Originally posted on Chapter and Verse Reviews. 

This book was given to me by my good and dear and true friend Kay, and it turned out to be a good and dear and true gift.

[image error]First Love is a snapshot into Neve’s marriage via a flashback into her first love. It’s a simple concept, and the style itself is not wordy or flowery, and yet it communicates something real and complex. Riley has a talent for writing speech that reads as real, and for communicating relationships clearly but not explicitly.

First Love is one of the best novels I have ever read. I do not want to give too much away about it, but it was a true and painful and subtle and beautiful picture of a relationship that was told with a delicacy that it’s rare to see in literary fiction now.

Go out and read it immediately.

You’ll love this book if:

– You like literary fiction

– You are interested in what makes people tick

You might want to avoid this book if:

– You do not like books