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The Best Laid Plans

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3.64  ·  Rating details ·  3,701 ratings  ·  851 reviews
High school senior Keely Collins takes on firsts, lasts, and everything in between in this sweet, sex-positive rom-com for fans of Meg Cabot and Jenny Han.

It seemed like a good plan at first.

When the only other virgin in her group of friends loses it at Keely's own eighteenth birthday party, she's inspired to take things into her own hands. She wants to have that
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Hardcover, 368 pages
Published April 7th 2020 by Razorbill
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Elyse It's about a girl trying to lose her virginity in high school. Pretty sure there's going to be a lot more than just kissing...
Grady Savage My kiddo is almost 16 and I'm excited for her to read this book. It's sex-positive in a myriad of ways - focusing very much on the emotions around…moreMy kiddo is almost 16 and I'm excited for her to read this book. It's sex-positive in a myriad of ways - focusing very much on the emotions around making a decision about sex (in any direction) and the social struggles that can go with any sexual decisions in teenage years and/or young adulthood. It would likely depend on the teen/parents comfort level on the subject matter, but I didn't find it too explicit for a teenager by any means.(less)
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Community Reviews

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Average rating 3.64  · 
Rating details
 ·  3,701 ratings  ·  851 reviews


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Chelsea (chelseadolling reads)
This book had so! much! potential! to be a new favorite for me, but it just kind of fell flat and I am HECKA bummed about it. This is another one that wasn't necessarily bad, but I just.. did not connect to it nearly as much as I was hoping I would. Womp :c
Angelica
Apr 02, 2020 rated it liked it
DISCLAIMER: This is a mostly negative review, pointing out many of the problems that I found in this book. That said, the rating is based entirely on my general enjoyment of the novel. While I had issues (stated in the review), I didn't exactly hate this novel and actually had a decent time reading. Sorry if my review and my rating seem incongruous, this is the way my brain categorized the novel.

Now, onto the review!!

I liked this. But also, it was lowkey questionable?

I read this book in one day.
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Tucker  (TuckerTheReader)
Sep 07, 2019 marked it as not-released-tbr
Shelves: romance, young-adult
fun! another book to remind me how painfully single i am!

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Bibi
Apr 13, 2020 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: favorites
This is one of my top reads of 2020.
Christy
3 stars

 photo 4A0920FD-17B0-4E52-BF3A-BC3D76308CC0_zpsmmqyuyow.png

The Best Laid Plans is Cameron Lund's debut novel and I was impressed. Though there were parts of the story that weren't my favorite, overall I liked most of the characters and her writing was fantastic. This was an easy to listen to and fun audiobook.

This story is about a senior in high school named Keely who is one of the only virgins in her class/group of friends and she's over it. She wants to get rid of it. She finds a college guy she's into named Dean and it's her chance. The
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Jeff Bishop
Aug 15, 2019 rated it it was amazing
Who among us hasnt asked our best friend to take our virginity so the cute boy weve been making out with wont run away when he learns were a virgin???

I had the pleasure of reading an early edition of this book and Im so glad that I did! This is one of the best rom-coms that Ive read in a long time. Its funny when it wants to be, cover-your-eyes cringey in the best possible way at times, and really thoughtful about the way we talk about sex/virginity/relationships. This should be required reading
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Hilda
He cant know youre a virgin because then hell think of you as only a virgin. Suddenly thats what itll be about. Hell just want to take it. Your virginity wont be yours, itll be his. Guys are experts at making everything about them.

The misogyny in this book was huge. Like the whole book was just men and women hating women. And to top it off there was so much slut shaming and bullying. The only reason it got a two star was because the drama was delicious and Danielle was a true villain. She was
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Larry H
Apr 19, 2020 rated it liked it
When you live in a small town and go to high school with the same people youve known since kindergarten, everyone knows your business. So its public knowledge among most of her classmates that Keely may very well be the last virgin in the senior class.

Theres nothing wrong with her; its just all of the guys she knows treat her like shes one of them. Even her best friend Andrew, whom shes known since birth, treats her like shes not really a member of the opposite sex, and they feel comfortable
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Lisa (Remarkablylisa)
Apr 23, 2020 rated it it was ok
Shelves: april-2020
REAL RATING: 2.5/5

If i were being honest and didn't let other people's reviews affect my mindset going into the book, I would have been VERY excited but then quickly bored because things move at a glacial pace despite me knowing from chapter 1 that our main female character is liking the WRONG guy.

But since I did read the reviews, I know going in that this story has been heard and seen before. It just has a lot more discussion of SEX which is fine but it's overly dramatic and left me with a
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Meags
2 Stars

This one fell short of the mark. I rarely rate below 3-stars and I hate giving negative reviews, but I have to express my feelings about this story, and I fear I may get a bit wordy and ranty before long, so buckle up!

But, first, for some (brief) positive musings...

For a debut novel, the writing was fairly decent. The premise certainly wasnt anything ground-breaking, but it still felt fresh, and I was engaged from start to finish, which I cant always say with confidence after reading
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sam
May 12, 2020 rated it it was ok
2.5? I dont know what this book was trying to do, honestly. Im not a huge fan of the friends to lovers trope so that could probably be why i didnt like it that much. Or the fact that its pointless. Its cute, for the most part but its not something I would recommend reading. Might do a full review at some point.
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Lacey
Apr 11, 2020 rated it liked it
I was really excited to get my hands on Cameron Lund's debut novel. Anyone who knows me knows that the best friends-to-lovers trope is my kink. My kryptonite. My Achilles' heel. My fatal flaw. My raison d'être. And every time I see a new book that promises exactly that, I smash that mf want-to-read button and count down the days to publication.

I'm hesitant to say that I was disappointed with this book because I wasn't really; it was cute and fun, and I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. That said,
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Stacee
I had seen a lot of high reviews for this one and I think this is a case of expectations, a book hangover from my previous read, and not being the target demographic.

I liked Keely and Andrew. They have a fun relationship and I especially loved the idea of BFF to more. Theres quite a set of secondary characters here and theyre all sort of toxic. The boys are horrible misogynists and the girls are slut shamers and everyones excuse of brushing it off because high school is almost over and theres
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Lea (drumsofautumn)
This has huge potential to be the biggest mess but I shall remain hopeful.
Alison
Apr 14, 2020 rated it really liked it
4.5 STARS
Full review here: https://youtu.be/a2ZdjXy748Q
Timestamps for titles in description.

This is a new favorite for me! It felt realistic for events happening in a small town. (Trigger warnings for underage drinking in nearly every chapter).
It is based around our main character who believes she is the last virgin left in their school and feels like everyone else has slept with, well, everyone (again, small town problems!). I loved her and how forthcoming she was about sex and her desire to
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Mina
May 01, 2020 rated it it was ok  ·  review of another edition
Just like Dean said this was all so high school..
Unnecessary drama
I was actually rooting for him by the way.
I may have been abit biased though, I am very much very into guys called Dean.
Whew!
Anyway back to this one..
Juvenile characters,
One dimensional,
The whole lose your virginity thing to become a woman seems very cringe and 18th century honestly
Rebekah
Feb 11, 2020 rated it did not like it
So, the book isn't TERRIBLE. The writing is competent and overall the characters are likeable. But it's exceedingly generic and honestly unrealistic.
Stories about high schoolers questing to lose their virginity have been around since the early 80's. Granted, the majority of them have concerned boys rather than girls, so at least this one is progressive in that aspect. But it's not a new idea by any stretch. That would be fine if somehow new life was breathed into this old idea, but
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Melanie (mells_view)
Jan 10, 2020 rated it really liked it
Falling in love with a high school boy is the single stupidest thing you can do.

I have been chomping at the bit to read The Best Laid Plans ever since I read the sneak peek on BookishFirst. In my opinion Cameron Lund provided YA perfection with this story. Her writing is tight and flows so easily. I was constantly turning pages and could not get enough of these characters and their banter.

Im not going to rehash the synopsis, because thats not my strongest skill. All Im going to say is that Keely
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Callie (lovelybookishbelle)
For a book thats being promoted as sex positive its a shame there is so much bullying and slut-shaming involved. And the worst part is most of that behavior comes from other girls. Shouldnt we want to see girls supporting each other, not tearing each other down? Also the idea that sex is something you should just do and get it over with is probably not a healthy message. Honestly, the whole book I was surprised because I didnt see hardly anything positive about it.

Thank you Penguin Teen for
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.。.✿.Nana.✿.。.
I don't know, I don't know.


How do I rate this?, if I didn't like the beginning but I adored that ending hehe


I guess 3 stars
Vee can’t come to the phone right now, she is suffering from something called finals 😭
4.5/5 stars
AHHHH THIS WAS SUCH A CUTE ROMANCE.
This story dives into the pressure of society regarding sex, how it might feel like a race sometimes, how it is impossible not compare ourselves to others, how this pressure is actually very sexist and while us women have it harder, men are subject to it too.
I wish I had this kind of book when I was growing up, but Im glad that the new generations have this.
Totally recommend it!
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Veronica
Apr 10, 2020 rated it did not like it
1 ⭐

Okay, so this book let me down. I was seeing a lot of glowing reviews about it so I eagerly purchased it becuase pizza and best friends to lovers plot, that's my cryptonite. However, I have an unpopular opinion.
.
.
This book was advertised to be "sex positive" so naturally, I was like "heck yeah, female empowerment!". Well, that was a bold claim. I believe that was false advertising as everything in this story was poorly mishandled. It was riddled with bullying and slut-shaming, which the
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Brinley
This book was weird, while I did enjoy it, it irritated me at some points. Like most romance novels, it was super obvious as to who Keely had feelings for, and who she would end up with. That took away some of my enjoyment of the book because some of the drama felt filler.

My first, and really only problem with this was the characters. Keely was alright as a character, but her constant worrying about what being a virgin would mean for her relationship with Dean got a bit old. I actually disliked
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Arpita (world of a book enthusiast)
This is a funny, cute and really enjoyable book. I loved this book more than a pizza 😃. It is perfect for all YA romance lovers. It is a book we want to read again and again and every time it is as amusing as it was the first time. All the characters are lovable and so relatable. I was a little nostalgic and was remembering my high school days while reading it. We all had such a group of friends and classmates in high school.

This book is about Keely who is a high school student and her best
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Rumsha
Apr 07, 2020 rated it did not like it
In the age of quarantine, this was a book I hoped might bring me a moment of respite. Instead, I'm left wondering how any publisher thought this manuscript was worth the paper it was printed on?

Let me be clear when I say that this book isn't bad, it's a debilitating indictment of the genre.

I don't know whether to rage about the misogyny (and the complete normalization of it), the bullying, the slut shaming, the toxic female relationships, or the lackluster romance. Which brings me to my
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che
Apr 12, 2020 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
this is like that scene in euphoria where kat tells jules she's a virgin, and she replies with, bitch, this isn't the 80's, you need to catch yourself a dick. ...more
Storiesandcoffee
Apr 09, 2020 rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: fans of YA romance
Recommended to Storiesandcoffee by: Alexa
"Sometimes life isn't perfect. It isn't a movie. I can't direct it, can't edit out the scenes that I don't like. Life is messy and complicated and full of misunderstandings. And that's okay. Whatever happens, I can't wait. I'm so ready."

Thank you Penguin Teen for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.

Another slam dunk, 5 star romcom to add to my list of favorite YA reads for the year. I read this 350 page gem in 24 hours, swooning the entire time. Reading The Best Laid Plans felt both
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ABookwormWithWine
Song/s the book brought to mind: I Want Crazy by Hunter Hayes

It has been awhile since I have read a contemporary young adult book, so I decided to pick up The Best Laid Plans by Cameron Lund and I'm happy I did! It was an adorable debut, but it will also make you think. There is plenty of teenage angst and drama in the book and lots of talk about sex, but I think I was in the mood for a book like that because I enjoyed all of it. Many parts seemed to be realistic, and I loved Keely and Andrew
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Yoda
As long as your expectations are low I think you might enjoy it. It is kind of typical high school book with a bit of annoying characters that have development without being too much. There is a lot of somewhat negative focus on being a virgin, but in the end this book is sex positive and I did like that. Some plot points that I couldve done without are taking the rating down. ...more
Olivia Wildenstein
Mar 11, 2020 rated it it was amazing
What would you get if you mixed SEX AND THE CITY with AMERICAN PIE? This hilarious and cute book.

I've just stayed up half the night to read a book, and even though my eyes feel like they've been rubbed with sandpaper, I don't regret a second of it. THE BEST LAID PLANS made me giggle, grin, blush, and snicker like the awkward teen I used to be. Keely, Andrew and the gang are charming and real, and bursting with hormones and convictions about life, as teens usually are.

Speaking of Andrew . . . I
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