Cameron Lund’s The Best Laid Plans is an easy win! Do yourself a favor and cozy up with this book for a flashback in time to high school when your biggest concerns were plans for the weekend and staying up too late. Sounds glorious, right?!
Keely Collins and one other pal are the only ones in their small town’s high school graduating class who haven’t traded in their v-cards. Well, until last night. She feels like she’s on an island and no one is even tossing her looks, let alone interest.
She is heading off to USC in the fall and she’d like to have her first experience with someone she likes and trusts. But the options are pretty dreary.
Keely and Andrew Reed have been best buddies since forever. Their parents are very close and these two have somehow figured out how to navigate that friends-through-the-awkward-years-of-puberty dance, where boys and girls who were buds before people ‘started liking each other’ shift away.
Sure, everyone assumes they are a couple. Certainly they finish each others’ sentences and plans always include them as a pair. That is, until Andrew turns into Party Andrew at high school gatherings and becomes Rico Suave. Not that Keely gets any of those charms.
What I love is that she gives him just enough of a hard time for being a player, but doesn’t have intentions to change him. That’s where the author shines. She’s not trying to make a statement about being prude or player-ish or in between. She’s calling it like it is without judgment. Cameron showcases the evil side (being shamed as a slut and easy) and the good side (it’s your body, you’re in charge) of sex at this age. Secrets aren’t always safe. Small towns mean everyone knows everyone…and will eventually know everything.
In this little ecosystem of parties and prom and friends seemingly getting laid all the time, Keely internalizes the lack of interest in her as an issue with her. And gosh, how could she not when it seems like the currency in high school is how frequently you get invited to parties, who’s dying to get in your pants and how easy/hard it was to get in your pants.
This excerpt from the book is spot-freaking-ON!
There’s no way to win, is there? You’re a slut if you do, a tease if you almost do, a prude if you don’t, and a bitch if you stand up for yourself. I’m sick of the name-calling. We should have each other’s backs.
Cameron Lund, 315
Keely gets the brilliant idea to learn from someone experienced and who she trusts unconditionally: Andrew. Easy win, right?! Can these two forge into bedroom boogie territory and still be friends?
The Best Laid Plans explores losing your virginity in the most sex-positive voice I’ve ever read. It shows how important good people in high school are to your quality of life, your sense of self. And it demonstrates what trying too hard looks like in love and friendship.
This book was phenom!