Boys Like You, Juliana Stone

Pages: 283

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: 6^th May 2014

Edition: e-proof, review copy

One mistake and everything changes.

For Monroe Blackwell, one small mistake has torn her family apart leaving her empty and broken. There’s a hole in her heart that nothing can fill, that no one can fill. And a summer in Louisiana with Grandma isn’t going to change that...

Nathan Everets knows heartache first-hand when a car accident leaves his best friend in a coma. And it’s his fault. He should be the one lying in the hospital. The one who will never play guitar again. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness, and a court-appointed job at the Blacwell B&B isn’t going to change that...

Captivating and hopeful, this achingly poignant novel brings together two lost souls struggling grief and guilt looking for acceptance, so they can find forgiveness.

I had really high hopes for Boys Like You. It sounded like a perfect summer read with a hot, sultry setting, music boys and all-consuming grief, but it fell a little short.

The setting of high summer in Louisiana is perfect for a steamy romance. The heat, the sweat, the lack of clothing, the opportunities for swimming. It all makes for a glorious summer, but I wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t connect with either Monroe or Nathan. I’m not sure what it what about them that stopped me empathising with them. There were well-rounded and had depth and were likable in their own way, but nothing. I had no desire for them to be together, to rise above their torment and accept their past. Nothing.

I did really love the way that Stone approached the physical side of Nathan and Monroe’s relationship, however. I seem to reading a lot of books lately that promote female sexuality healthily and it makes me so happy. It’s crazy important that teenage girls who are reading these books see their own feelings reflected in these characters and know that it’s okay to feel those things, that it’s natural and normal. I hope that someday soon we get to the point where a healthy look at female sexuality isn;t something that jumps out at you, it just is.

All in all, I wasn’t a huge fan of Boys Like You, but if you’re in need of a quick, easy contemp then this might be for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the review copy.

Sophie