My First and Last Time by Andre' Mwansa
Genre: Comedy, Satire
Word Count: 1,250
Marcus is a 20-year-old virgin who would do anything to lose his virginity, and has lived more than his fair share of awkward moments trying to get rid of it.
When he goes to the bar to drink away a bad dream, he meets a strange woman who--dare he think it-- is actually interested him and wants to take him back to her hotel. What could go wrong?
This is the last book in the I'm a Virgin series but these books are pretty much stand-alone incidents of Marcus and his romantic troubles. I reviewed another book in the series, Girlfriend for Hire, on Hubpages if you want to check it out.
Andre' Mwansa started the I'm a Virgin series because he loves writing for fun and entertaining people. Being an avid reader himself, he's a huge fan of Stephen King. His high school friend was named Marcus, who may or may not be the inspiration of the unfortunate protagonist.
Less Comedy, More Tragedy
I really enjoyed Girlfriend for Hire for its absolute absurdity. My First and Last Time was less absurd and more unfortunate.
It starts ass backward with the ending first and then flashing back to the true beginning of the story where Marcus meets Gina, an attractive, quirky lady who likes Marcus a lot.
Gina is funny and strangely optimistic. Despite being more experienced than Marcus, and maybe even older, she has an innocent air about her. This is really obvious when they're telling each other their best days ever and worst days ever.
‘’Your best day ever?’’ it was my turn to ask.
‘’Everyday?’’ she said, eyes fixed on me ‘’Like right now chatting with you, wondering where the night will take us?’’
She's definitely cool. And in these few pages, she has more character development than Marcus gained in the entire series.
Marcus's character begins and ends with his obsession with losing his virginity. While I get this is comedy, I like everything better when there's a little more depth to the characters.
The two of them together, however, are really cute. Their awkwardness matches perfectly and I could totally get behind them as a couple if I didn't know how their story ends from the beginning. Why the author decided to spoil his own story, I don't know, but it's partly why I rated this story so low. The other part is mostly because I didn't laugh, not once, and I did not enjoy this book as much as girlfriend for hire.
If you want to check it out, you can read My First and Last Time on Smashwords for free, along with the rest of the I'm a Virgin Series.