I really enjoyed this book !June was splendid character who went through a lot but I thought that she was a realistic teenager so that was really nice! Overall Boys I Know was poignant, interesting, sweet, sassy, entertaining and thoughtful.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 rounded down.

Boys I Know was a stunning debut by Anna Gracia. It was a solid read that I really enjoyed.

June Chu is messy. She makes mistakes, she's trying to live up to impossible standards, and sure, maybe she's a little bit of an asshole sometimes. But she tries. As soon as I started, I knew June was going to get a great character arc, one where she learns and experiences some growing pains, and gets to fuck up once - or a lot of times. Her growth and journey felt realistic and at a perfect pace, and that deserves some kudos.

June also was unapologetically herself when it came to expressing her sexuality. I think more YA books should share the awkward, uncomfortable, messy parts of sex. We don't need to skip from YA novels with barely a kiss to an Adult novel full of smut; teenagers deserve to see their sexualities referenced on-page.

There were some times when I was confused with the timeframe of what was happening, but it was a minor complaint. I also wanted more of an on-page understanding that 23-year-olds and graduate students should not be dating/having sex with high schoolers, as I feel that is an important message for any teen to understand.

I would recommend this book to people, especially current high schoolers. It's okay to not have all the answers right now.

Thank you to Peachtree Teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fantastic read for me. THE COVER. THE ART. The background, the colours, the car, and the BOOTS. BEING QUEER AND ASIAN. I adored June's voice, but I was especially taken with the story's pacing. Sometimes in contemporary books, the last few chapters feel like the character finding out their life lesson in one go to wrap it up, but June's character growth and realisations felt very genuine, and quite realistic. It's a very fresh and relevant novel that tackles a number of important topics in a very sincere and lived-in way. And, as previously stated, I adore June.

Overall good YA story, I enjoyed but it wasn’t all that but a solid 4 star review! I really enjoyed the main character.

A YA rom com that I ddin’t really care for that I ended up DNFing because I didn’t care for the characters.