le confiesas que eres virgen, pueden ocurrir dos cosas: que piense que eres un bicho raro y pierda interés, o que te desvirgue y jamás vuelva a dirigirte la palabra. Ninguna de estas dos opciones son buenas. No creo que quiera convertirse en tu profesor sexual. No va a perder el tiempo con todas las alternativas que tiene.”

Y miren que el libro está lleno de más fragmentos así, porque lamentablemente la protagonista está obsesionada con todo el asunto de que todavía es virgen y se avergüenza de no tener experiencia. De paso, tiene la mala fortuna de tomarse en serio todos los comentarios de esta chica, y básicamente empieza a tomar una serie de malas decisiones con tal de perder su virginidad (incluso en algún punto llega a mentirle a un chico al respecto porque dice que de lo contrario perderá el interés en ella).


  ¿Otro personaje que odié?


Dean... Hombre tenía que ser.

Capaz acá no soy estoy siendo muy objetiva, más porque las acciones de este personaje me recordaban a cualquier chico de la vida real, y mira jeje no... suficiente tengo con los hombres de la vida real, como para leer a semejante imbécil, que de paso resulta ser el "interés amoroso" de la protagonista. 

¿Qué más puedo decir de él? Un cinéfilo pretencioso que busca enrollarse con alguna chica bonita, y que está todo el rato pensando en su propio placer y en que su "paciencia" debe de ser recompensada. Disgusting. 


  ¿Algún aspecto positivo de esta historia?


Hay un Childhood Friends to Lovers muy bonito, y que era obvio desde el principio (menos para la protagonista), pero tampoco es que la autora nos dé mucho contenido al respecto. Además, siento que en esa relación hay un par de cosillas que no me parecieron bien, pero ya me siento un poco hater, así que olvidaré esos detalles.

En fin, entiendo que hay que separar la ficción de la realidad, o viceversa, o lo que sea. pero "el mensaje" de este libro me parece algo dudoso , y aunque al final la misma protagonista se termina “deconstruyendo”, no sirve de nada con el menudo inicio que tuvo. En serio espero que ninguna chica se lea esta historia y sienta la inminente presión de que tiene que perder su virginidad ya mismo porque todo el mundo lo está haciendo o de lo contrario terminará siendo un bicho raro. 

Y si alguien necesita el friendly recordatorio: perder tu virginidad no te hace más mujer (o más hombre). al igual que ser virgen no te hace un bicho raro, ni menos mujer (o hombre). no caigan en esas tonterías, a veces la sociedad, y todo el asunto de la presión social, te rompe la psiquis de la peor manera, pero recuerda que esa es TU vida y tú decides cuando hacer algo, o cuando no, porque al final tú eres con la/el que tendrá que vivir con esas decisiones y sus posibles consecuencias, y no los demás.

Jana Jenkinns 

First rom-com/contemporary I've read in years. Fun and light hearted, easy quick read I finished in less than 24hrs. Full review to come on my blog.

Charmaine

Ooooof this book was hard to get through. And I mean HARD. Two dumb idiots who don’t know that they’re in love with each other? Multitudes of misunderstanding? So cliche. But that’s just life. It’ll always be messy. Love will always be difficult. And it makes the ending all the more worthwhile. 💛💛💛

Jessica Guht

Thank you Cameron Lund for writing this book because it got me out of my reading rut! I loved everything about it, the characters, the character development, the awkward moments that were painfully relatable, the body positivity, and the happy ending which wasn't absurdly unrealistic.

Can I first just say how much I loved the way this book approached the topic of sex in high school? Lund perfectly emphasized that what other people choose to do with their bodies is none of your concern. Do you like having sex with multiple people? Awesome. Are you waiting until marriage? Amazing. Whatever makes you comfortable is what is important, and no one should be pressured into doing something just because they think everyone else is. Also, the double standard that girls and guys receive! Thank you Cameron for bringing this up in such an empowering way. I applaud you.

Now onto the romance, something which this book is not lacking in any way. So many swoon-worthy moments. Will you still hate one of the guys, and wish that Keely would stop being such a dummy? Yes. (or at least I did) But the story was so good that I can't even complain. Did I predict how everything would play out? Yes. Did I still love every second of it? YES! Seriously guys, friends to lovers is one of the best tropes and I instantly attracted to any book that features it. the fact that this book was so well-written made it all the better.

I mentioned in the beginning that I loved the character development, and that's because ALL of the characters developed, not just the main characters. Have you ever read a book where there a supporting characters that are there but not really there? That's not the case in this book. All of the characters play a role in the story, and the endings they get are satisfying, if not a little bittersweet. 

All in all I truly loved this book, and I know I will be rereading it any time I need a light and enjoyable read. I also can't for any future books by Cameron Lund, it's hard to believe that this is her debut, but I can't wait for the future books she writes!

