About the book
Popping The
Cherry is a young adult ebook by Aurelia B. Rowl. It was published by Harlequin
UK on 19th September 2013 and the book is 250 pages long. I received
an ebook for review though NetGalley.
Synopsis
Valentina (Lena)
Bell thinks she’s a complete failure. She failed her driving test on the first
try and she’s never had sex. Being a virgin makes her feel different from all
of her friends, like an outsider. To help her out, Lena’s friends come up with
Operation: Popping the Cherry. They come up with a list of eligible men and all
Lena has to do is work through them to find the perfect guy for her first time.
But Lena
has trouble finding the perfect guy. After dates with crazy musicians and in
the closet friends, she thinks she is destined to be a virgin for a long time. Luckily
for Lena though, she has Jake to lean on through hard times. Problem is, he’s
her best friend’s brother and completely out of bounds.
What I thought
Author Aurelia
B. Rowl has got British teenagers spot on in this young adult novel. Many young
adult novels do not portray realistic teenagers and instead focus on
unrealistic experiences and love.
Protagonist
Lena Bell is desperate to lose her virginity. None of her friends are virgins
anymore and she can’t quite connect with them in the same way anymore because
of her not having had sex. I found the conversations and actions between Lena
and her friends to be really realistic and I could really picture them all
sitting around talking about Lena and her ‘situation’.
Not only
does the book deal with the aspect of virginity in teenagers but also peer
pressure which I thought was an important thing to address. Rowl shows that
teenagers can feel forced to do something they’re unsure of due to their friend’s
experiences but she also shows that teenagers should think for themselves
rather than following the pack.
While I thought
the idea for Popping the Cherry was a fun read, it wasn’t completely realistic.
The time span of the book isn’t too long but so much happens to poor Lena. She
encounters many situations which I doubt would ever happen in someone’s life
let alone in such a short space of time. I also don’t think some of the
situations needed to be as dramatic as they were and they could have been toned
down a little bit and still worked.
Love
interest Jake was a wonderful character. A little older than Lena, he had more experience
with relationships and was there to make Lena feel more like herself, rather
than feeling like she should be someone else. Jake really was the perfect
gentleman, always being there for Lena when she needed him and he was sweet as
hell as well. He was definitely one of my favourite aspects of this book.
Overall,
Popping the Cherry is a fun, quick read but with a really important subject for
teenagers. A great read.
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