First Love: What Would You Give Up To Keep Yours?

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Story with a powerful message!
Review: Meet 17-year old Amani Shephard. A high school senior, she is young, beautiful and saved. She is also the youngest of seven, which comes with high expectations. Her mother Olivia looks to Amani as her "last" hope-after seeing her six oldest daughters engage in the path of pre-marital sex, she prays that Amani will be the one to wait until marriage, holding firm to the values that she has been raised on.

When Amani meets Marley "Miracle" Man Jamison, she falls deeply in love in him. Like her, he is attractive, intelligent, and a child of God. Her love and relationship with Marley takes her into a deeper realm of "first love" where the relationship is priority, everything else secondary. Amani is eventually put to the test when a painful family secret shakes her faith and forces her to really discover what she truly believes. This test also comes at a time where Marley begins to "question" if abstinence is truly for him. As Amani enters a crossroads in her life, will she stand firm on the truth or will she fall deciding to "just do it"?

First Love is a captivating novel that many young Christian women (and men) can relate to. Mrs. Brooks keeps the story real from beginning to end and issues a powerful challenge to young people to stay pure and to rise above the many temptations that the world presents today. Mrs. Brooks is truly an anointed, gifted writer and I eagerly look forward to the future novels that lie within this series.

Rating:
Summary: Powerfully moving novel about love and family
Review: Mrs. Callegari-Brooks novel was written with a pitch for emotion and suspense, First Love captures beautifully the joy of a new love even as it builds to an overwhelmingly moving climax. This is an unforgettable love story,at once heartbreaking and full of hope. I wish that this book could be read by all teenagers and parents. I have recommended this book to my neice and all my co-workers. I belong to a Book Club and have selected First Love for my next hosting in October. Mrs. Callegari-Brooks keep up the good work and I am looking forward to reading more about Amani and Marley in your next novel.

Rating:
Summary: Modern Love of God
Review: Ms. Callegari truly moved me in her novel. Her character, Amani Shepard was the classic example of a damsel in serious stress, with and urban twist. Amani has to choose between her true love in the natural and her spritual love for God. Although she faces some moments of temptation she knows who she must obey, her heart. Yolanda did an excellent job of keeping up with the times and making the novel welcoming to young and old. I would definitely suggest that any and every young teenage girl, especially ones that are in love, to read this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A Nice Romance Story
Review: Someone gave me this book to read and I wasn't too particular in reading it because I thought the book was about the couple on the front cover -- and since I don't know them or know of them, I felt like I didn't want to read about average people who have gone through things in life just like I have and everybody else. Unless the couple was a celebrity, I wasn't interested in reading about their lives but I was wrong. It ended up being a cute romance novel on celibacy.

I guess being celibate is a popular subject these days. The talk used to be "safe sex" or "wrap it up," but now I'm reading about these authors who writes about "save sex for marriage," like in this other novel I read called Lust of the Flesh (which, by the way, is an excellent novel).

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Inspiration for Teens
Review: This book was the monthly selection for our teen outreach group, and they all thoroughly enjoyed it! Not many authors can capture the attention of our youth along with giving them a positive message, but this author did. I commend Yolanda Callegari Brooks for both her writing style and her community conscience. Her book was well written and of good substance. I look forward to more works by this talented author. I highly recommend this book for teen reading.

Rating:
Summary: RETURN UNTO YOUR FIRST LOVE!
Review: This book was very touching, I mean I know the book was about her 1st love, but she brought out some great points. When I first begain to read I thought that the title just came from her 1st real boyfriend. However, as in our lives today God should be our first love, like the God said in Revelation he told the church to return back to there 1ST LOVE HIM. I loved this book I really think that it is something that everyone should read. It deals with alot of things that we go through being Christians: deliverance, love, true friendship. I love the witnessing that Amani did through out the book. She showed how through her trials she was able to lead someone else to Christ. My favorite part was close to the end and the Pastor's wife got up and had a alter call for all the ladies (even though I think it should have been for both men and women) and she called her to sing and she sang "I Surrender All". I could just feel the power in my own spirit, the fact that she was able to sing that from the bottom of her heart. To be honest it made me want to fall down on my hands and knees and worship God for in my own spirit I could just feel the power of God jumping off the pages.

Yolanda made It seems so real; I mean she made you feel like you were right there in the mist. You find yourself knowing someone like every person in this book. She was so descriptive that you felt like it is apart of you. I recommend this book for everyone, but I really recommend this book for the youth that coming up. I would suggest this for any youth organization; it touched on every subject from fornication, death, self-forgiveness, rape, deliverance, every think you can think of.

Rating:
Summary: You gotta read it!
Review: This is a wonderful story of love on so many different levels. First Love is a must read for EVERY young person out there, who's searching for...whatever. Themselves or someone else. This is a great thought and discussion tool for youth groups, and adults, too, in that case! The issues present in this story are universal, regardless of age, race, socio-economic status, religion, etc. In fact, parents, it's a great book to read WITH your children. I'm so glad someone has written engaging, sensible, throught-provoking, enlightening, emotional, realistic text that focuses on what love is really about. GOD. Thank you, Yolanda!