**Thank you to Cameron Lund and Razorbill Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review**

adeline 

i don’t even know what to say. i’ve never disliked a main character more than i disliked the ones in this book

Sofie

ugghhh this is so close to a dnf. I'm 90% done, and Keely is just s o s t u p i d.

REVIEW:

I don't want to review this. I didn't like it. 1/5 for the slut shaming and lack of consequences for the gross male characters, but I'll tack on a star because Andrew was alright.

But Keely. My god. She was SO naive. How is that possible? At 18? Even an inexperienced 18 year old isn't BUYING SEX BOOKS (no I don't mean a cosmo magazine, because we all bought those. I mean a full on instructional novel? idk man this girl acted like she was 14). She was so unlikeable. 

I feel like Lund couldn't decide on a message. She tried to be sex-positive but fell through in literally every aspect (considering the guys were all gross and no-one did anything about it, and the girls were shaming each other, writing horrible notes and being absolute cows). Read some of the other reviews because I'm just regurgitating them at this point.

Bye, Lund. Do better.

Aubrey Erskine

I only got read a first glance of The Best Laid Plans and I need more now. The premise sounds a tad shallow, but don't be fooled this is about to be more than that. The friendship between Keely and her best guy friend is so cute and genuine, I'm honestly curious to see how it all plays out. It has a more mature feel than To All The Boys We've Loved Before so I wonder if we will get an ending along those lines or if it will go in the other direction with it being an epic failure. 

Keely seems like my kind of girl though. She's leaving her small town comfort for adventure and departing from her friends and everything she has ever known. It's how all of us small town kids feel before heading off to college. I like that she has big plans though and again am wondering how it will all fit together.


  For the updated full review visit my blog:
 http://shelflifechronicles.com/2020/0...

I went into The Best Laid Plans expecting lots of sex, like a To All The Boys fake date situation but with sex. What I got instead was a book about female empowerment. Girls learning how to own their sexuality and that the rules that apply to them don’t apply to the boys and how messed up that actually is. I’m loving all the sex positive and female positive books that have been coming out lately. I don’t want to stick a feminist label on this because that turns people away, but it had a strong message that I think young girls deserve.

Yuki Reads

4.5 stars! Honestly, a YA romance with some very accurate POVs! Lund completely nails the texts, conversations & parties on the head with The Best Laid Plans. I received an ARC and I’m so grateful that I got to read it; it’s a super quick read with some fun characters. There are definitely some awkward and cringe moments, but lowkey that’s what high school is all about. I’m on a YA kick now!!

Sarah Williams

❝Love is when your weirdness matches up with someone else’s weirdness. When you’re comfortable being exactly you.❞⁣
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It will come as no surprise to any of you that I adore teen rom-coms from the 90s/early 2000s (She’s All That, Never Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless, to name a few). There’s just something so special about them. I get butterflies from the banter, I get a knot in my stomach during the inevitable, albeit brief, romantic separation, and I get stars in my eyes during the oh-so-satisfying reunion. It doesn’t matter that I’ve seen them a million times, there’s something about those movies that makes me feel like I’m experiencing my own condensed version of first love.⁣
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That’s what reading THE BEST LAID PLANS is like. THE BEST LAID PLANS feels like all of my favorite, classic teen rom-coms with a fresh, updated spark. It is simultaneously familiar and excitingly new. This is the kind of story that will be just as satisfying and delightful reading it for the thousandth time as it was reading it for the first time.⁣
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Keely and Andrew’s relationship was perfect. Both of them are so strong and lovely characters in their own right and, as someone who was absolutely obsessed with movies in high school (I wanted to be a screenwriter for years, was president of the Film Club, used to listen to movie scores to fall asleep), I adored Keely and saw so much of myself in her. Okay, fine, that’s false—I saw so much of the cool, film-obsessed girl I wish I’d been in her. But still.⁣
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I never wanted this book to end. This was perfect and delightful and everything I wanted and needed in a story. I would like to personally buy every single human a copy for when they need some joy in their life. ⁣
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In sum, I love this book more than pizza. 🍕⁣

Destiny

Alright so add this to a pile of books that I would read again but honestly makes me so mad!

This book starts out as the average teenager book with your teens who think they’re big, bad and cool because they have their cliques and they drink alcohol. At this point it’s the next new thing to lose your virginity though. Which is a thing that’s more common today for some reason, but you have keely and her clique with the popular Danielle and then you have Andrews clique, keelys best friend since they were little.

It’s always a love interest between the best friends and it’s obvious, but there was so many love hate times and even some really petty times throughout this book that really made me hate because it is so true to Highschool. Although the relationship between keely and Andrew is very accurate is was also cute. I think I’d like to revisit them sometime, but I think for now it wasn’t a bad read.

Manon van Heumen

This was surprisingly good! The first 100 or so pages were really slow, but after that it picked up pace, and it finally got interesting :)

The Best Laid Plans

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