One of the things I'm known for amongst anyone who has ever met me, is the phrase "This is my favorite [fill in the blank]".  It drives a lot of people crazy, but I don't see it as a bad thing.  I'm a passionate person.  It's way better than being boring.  However... this is my actual favorite book.  This is the book that changed my life.  And rereading it three and a half years after I first picked it up, I am able to see just how much.

Sloppy Firsts is told in a series of letters and journal entries and follows Jessica Darling in the year after her best friend moves away.  Jessica is smart, feels completely isolated, and has a hard time buying into everything she's told to want out of life.  She's also slowly falling in love with Marcus Flutie, who is the poster child for boys you do not tell your friends and family about (sigh Marcus Flutie, the perfect reformed bad boy).

I love this entire series.  It follows Jessica from sixteen, all the way to her twenties and each book perfectly captures what it is like to grow up.  These books feel like home, and Sloppy Firsts was the first book I had read with a narrator I could completely relate to.  For the first time, I felt like I wasn't a terrible person for being jaded so young.  It made me want to fall in love and take chances and write stories that seemed more real than the world.  It also made me a little bit obsessed with Marcus Flutie (sigh, Marcus Flutie).

I journaled for a year after reading these books.  It was exactly what I needed to be honest with myself about the kind of person I was and the choices I had been making.  It was what allowed me to make changes, to pursue the things I love, to become a better person.  I realize this isn't a great "review", but this is what I want you know about this book.