Review: The Best Laid Plans by Cameron Lund

The Best Laid Plans
by Cameron Lund

April 7, 2020
368 pages

Goodreads      Indigo

Goodreads Summary:

Eighteen-year-old Keely Collins is determined to change her status as the last virgin standing in this sweet, hilarious 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 knows it's time for drastic measures. If she's going to avoid heading to college without any experience of her own, she needs to find the guy, and fast.

Problem is, she's known all the boys in her small high school forever, and it's kinda hard to be into a guy when you watched him eat crayons in kindergarten. So she can't believe her luck when she meets a ridiculously hot new guy named Dean. Not only does he look like he's fallen out of a classic movie poster, but he drives a motorcycle, flirts with ease, and might actually be into her.

But Dean's already in college, and Keely is convinced he'll drop her if he finds out how inexperienced she is. That's when she talks herself into a new plan: her lifelong best friend, Andrew, would never hurt or betray her, and he's clearly been with enough girls that he can show her the ropes before she goes all the way with Dean.

Of course, the plan only works if Andrew and Keely stay friends--just friends--so things are about to get complicated.

Review

The Best Laid Plans read like the teen romance that it is- with lots of drama and angst. Ms. Lund does a good job capturing a teen's complicated social life. I could easily picture this book being adapted onto the big screen and adored by young audience.

In The Best Laid Plans, the characters conform to certain stereotypes- a good girl who's unsure about who/what she wants, a popular guy best friend who harbours secret feelings for said good girl and a mean girl type friend who's not really a friend. It wasn't bad but it made their actions predictable. The drama between them was cringe-worthy but nonetheless entertaining. I just couldn't look away.

I wish I liked Keely more but her indecisiveness grated on me. I really wanted her to make up her mind. In the end I was so relieved to see her figure out her feelings and go straight for what she wanted.

Keely and Andrew's friends-to-more relationship developed slowly and shyly. There was a lot of back and forth between them which was a little frustrating but considering their age, understandable. Their hesitancy actually made their romance more swoony.

The Best Laid Plans is a story of messy relationships and the reality of high school friendships. It's an age-appropriate quick read I'd recommend to teens.

*I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not affected in any way. Any quotes included in my review were taken from the ARC I received.