James Patterson is a very well-known author, and I have read quite a few of his books. At one point I was slightly addicted to his young adult series, Maximum Ride. I read some of his stand-alone titles for adults. This was several years ago. I haven’t picked up a Patterson in a while. So when I cracked open First Love, I didn’t really have any expectations. From the dust jacket write up, I thought the book sounded interesting and might have the potential of being a book I would really like. Boy, was I wrong.

Let me just say that James Patterson is an amazing man. He gives money to bookstores, he recently spoke out against Amazon in defense of authors, and he seems like an all-around cool guy. However, I think his books are getting to be a bit commercialized though. He spits out a new one every month it seems, so that is understandable; he is running out of original ideas, most likely. It seemed that First Love was perhaps an imitation of The Fault in Our Stars. There was the love story, the disease, the living up life, but something was missing. I’m not sure what exactly. Maybe the story just didn’t feel possible?–Like it was a fable? Things happened that wouldn’t happen in real life. When I finished this book, I had the distinct feel that I had just read a sappy romance novel. It had the story, just not the substance.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  4 religious exclamations; 2 mild obscenities; 3 scatological words; 1 offensive hand gesture.

Violence/Gore:  Two teens steal several large items.

Sex/Nudity:  Teens kiss several times; sex is referred to several times, with no detail; one brief scene is described where it is implied that minors have sex.

Mature Subject Matter:

Personal crises, death, cancer.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink.