The First Last Boy by Sonya Weiss
Series: Southtown Brothers #1
New Adult
Released: October 20, 2015
Reviewed by Sheena
Sex was the plan. Falling in love wasn’t.
Eighteen-year-old Montana “Tana” Shaw has a plan for her life and she follows it to the letter. That includes losing her virginity to her best friend, Ryan Collins before she leaves for college. He’s wild, tattooed, and oh-so-tempting. She never meant to fall for him. But when Tana learns that Ryan’s past is responsible for her family’s heartache, she’s not sure her heart or their relationship can survive.
Ryan Collins is the foster boy from the wrong side of the tracks. He’s scarred, no good, and knows with a past like his that he shouldn’t get involved with Tana even if the sparks are hot enough to drive him crazy. But when the past rears its ugly head, he’ll become the guy he hates in order to save the girl he loves.
Favorite Quote: Love kneed a guy in the balls and kept him stupid enough to keep crawling back for more…. Ryan was outside. I yanked open the door, pushed aside the screen, and threw myself into his arms. My lifeline back to shore.
It’s New Adult but dammit I liked it! Though I’ve never too much of a fan of the over wrought, I can totally enjoy a good balanced angst tale. I read the blurb and became instantly intrigued. The first chapter sucked me in and I could not put this book down. Best friends-to-lovers trope but with a grim twist. This is my first Sonya Weiss novel and she made it count! The proverbial good girl and bad boy love affair!
Montana is a complex character and I could see and identify with her clear as a bell. She is very regimented and even at her young age, has a plan for her life. She wants to go to college- check. She wants to live an authentic life- check. She wants to lose her virginity to her best friend- errr not so fast. Best friend, Ryan Collins knows he is sullied goods and would sooner gnaw through his own arm than risk rocking the foundation of his friendship with Tana. They are such a cute partnership. They feed each other in healthy ways, as he is her rock, there for her, her ‘home base’ and she is nothing short of a little miracle, the light that keeps him adrift. Besides their deep friendship and mutual support, they have fireworks the likes of which even Katy Perry has never seen! Their chemistry is palatable and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them react to one another.
The First Last Boy has a host of complex, multi-dimensional characters and an emotional, sometimes desperate edge that does not repel. Alternatively, it compels you to invest-emotionally and absolutely root for a resolution that does not leave these two crazy kids broken in irreparable ways. Tana had a very comfortable upbringing until the rug was snatched from under her and her mother and she had to actually work, hard, to sustain. No stranger to hard knocks, Ryan is her buoy and has a very visceral reaction when forced to face their attraction head on when Tana asks him to be her first.
Montana, No.
Usually Ryan called me Tana, the shortened version of my name. The one he’s used since the day we met. He only used Montana when he was pissed off. Like he’d been ever since I’d asked him, like I’d suggested he let me rip out his nipple piercing or something He’d recoiled and shut me out the second I’d mentioned sex.
Whatever.
It is easy to fall into the trap and think that Ryan is perhaps too noble to divest his buddie of her virtue. The truth is far more naked and revealing. Poor guy genuinely believes he’s just not good enough. He and his foster brothers are tight knit and even they cannot save him from himself. And that broke my heart. And endeared me to him, and kept me reading- most importantly. This novel has all the trappings you expect from a new adult story. Life changes, burgeoning sexuality, requisite angst and drama. Some mystery but not suspenseful. It is like a warm blanket where you can get all your romance novel feels on!
There were girls you fucked and walked away from and then there were girls you stuck around for because they embedded themselves into your heart so deeply that you forgot where your own heartbeat ended and hers began. Montana had a hold on me that no other girl had ever come close to having and that scared the shit out of me.
The author also does a good job expressing hopelessness and fostering an environment where fractured self-esteem could be repaired. We see how down Ryan is on his circumstances and how he clings to his 50 foot wall of self preservation. We see how Tana becomes the roots that grow in-between his once impenetrable coping device. Even at their most fractured, they remain acutely aware of one another. The secondary characters are engaging and as a first novel in the series, there is plenty of room for more arcs and plots to spring forth. I’ve already started day-dreaming about who the next Southtown brother will be! There is a small twist regarding their respective family backgrounds and the importance of tolerance and forgiveness is a strong theme in this novel. Things got a little hokey with the resolution but I survived nevertheless. I am most certainly a new found fan of Sonya Weiss and will stick with book 2 to see what she has in store. Best of all- no cliffhangers! HEA is hard won and wrapped up beautifully.
Grade: B
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