This HaBO request is from Sophia. She’s looking for a romance, that may have been young adult or new adult:
I am looking for a book I remember picking up at a library between 3 and 5 years ago. The book looked like it nay have been published several years before I picked it up so 2008-2015?
The book was a YA or maybe new adult. The book opens with the heroine sending a young man whom she just had sex with on his way. Apparently she is known for having sex with virgin guys and only virgin guys.
This was because she had some sort of bad experience with her first time, and she wants other girls to not have that experience. Therefore the heroine ‘educates’ young men on sex and how to make it good for a woman.
I didn’t get beyond the first chapter or two, but I’ve been thinking about it for days and really want to find it again. Thanks for the help.
The setup reminds me slightly of the movie Easy A, which I thought was fantastic. God bless, Stanley Tucci.
Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23480844-firsts
I don’t think Firsts is the one. The purplish cover threw me off at first, because I vaguely recall a cover in some soft purple shade, but that isn’t the one (I’m fairly certain), as it’s too recent.
Karen is correct. It’s “Firsts” by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn.
And the book is a fairly recent YA nivel (I read it in 2017). The main character had her first time at a very young age due to negative feelings. So she specifically has sex with virgins who are in loving relationships so that the girlfriends have a great first time.
It’s her way of redoing her first time (albeit vicariously).
For once, I actually knew the answer off the top of my head, only to find it was already solved. Sad times. But yeah, I actually have Firsts on my shelf behind me, and having recently reorganised my shelves and scanned them all into Goodreads, it was very fresh in my mind.
*novel, not nivel
Darn typos..
@Sophia M – too bad! I love it when it’s solved on the first try.
Any other identifying things you remember?
Honestly, I have to revisit my local library to confirm for sure. It’s been a while. I don’t recall exactly how far I got… when I reread the sample, I noticed more similarities between what I saw and what I remembered.
I think this is a relatively common trope. I feel like I’ve read a few books that have this idea.
Ah, a kind of role reversal of Scheherazade. I love when fairy tales are turned around.
“The Whisper of the River” by Ferrol Sams has this trope. First published in 1986 but you might have run into later, I did. It’s the middle volume of a trilogy on coming of age in the South in the early 20th century. The handling of racial and sexual topics can be…problematic, but the character of Vashti is indelible. Porter meets her while at college; she is a preacher’s daughter and determined to subvert those expectations as hard as she can. The final thing a boyfriend has to do is give her a condom, because the first thing she does with a new boy is hand him one.