Juliana Stone fell in love with her first book boyfriend when she was twelve. The boy was Ned, Nancy Drew’s boyfriend, and it began a lifelong obsession with books and romance. A tomboy at heart, she split her time between baseball, books, and music-three things that carried over into adulthood. She’s thrilled to be writing young adult as well as adult contemporary romance, and does so from her home somewhere in Canada.
Boys Like You by Juliana Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Boys Like You by Juliana Stone grabbed me from the very beginning with a great story, some lovely characters, and plenty of swoon. I don’t often pick up a lot of contemporary but I have to say that I really enjoyed this one.
Monroe is in Louisiana for the summer after a tragedy occurred in her life. Her parents aren’t sure what to do to bring her back and when her grandmother asks them to send her to live with her for the summer; they jump to see if it will help. I liked Monroe. She definitely has some things to work through and when she is first introduced I knew it would be an uphill battle for anyone attempting to get past the walls she has put up. As a reader, I wasn’t made aware of what really happened in her life but I knew it was bad.
Nathan is a quarterback, plays in a band, has a hot girlfriend, and of course is pretty nice to look at himself. Unfortunately none of that matters to him anymore. A mistake he made a few months back is now what is taking over his thoughts and if there is one thing he wishes he could do, it would be to trade places with his best friend Trevor. See, after a party one night (where Nate was supposed to be the designated driver) Nate, Trevor, and their girlfriends end up in a car accident and the only one seriously injured was Trevor. Trevor is now in a coma fighting for his life and everyone in town knows that Nate is responsible.
When these two meet they recognize something in each other that they both have…this pain they are both trying to live through…and not being so successful at. As they start to realize the other is someone who understands what they are going through, they start to develop a friendship…and then more.
I loved the characters in this story. Not just Nate and Monroe but also the secondary character. Obviously Monroe’s grandmother plays a big part but I thought Brent, Rachel, Trevor’s parents, and even Nate’s parents added greatly to the story and helped move things along. There was a scene between Nate and his father that almost had me in tears and the scene between Monroe and Mr. Lewis (Trevor’s dad) was also one that had me blinking back the tears. Not only for the things that were said but because of the support she was giving to Nate and he didn’t even know it.
Nate and Monroe have some funny banter I also have to mention the swoon. Their first kiss at Baker’s Landing definitely comes to mind. I loved seeing them open up to each other and when Monroe finally tells Nate about what happened to Malcom, and how she feels about it, I loved seeing their connection get stronger as well as see them lean on each other.
As Gram put it:
“But it wasn’t me, my darling girl. It was Nathan. He caught you.” She squeezed my hand again. “And I think he’s still waiting.”
“For what?” I asked
“Why, for you,” she said in a very serious voice, before she opened her car door and glanced back at me. “To catch him.”
This was one of those books that I requested on a whim because the summary intrigued me but boy am I glad I did. I found myself pulled into this story and unable to put the book away until I found out everything about these characters and how things were going to go. If you like a great story with some solid characters that make you want to crawl inside the book and hug them, definitely check this out.
Thank you to Netgalley & Sourcebooks for the review copy.
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