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Writer's pictureKayla Isabel

Notes From A Former Virgin: Junior Year by Emma Chastain (The FFBC Blog Tour Review and Giveaway)

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Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Mean Girls as lovably flawed high school student Chloe Snow chronicles her junior year as she navigates the highs and lows of family, friendship, school, and losing her virginity.

I’ll be honest: junior year has been a disaster.

My horrible mom is back from Mexico.

My dad’s girlfriend is living in our house.

Did I mention my parents aren’t divorced yet?

On the plus side, I lost my virginity!…and then the whole school found out and I got slut-shamed.

Then, somehow, I got popular! But according to some people, it turned me into a monster, and I’m pretty sure everyone hates me now.

Oh, and there was the Thanksgiving fiasco, and the prom queen debacle, and the illegal middle-of-the-night drive to the hospital.

Want to hear the whole wild story? You’ll have to read my notes.

*Before I jump in I want to thank The FFBC and Simon and Schuster for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest review. This has not impacted my thoughts and/or feelings about this book at all. All opinions in this review are my own.*

Chloe has had a whirlwind of the past few years, her mom left to Mexico and her dad started dating her English teacher. Chloe has made new friends and is still struggling to figure out high school every year.

I LOVED the first two books in the series and I am really hoping we get a fourth! I want to be able to follow Chloe all the way through her high school career.

In this installment, Chloe does everything anyone would do if they finally were given the one thing they wanted. Popularity. Chloe lets this turn her into someone she doesn’t even recognize, finally being able to voice her true feelings to her friends and family.

I have found that this series does an amazing job at voicing the inner thoughts of a high schooler. Yes, every student is different but every high schooler has some of the same thoughts. People want to be well-liked, have lots of friends and get through high school as soon as possible to be able to move on with their life.

I love how we see Chloe’s relationships develop. She has always had a close relationship with her dad, but it gets a little strained when her mom comes home and her dad’s girlfriend moves into their house. Slowly, with everything that’s going on in Chloe’s life she starts to push things away but then when its all said and done, she realizes just how important her dad is and who her true family is.

Chloe’s mom SUCKS. She is by far my least favorite YA mom that I have read about. She is a flake, bad-tempered and truly a very bad mother. She is border-line abusive and It makes It very hard for Chloe. So if we do get another book, which I really hope we do, I hope we never have to see her mom again. Can she move to like the opposite side of the world please?

I love Chloe’s friends and I love her boyfriend, Grady. Her friends are loyal and loving, and each friend is very different. I find that sometimes in books the friends are all very similar but in this one, each friend brought something different to the table and I really loved that. Hannah and her being able to see the good in everyone, Tris and his love for gossiping and being able to talk about the same thing for hours with Chloe, Elliot and his just plain amazing Elliot-ness. And then there’s Noelle, who I don’t like the most but she’s real and doesn’t hold back. And Grady, her loving, sweet and just plain amazing boyfriend.

And then we have Miss Murphy, her english teacher and her dad’s girlfriend, she wants to be part of Chloe’s life but she doesn’t want to over-step in anyway. She wants to be part of her family but she doesn’t want Chloe thinking she’s trying to replace her mom in anyway. I really like Miss Murphy and I’m happy we get to see how her relationship with Chloe grows.

I really enjoyed this book and I love Chloe so much. I felt like I was seeing so much of my own crazy high school thoughts coming from Chloe and her friends (our experiences are EXTREMELY different but the thoughts are very similar.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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Emma Chastain is a graduate of Barnard College and the creative writing MFA program at Boston University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.

Giveaway (US ONLY) One person will win ALL THREE BOOKS!

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