The June Boys by Court Stevens Review

Hello Everyone :)

How have you all been doing lately?

Without going into too many details, I will just say that it hasn't been the greatest couple of weeks for me. There's been some stressful situations and health issues that don't seem to want to calm down, and it's made me a tad anxious. I've spent lots of time in prayer and scripture study lately, as I feel that's always the best way to get through these tough situations.

However, since I have been under the weather so much lately, I haven't really been leaving my house much for anything besides work, and because of that fact, I've had lots of extra reading time on my hands.

So it's probably no surprise that I've finished a couple more books recently, and today I'm here to review one of these titles for you. This title was personally not what I was expecting, but I hope to explain in my review exactly why that was, in the hopes that others better suited for the book will have a more positive experience with it than I did.


The June Boys by Court Stevens:

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publication Date: March 3rd, 2020

Genre: Young Adult/Thriller



Synopsis:


The Gemini Thief could be anyone. Your father, your mother, your best friend’s crazy uncle. Some country music star’s deranged sister. Anyone.

The Gemini Thief is a serial kidnapper, who takes three boys and holds them captive from June 1st to June 30th of the following year. The June Boys endure thirteen months of being stolen, hidden, observed, and fed before they are released, unharmed, by their masked captor. The Thief is a pro, having eluded authorities for nearly a decade and taken at least twelve boys.

Now Thea Delacroix has reason to believe the Gemini Thief took a thirteenth victim: her cousin, Aulus McClaghen.

But the game changes when one of the kidnapped boys turns up dead. Together with her boyfriend Nick and her best friends, Thea is determined to find the Gemini Thief and the remaining boys before it’s too late. Only she’s beginning to wonder something sinister, something repulsive, something unbelievable, and yet, not impossible:

What if her father is the Gemini Thief? 

(synopsis from goodreads)


My Review:

I hadn't personally head of The June Boys before stumbling across it on NetGalley, but once I read the synopsis I was instantly intrigued. I have loved a lot of young adult thrillers in the past, and I knew I needed to read this one. I was prepared for a spine chillingly, scary story that would keep me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. However, that wasn't the experience I ended up having with this one, and I have to say that it left me extremely disappointed.

To start with, I really couldn't get into the story. I found the beginning dragged heavily, and it never really did pick up. While it does get a bit more interesting as more details of the kidnapping are revealed, the plot never really did grab my attention, and I basically had to force myself to want to keep reading this one. I've never personally read any of Courtney C Stevens' other novels before, so I'm not sure if this book is characteristic of her usual writing style or not. However,  I found the writing in this one to be too character driven, especially since most of the characters are never developed enough to make the reader truly care about them. The writing was also extremely confusing for me, and I felt a lot of description occurs for details that never mattered, but actual information that would have helped to better engage me with the plot was left underdeveloped and on the sidelines.

I basically forced myself to keep reading this one, as even though I was not enjoying it, I still wanted to find out who the mysterious Gemini Thief was. However, I thought the ending was so disappointing, and not the huge surprise reveal I was wanting. While I don't think the thief was completely obvious, it definitely wasn't what I prepared for, and I think anyone paying close attention throughout will probably end up feeling the same. I'm also usually a fan of when extra storytelling details are scattered throughout stories, since I'm a huge fan of books that are told in epistolary style. However, I didn't think the letters used to tell part of the story worked well within this one, and only left this reader more confused than anything. I will say that since I did read an advance copy of this one, I'm hoping most of the formatting issues with the letters will be fixed before it's released, but I still didn't think they added much to the story. 

When the ending does happen, and part of the big reveal is made, I didn't think that all of the questions I had were truly answered, and I ended up still feeling confused on certain parts of the story. Plus, I really could have done without the various letters devoted to giving the reader details on how the boys were surviving on drinking urine. 

All in all, when I picked this one up, I expected a thrilling, and exiting story that would have me thinking about it for weeks to come. However, I wasn't expecting the story I got, and I'm honestly disappointed as I think so much more could have been done with this amazing story idea. I personally don't recommend this one, and I can't say that I will prioritize reading a book from this author in the future.

Final Rating: 2/5

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the opportunity to advance read this!

I received a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel that I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.