Diving in

This book was amazing, although sometimes a little unrealistic this story grips you from the beggining. Colette is an average girl who loves to swim, every thursday she goes to the pool and as well as swimming 30 lengths fantasizes about the hansome Art. When he asks her out Colette is thrilled! She goes on and on about him and consequently comes close to losing her best friend, Val. Art tries to pressure Colette into having sex but Colette feels she is not ready and tells him so! When he puts her in the sticky situation of going to his weekend cottage and sharing a room with her Colette refuses and makes a bed on the sofa! When she gets home and tells her feminist mother she flips and has a go at Arts parents, she makes them out to be complete fools and colette and her mum create an immediately stronger bond. This book has a great morrell entwined telling teenage girls not to be pressured into sex. All i can say is im now trying to find the next one in the trilogy!

Heroine Coll, influenced by her feminist-to-the-point-of-man-hating mom, rightly believes that her first sexual relationship should go beyond the physical and as she holds out for "holistic sex," her boyfriend Art, a former player, becomes more and more frustrated. Much of the first book is taken up with the struggle between head, heart and hormones. In book number two, when Coll and Art do finally become lovers, the intensity of the relationship becomes too much for baggage-laden Art who skips off to New Zealand. In book number 3, Coll is recovering slowly from the relationship that left her ravaged when Art, interested in being "just friends" returns. But is there really such a thing between men and women?Protective parents will complain that this book is "too" for teens -- too sexy, too honest, too promiscuous -- but the sexual relationship between Coll and Art is mature and tasteful. Collete describes the overwhelming emotion of being physically intimate, rather than play by play of what goes where, and condoms are mentioned regularly, with a subplot of a best friend's abortion fortelling the disasters of going skin to skin, even one time.The flawless writing, realistic story, and complex characters blend together to give a sense of "I know what she means!" about the short series. This is Forever for the new millennium, British style: A smart girl falls in love and has a sexual relationship that runs its course with no harsh repercussions (such as disease, pregnancy, or death). Hopefully a three-in-one version of the series will be published soon, because it is impossible to not want to read all three books in one sitting.

When I read the first few sentences of this book I expected a trashy romance-type novel. While the book does contain some of those elements, its realistic enough to teach valuable lessons about sex to those just beginning to discover it, or even those who have only been at it a few years. Colette plays a great heroine, even to the point of performing a few heroic acts herself against drunk would-be rapists. And then there is Art, the affluent, arrogant, muscular, every-high-school-girls dream type who is used to getting what he wants, sexually and otherwise, no thanks to the flighty free-spirited dad and stepmom he has who go to almost any lengths to ensure he gets the sex he "deserves as a young man." Colette's parents, and most especially her mom, play a counterpoint to Art's free-spirited folk. I didn't quite agree with the character development of Colette's mom...I believe she went much too quickly from the overbearing, highly feminist dragon-type to the loving woman willing to go to any lengths to protect her precious daughter, although the point where she storms in to yell at Art's parents had me smiling and saying "good for her" at the end. All the other friends tie in well to the story where it is appropriate, but those are the characters you remember most after reading this book.I highly recommend this story for any teenager, sexually experienced or not, for the values and trials it teaches.I must also state that the book is written in British dialect, and American teens may not understand some of the words used. But the glossary at the back of the book is helpful, although I would have put it in the front of the book, or at the very least a note that readers might refer to the back of the book for American translations of British words they might not understand (after all, one does not expect to find a glossary in a work of teen fiction).

This book is the best I've read in a long time.It is about one girl's relationship with THE man of her dreams, who turns out to be after more than she's prepared to give!I suggest you buy it NOW before it's completely sold out!

An excellent book about a seventeen year old girl trying to get what SHE wants out of her relationship. After the first few pages, you're hooked! You really start to sympathise with Colette. Her boyfriend Art wants a speedy sexual relationship that will probably end within a couple of weeks, but Colette strives for more. Does she get it? You'll have to read the book!