We all remember our first love and how it unfolded. Katie Kacvinsky captures all of the firsts with her sophomore novel First Comes Love. Set in Arizona, First Comes Love moves through the progression of Dylan, a girl, and Gray’s relationship from the first time they meet at community college to their first fight and beyond.
First Comes Love is a very short book, under 230 pages. The chapters are frequent and are all labeled with a different first. I found the chapter titles added some enjoyment to my reading of First Comes Love. Of course, each chapter deals with the first it is named after, so the book is nicely structured.
The main theme behind First Comes Love is the relationship, seriously the entire book is centered around it. It shows the sweet side of the relationship and the dark side. I will admit, I swooned a little tiny bit as lighthearted Dylan fell in love with stormy Gray.
However, I am not 100% in love with First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky. I thought Dylan ended up reading like the cliche manic pixie dream girl. She pushes Gray out of his stuffy shell and forces him to traps life. She also has all these weird quirks like naming things, rambling, asking weird questions and leaving gifts for people she doesn’t know. In the end, I found it hard to care for Dylan as a character because she does not have character growth to the extent that Gray does. I thought she remained static and stilted.
If character growth is your modus operandi while reading, you might like the character of Gray. If you just wanted to read about a complicated relationship and it’s ups and downs, you might wanted to give First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky a shot. For me, though, I could not get past the obvious stock manic pixie dream girl.
Disclosure: Received for review via Amazon Vine.
Other reviews of First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky:
Into The Hall Of Books
This Blonde Reads
Ex Libris
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tnx 4 the review
i so want this1
You should def check it out!
I just got this from Vine….I wonder if I’ll like it. I like character growth and books about complicated relationships. Hmmm. 🙂 Good to hear that it had you swooning a little.
Yeah, I was really on the fence with this one. Who knows, maybe you will love it?
The organization of the book sounds really interesting, and the fact that the characters meet in college so they’re older also draws me. I’ve been looking for some protagonists a little closer to my age.
That was definitely a good thing about First Comes Love, the age of the protagonists. I really like reading about characters closer to my age as well.
This sounds like one that certain people will just LOVE. (I think I may recommend it to my little sister, she’s in to the whole manic pixie thing… LOL!)
Great review, as always!
-Jac @ For Love and Books
Yep! I think if you are really into MPDG’s you’ll really like this one.
This sounds like one that certain people will just LOVE. (I think I may recommend it to my little sister, she’s in to the whole manic pixie thing… LOL!)
Great review, as always!
-Jac @ For Love and Books
This one looks really great – Though, hearing you were on the fence about it makes me thing I’ll push it down my TBR Pile 🙂
Hah, well it’s also really short so reading it sooner will be an asset to decreasing your TBR pile 🙂
<33 You're my bookish soul mate with a few exceptions!
I thought I was the only one who didn't love this book. I loved Gray, but could not get into Dylan. Thanks for making me feel better 🙂
YES! Like, she was soooo annoying and I’m like no way do people act like that in real life. AND THEN SHE WOULD DO CRAP THINGS AND NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND PAWN IT OFF AS OH I AM A VAGABOND. Blahhh.
This is going to sound really shallow but I wanted to high five this post just because you used the words “modus operandi.”
I want to high five posts for phrasing all the time. So, if you are shallow than SO AM I!
It sucks when you don’t like one of the main characters at all. I think I’ll still give this one a shot since it’s pretty rare that I come across a book that takes a look at a relationship as a whole instead of just the beginning or the end. Great review, though :]
It is definitely worth giving a try, because we all read and view books differently. I hope you like First Comes Love more than I did. 🙂
I loved this book so much. But you’re right, it was mostly because of Gray. I don’t think I disliked Dylan as much as you and the other commenters but I sure loved the hell out of Gray. I love the mysterious broody boy any day. He fit that perfectly.