This just wasn't my type of book! Which is totally okay. I appreciate what the author is trying to do, and hey, I don't think there are a ton of books out there that really capture teen sex--but this whole thing didn't click for me at all.

I really appreciated the frankness of both characters as they learned to love and be their true selves. While there was a lot of sex which might make some readers uncomfortable, it was presented in a very sex positive way that could really help teens. My only complaint is that the minor characters -especially the parents- didn't feel nearly as well developed as Benedict and Pen.

A slow read with unlikeable main characters. I really did not care for them or their outcomes. Honestly I just skimmed through the last 50 pages.

Benedict Pendleton is the socially awkward son of an equally socially awkward, but professionally prominent, psychologist, and there are expectations. Benedict will be brilliant, he will go to a good college, and he will make an excellent husband to the perfect wife who will NOT be Penelope Lupo. Penelope Lupo is a not-so-good Catholic girl who loves to masturbate…a lot. She has frequent, but unsatisfying, sex with her popular Catholic boyfriend who fully intends to marry her and do all the expected things. Benedict’s best friend is pining for Penelope, and Benedict is quick to point out that she is the absolute wrong kind of girl for either of them. All that changes when Benedict and Penelope meet up at Wild Wolf Resort. Both of these characters have issues, but they find that in each other they don’t match, they fit. While there are heart warming moments as these two quirky characters meet one another and navigate a new relationship, I have read few stories that feature the words “orgasm,” “penis,” and “vagina” so prominently. Gottfred accurately captures the awkwardness of a couple’s first sexual encounter and emphasizes the theme that finding one’s soul mate means accepting and appreciating the whole person rather than seeking a few specific qualities. The gratuitous masturbation and explicit sex acts are likely to lose less mature readers in the titillating details and are bound to make school librarians cautious about adding this definitely more mature title to their collections.

My reason for DNFing this one are simple: it made me uncomfortable.

While I have no problems with sex or discussions of it in books, its a natural thing, it was too much in this book, especially for a YA novel.

Of the 5% (and really, I skipped pages at a time thats how awkward they were - not in a character story sense, in a me sense - if that makes sense) I got through, I think at least 3% was discussions of/thinking of sex and masterbation. And the views of sex were very "stereotypical teen" written by someone obviously not a teen.

While I did like the writing style and the humor, and I thought the characters had great potential, I couldn't get past the awkwardness. I did like the sex wasn't portrayed as something only the boys like, as is often in teen fiction, but honestly? It was too much, the other plot points revolved around dating entirely, and it made me uncomfortable and a little nauseas. I might read something else by this author.

If sex in book doesn't both you, and you like YA romances (in dual POV), then you'll like this. It does after all have pretty good reviews and rating. It just wasn't for me.