17 First Kisses

Overview

Rachael Allen's debut novel follows Claire, a sixteen-year-old who has developed something of a personal comedy of errors when it comes to boys. Kiss after kiss ends in disappointment, and Claire begins to suspect that the problem isn't just bad luck: the boys she meets tend to shy away once they learn about her family's painful history, or once they sense the size of her own ambitions.

The story shifts when Claire meets Luke, who seems different from the rest. But complications arise quickly, since Claire's closest friend Megan is drawn to Luke as well, and Megan is not someone Claire can easily compete with or dismiss. What begins as a lighthearted account of teenage dating turns into a more layered exploration of loyalty, jealousy, and the unpredictable shape of first love.

Told with humor and an eye for the small humiliations of adolescence, the novel balances its romantic plot with a quieter reckoning: Claire has to figure out what she actually wants from a partner, from her friendships, and from herself, rather than simply accumulating kisses in search of an answer.

Friendship, Grief, and the Search for Self

Beneath its breezy premise, the book is largely concerned with how teenagers manage competing loyalties. Claire's rivalry with Megan is never framed as simple villainy on either side; both girls are contending with the same uncertain terrain of attraction and self-worth, and the narrative resists giving Claire an easy claim to the moral high ground. That tension between wanting a friend's happiness and wanting the same thing a friend wants is treated as one of the more difficult, and more honest, parts of growing up.

The novel also uses Claire's dating history as a lens for examining how young people are shaped by circumstances outside their control, particularly a family tragedy that follows her into every new relationship. Rather than treating romance as a straightforward reward for likability, the book suggests that the right partner is one who can sit with a person's harder history and their unresolved ambitions alike. In this way, the "kissing a lot of frogs" premise becomes less about tallying failed dates and more about Claire learning to recognize what she needs before she can recognize who might actually provide it.

Why 17 First Kisses Has Been Challenged

Objections to the novel have most often centered on its suitability for readers in the mid-teen range, roughly ages 14 to 17, with critics arguing that its frank treatment of teenage romantic and physical relationships goes further than is appropriate for that age group. Specific concerns raised include the book's depictions of kissing and physical intimacy between minors, casual references to alcohol at teenage social gatherings, and language some reviewers consider coarse for a school library setting. Some challenges have also pointed to the romantic rivalry between Claire and Megan as normalizing behavior that undermines healthy friendship. In the catalog tracked here, the book has drawn a challenge in 1 state and 1 school district, reflecting a narrower but still notable pattern of concern among the broader wave of contemporary YA romance titles facing scrutiny in recent years.