Rating:
Summary: Infatuation, Lust or Love?
Review: Yolanda Brook Callegari's debut novel, First Love, is an urban contemporary Christian novel and coming-of-age story about a young girl and her first romantic relationship with the opposite sex. Amani Nicole Shepard is content with a life that revolves around school and church activities. She finds comfort in her spirituality, her strong relationship with God, knowledge of the Word and her mother, Olivia Shephard. Amani meets Marley Jamison, a star UCLA basketball player, during her senior year of high school. Marley is everything that Amani could wish for--he is intelligent, handsome, manner able, affectionate, kind and considerate. Like Amani, Marley is in love for the first time, a born-again Christian, a virgin and is committed to staying that way until he marries. As Amani and Marley fall deeper in love, Marley decides its time to trade in their celibate lifestyle and to consummate their relationship because after all they plan to marry each other after college. Amani faces a dilemma...should she give into her boyfriend's demands and just do it like everyone else...or should she continue to save herself for marriage. As Amani struggles to hold on to love and her boyfriend she does not want to lose herself in the process.

First Love is an entertaining and inspiring novel for the times in which we live. The characters and the situations they encountered were realistic, real world issues that teens and adults face everyday. Callegari-Brooks' used biblical verses throughout the storyline to show that if we meditate on the Word, God will hear our cries and answer our prayers. I also liked how Callegari-Brooks' incorporated a parent/child theme to draw adults (especially parents) into the storyline. Amani's mother, Olivia, has high hopes and expectations for her youngest daughter who is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. (The significance of the seventh is symbolism which stands for the completeness of the life cycle; in the biblical sense God created the world in seven days.) ... Amani finds out about her mother's past and her entire foundation is shaken. To make matters worse everything Amani believes about those closest to her-her mother, her boyfriend, her best friend-all appear to be built on sinking sand.

First Love is a story that entertains, inspires, encourages and teaches us all to put first things first. It is a Christian fiction story that examines maintaining values as a young person, as well as helping parents understand that communication, honesty and openness are key to a trusting relationship with a child and oftentimes can help prevent the same mistakes from reproducing in generation after generation. First Love is about choices and consequences. In light of the rising rate of teen pregnancies, abortions, and HIV/AIDs, First Love is a necessary read for young adults and parents today. At times, Callegari-Brooks' might appear preachy to some, but I think it is only because she is passionate and strong about her beliefs and wants others to know that they do have options.
I felt her book equipped me as a parent for when the time comes that I need to explain to my children "what thus says the Lord" about premarital sex. First Love is a wonderful debut novel about ones relationship with God, the opposite sex, parent/child, friends and loved ones, and self. I recommend this book to all Godly parents who are trying to raise a Godly child.

Yasmin
APOOO BookClub

Rating:
Summary: First Love: What Would you give up to keep yours?
Review: Yolanda Callegari Brooks enters the literary scene with a well written Christian novel. First Love is a coming of age novel that delves into staying "pure" until marriage and the pressures placed on a young woman.

Amani Sheppard is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. Seven is a perfect number in the Bible and her mother is praying that her daughter saves herself for marriage unlike her other daughters. Being in this special position in this family places intense pressure on Amani and Marley enters the picture.

Marley, the suave, debonair star college basketball player is also a young Christian young man striving to abstain from sex until marriage. Will Amani and Marley make it to marriage? Will knowledge of a family secret cause Amani to falter in her Christian journey?

First Love is the beautifully written love story of these young adults along with the story of the Sheppard women. It captures the reader in the beginning and keeps you engrossed until the surprise ending. Yolanda Brooks has done a superb job of blending Christian principles and the Bible into the storyline. I would recommend this book to any teen group to facilitate discussions on dating, teen sex and the consequences.

Reviewed by Robilyn
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: I Surrender All
Review: Yolanda Callegari Brooks enters the literary scene with a well written Christian novel. First Love is a coming of age novel that delves into staying "pure" until marriage and the pressures placed on a young woman.

Amani Sheppard is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. Seven is a perfect number in the Bible and her mother is praying that her daughter saves herself for marriage unlike her other daughters. Being in this special position in this family places intense pressure on Amani and Marley enters the picture.

Marley, the suave, debonair star college basketball player is also a young Christian young man striving to abstain from sex until marriage. Will Amani and Marley make it to marriage? Will knowledge of a family secret cause Amani to falter in her Christian journey?

First Love is the beautifully written love story of these young adults along with the story of the Sheppard women. It captures the reader in the beginning and keeps you engrossed until the surprise ending. Yolanda Brooks has done a superb job of blending Christian principles and the Bible into the storyline. I would recommend this book to any teen group to facilitate discussions on dating, teen sex and the consequences.

Reviewed by Robilyn
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers