First comes love is not an affair story???? There’s no affair there at all and nothing happens between Blake and MC until Blake’s relationship with Rebecca is over. It’s not my favorite book or one I think was done greatly, but to say that it is an affair story is completely false and to compare it to a book like TNA has got to be a joke. They’re not even close.
Both TNA and FCL (and TBB seems to be going on this route as well) not only are both stories about MC trying to pursue an LI who's already in a relationship, but they also both revolve around straw-loser-villainizing the LI's current female partner (and, in the case of TNA, the LI's returning former wife that was mistaken for dead as well) in order to justify the MC pursuing said LI. Because PB seems to think that their (straight) female audience enjoys being pit against other women over a love interest.
@choices-binglebonkus can probably explain it better than I can, but even though MC and Blake may not be explicitly or physically intimate behind Rebecca's back, the relationship can still count as an emotional affair.
FCL is a book that should have been light and fun about two friends reuniting. But instead they went with what they did.
Yes! Exactly! I was so excited when they first announced FCL, I was thinking a cute fun book with friends on a road trip going down memory lane, maybe some shenanigans sandwiched between friends falling in love story. I saw spoilers on what the love interest looked like and I fell in love with Blake's sprites...and then pb released the trailer to FCL and dashed all my hopes to hell and back lol
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
And I seen screenshots and listened to my vip friends about Blake's gf and how the book is actually just mc trying to break them up and I am so so so disappointed 😭
I don't want a book about women being pitted against each other for the attentions of a guy (or in wlw case, a probably shitty attempt to mask a male LI with she/her pronouns). And the mc is suppose to be in her 30s??? Heck it sounds like the HSS and HSS:CA mcs are more mature than FCL!
Welcome to the fortieth official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about First Comes Love, which I have ranked on the "PooPoo Tier" at 1 star out of a possible 10.
The MC is a fucking incel. Or a femcel. That’s what FCL stands for, it’s an abbreviation for femcel because the MC is a FemCeL. It also works as an abbreviation for fucking incel. Because the MC is a Fucking inCeL.
Seriously though. This book is so fucking tragic. I thought it was gonna be a cutesy friendly romance buddy road-trip story with a marriage pact plot worked into it somehow.
Instead, it’s 20 straight chapters of women being pit against each other over a love interest. Kinda like one of those affair stories, except it’s even worse here than in something like TDA, TNA, or TBB because it never even tried to have the excuse of the love interest (or MC in TDA’s case) being arranged into a loveless marriage with a total jerk spouse.
Instead, the love interest is dating this new girl Rebecca who… doesn’t like the outdoors as much as Blake does? Oh no! The horror, the horror!
This was especially funny to read right after I finished Surrender 2 (which was first released not too far before FCL was first released!!). That book openly preached in the Grant and Ray subplot that if our partner doesn’t like an activity that we do like, you can find other people to do that activity with, and you and your partner can still find other stuff that you do enjoy together.
As much as Surrender is the worst piece of shit that ever shat out shit on this app, it had a fair point! Not all partners in relationships are going to like all the same things. Yet here in FCL, when we see Rebecca not liking outdoorsy activities as much as Blake does, the book tries to push it as “proof” that they’re incompatible for each other.
It tries to push Rebecca as this horrible person who doesn’t work with Blake, and make us sympathize with FemCeL MC’s resentment for her, except why should I believe that she doesn’t work with Blake? Sure, she’s only known Blake for a month and they don’t quite see eye-to-eye on personal tastes, but so fucking what? Their relationship is still in the baby steps. The two have plenty of room to take the time to get to know each other better and see if they’re compatible or not. If they’re not compatible, that’s something they should be able to figure out by themselves; MC is in no right or place to decide that they don’t work, let alone try to break them up. For fuck’s sake, Emma Hawkins from HSS literally said “Nice girls finish last” when she was upset about Caleb being with Zoe, and even then, even when she had that mindset, she understood this shit better than the FemCeL MC ever could!!!
The real kicker of all this is the fact that Rebecca isn’t toxic or horrible in the slightest. Again, the reasons they try to push that Rebecca and Blake don’t work basically just boil down to “she doesn’t like the same things Blake likes”. But not only is that a weak reason for MC to deem them incompatible, but as a whole, Rebecca is characterized as someone who is very kind and well-meaning.
I’ll give some credit to the affair stories (again, unfortunately), at least they give us actual reasons to root against the relationships between the LIs and their current partners. Sure, their worse traits are exaggerated as all hell for the sole purpose of making the MC seem like “the better woman” for the LI, but the point is that at least we have some actual reason for why Sam shouldn’t be with Sofia, or why Sam shouldn’t be with Addison, or why Cole/Callie shouldn’t be with Daphne.
With Rebecca however, they put in as little effort into it as possible to make her horrible in any way. She doesn’t like all the things Blake likes– so what, there’s still more for them to explore and share in their relationship, couples don’t have to like all of the same things. She’s kind of squeamish about heights and bats– so what, those are completely normal phobias and she’s not acting entitled or overbearing about it. She pettily tries to keep Blake away from MC– yeah, well, you know fucking what? She’s actually right to do that, MC’s being a complete ass to her.
And yes, I know we have options for MC to be nice to Rebecca, but unfortunately they’re not meaningful in the slightest. Because even when I consistently have MC be nice to Rebecca, the book still tries to push MC into being resentful towards her. Those “nice options” ultimately just reroute us into more of a “pretends to be your friend” character. In fact, the book pretty much drops the nice options and hard-routes MC into scheming against Rebecca after only five chapters. So it’s nothing more than a cosmetic illusion-of-choice.
Even worse is that MC is a complete fucking hypocrite too. She can accuse Rebecca of being a “control tyrant”, a “boyfriend/girlfriend stealer”, whatever the fuck, even though that’s exactly how MC is behaving to Rebecca and Blake! Honestly, I consider her the worst written Choices MC of all time. At least Witness MC was only acting irrational because that’s kind of how people may act after being through a highly traumatic event like witnessing a murder? This FemCeL MC has no excuse for ANY of her behaviors. And no, “Because Rebecca killed my Grandma!” isn’t a valid excuse.
Though, if there’s anything that does make Rebecca and Blake a terrible match, it’s Blake’s complete lack of spine. They’re Caillou’s parents levels of passive towards MC’s obvious scheming. Like, even that complete stranger Sky figured out that MC had her eyes on Blake; there’s no way they themselves didn’t figure it out too unless they were on shrooms the whole trip.
Speaking of, MC has some serious fucking balls go and blame Blake for “leading her on when they don’t know what they want”. Don’t get me wrong, Blake was incredibly shitty to Rebecca, but you’re seriously gonna act like Blake was shitty to MC too? The whole reason they’re even in this indecisive passive mess in the first place is because MC kept actively trying to screw over their relationship with Rebecca. You started this, MC. You brought this upon yourself. Stop playing the victim here.
And MC and Blake aren’t the only awful characters in this story either. Lino’s entire character consists of actively and gleefully encouraging MC to break apart Blake and Rebecca’s relationship. Highlight of this book is when I got to smack Lino with a kayak paddle. “Accidentally”, of course. 😀Eve is slightly better as she does challenge MC and Lino’s scheming, but then halfway through the story, she does a COMPLETE 180 and starts encouraging MC to get with Blake.
And these characters are supposed to be in their late 20s/early 30s too. Pfft. More like, r/13or30, because they’re supposed to be 30 year olds but they act like 13 year olds. I bet even Felicia and Lino’s unborn child was acting more mature than these characters. Then again, considering who his father is, I wouldn’t be so sure that he’s in good hands.
Of course, all this would be more tolerable if MC actually faced consequences for her behaviors. But she doesn’t. She gets told off by Eve and Rebecca, sure, and we do even get a premium scene where we’re allowed to hear Rebecca lay down some criticisms onto MC. But in the end, MC pretty much gets by with a slap on the wrist for it and proceeds to inevitably end up with Blake in the end. Sooooo yeah, the few callouts MC does get are really only on the level of lampshading, rather than MC facing actual consequences. Just because you simply pointed out the problems doesn’t make them go away, PB!
I’ve got nothing wrong with MCs that can take on a more villainous or morally grey role, or at least don’t have to be nice and friendly all the time– like QB MC, ACOR MC, possibly TH:M MC, and even OG HSS MC to an extent. Heck, even TNA 1 at least tried to make the affair situation seem more morally grey sometimes.
The thing is, you have to show a little self-awareness. And no, I don’t mean by having someone outright say “these behaviors are bad” and call it a day. I mean actually frame them as villainous or morally grey.
Let’s look at OG HSS for example, it’s a smaller scale example but you’ll still get the idea. In Book 3, you can decide at multiple points whether you want to be more welcoming or more cold towards the incoming Hearst kids. Being more cold towards the Hearst kids wouldn’t exactly be out-of-pocket given the established school rivalry, and the past conflicts with other Hearst kids in the previous books.
And if you choose mostly unwelcoming and cold options, it can lose you the spot in your activity that you’re trying out for, even if your MC is successful at tryouts. The reasoning your team captain gives for this is that they don’t want to start drama by picking someone who treats the guests unkindly.
This works because MC would have believable reasons for these less favorable behaviors, AND they face actual consequences for said behaviors for a realistic and believable reason.
But in FCL, they’re clearly trying to make us sympathize with MC’s awful behaviors and portray her feelings for Blake as if it’s “true love”. MC is very much meant to be seen as the hero; she still gets together with Blake in the end, and the most condemnation that she ever faces is Rebecca and Eve calling her out once or twice before eventually encouraging her to get with Blake.
Like, there’s even this scene where you can let Rebecca lay down rightful criticisms onto MC, which is perhaps the other highlight of the story. But it eventually just morphs into Rebecca giving MC a pass because “This isn’t some silly college crush, you really love him don’t you?”. Just… no. Just no. MC, if you truly loved Blake, you’d have respected their damn relationship.
This is the type of shit why I can’t take it seriously when shills try to defend pointless genderlocking because “this is one of the few games with female leads targeted to women, so let us have this”. Yeah that’s not a valid argument at all when the people making said game have an obviously very low opinion of said target audience of women. Oh yes, I feel soooo empowered as a woman with these stories about being pit against other women into petty catfights over a love interest. Granted, of course, I think all players deserve better than this kind of story regardless of gender, but you get what I mean.
I’ll give this book some credit though. This is probably the first book where I felt actively good about turning down all the premium stuff. Even in trashy books like Surrender and TNA and RWB, I do often find myself being very tempted out of curiosity to try some of those dirty thirties. But in FCL, I had no problem rejecting all the scenes with Blake, as cute as the East Asian male sprite was.
This one definitely goes on my permanent Choices shitlist. I personally consider it the second worst story on the app.
