review: First & Then by Emma Mills

"Close your eyes, real tight, and then count to three hundred. That's all you have to do. You just count to three hundred, and when you open your eyes, five minutes will have passed. And even if it hurts or things are sh*tty or you don't know what to do, you just made it through five whole minutes. And when it feels like you can't go on, you just close your eyes and do it again. That's all you need. Just five minutes at a time."
- Emma Mills, First & Then

Let's get to the point, I LOVED THIS BOOK.

After reading this book, I sat straight up and hugged the book to my chest. I wanted to squeeze the story in to my heart and love it forever which, wasn't a problem. UGHHH I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH GUYS. Ok  *takes a deep breath in... and out* Let's just clap it out.

Meet Devon, a teenager girl, who's ignoring her future and has a crush on her best friend, Cas. Life was fine. She has Jane Austen stories, Cas, and football. But, Foster enters Deven's life and things get messy. Ok. First off, Devon Devon Devon. I loved her. Sarcastic (that's my girl!), serious, funny yet kind. She claims that she has no talents, hobbies or goals. Other readers saw Devon a boring character, I didn't. Devon had this confidence. She could walk in Walmart and become the manager. Yeah. See for yourself:

He evaluated me for a moment and then said, "Get a ball."

"Get it yourself," I replied, because who did he think he was?

Hohoho yeah. I loved her. Alright, moving on... Foster is Deven's cousin. Foster's dad died and everything in his life went downhill. Foster's mom basically gave Foster to Deven's parents. I also want to say that he had some disability. He had these "Foster moments", where he would start asking all these random questions and starting getting really upset. Deven was like "ugh, go away Foster" because she was "embarrassed". Yet, he starts growing on her. I love Foster too. He was a sweet kid. Then, Cas. I, personally, disliked Cas. Cas and Deven had a interesting friendship. He didn't treat her bad but didn't care that much about Deven and Foster. Whatever Cas. Lastly, Ezra. God. I loved him. Think of him like, a rock on the outside but on the inside Ezra was this:

Yeah. Ezra had a rough past so going to Deven's high school was a fresh start for him. Ezra was a jerk on the outside but when you really got to know him, he had a sparkling personality.That's that with the characters. Now, the plot. The plot was slow but it needed to be slow. With the slower plot, the characters, the story, the love and everything else felt... real. The writing was good but there was sarcasm everywhere (I didn't mind because I'm a very sarcastic person ;) plus there was some cuss words but nothing too big or bad. *sighs* 
Did I tell you guys that I love this book?

One more thing, this book has a lot of football. Ezra and Cas are on the football team so Deven is watching football 24/7. I don't care for football but I didn't mind that the book was focused on football. 

My final thoughts are...

 GO RUN TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY RIGHT NOW AND CHECK OUT THIS BOOK. Hahaha, no pressure.

Thank you so much for reading my review! 
First & Then was written by Emma Mills
First & Then was published October 13th 2015

Devon Tennyson wouldn't change a thing. She's happy watching Friday night games from the bleachers, silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon's cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent for football, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra, right where she doesn't want them first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life.

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