In the June Boys we follow the main character Thea as she tries to find clues as to what happened to her cousin Aulus who she believes has been kidnapped by The Gemini Thief. Every year or two on June 1st a group of 3-4 boys are kidnapped and then released the following June 30th. These boys are known as The June Boys. At the same time we are following Thea we are also getting letters that are written by Aulus talking about his captivity.

Thea is helped by her boyfriend Nick along with her and Aulus’s two best friends Tank and Gladys. I absolutely loved the friendships in this book and how they all supported each other and we’re there for each other. I also enjoyed the mystery of trying to find out who the Gemini Thief was. Courtney gave just enough clues to figure it out which I had by about 2/3rds of the way thru but not the why, which was saved till the end. Thea's dad, who seems to be a little off, also plays a large role in this book. He has been building a castle for the past 10 years, which Thea has just found out about. At times it felt like the castle was another character in the story and I loved that.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I had a somewhat hard time getting into it because I was a little confused, we were following two timelines and it took awhile till this was addressed. We were also introduced to characters without knowing who they were but then gradually the people fell into place. Once both of those things were cleared up it became easier to follow. By the second half of the book I was hooked and I needed to know what was going to happen. I felt the story wrapped up nicely but would have liked just a little more in the epilogue. If you are looking for a fun and unique YA Thriller then I would definitely check out The June Boys. This book was my first by Courtney Stevens and it will not be my last. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was such a slow starting book that I had to DNF it. I try not to do this, especially if I plan to leave a review. There were issues with the writing, in terms of consistency with plot and what people knew about the mystery. I also was not sure about the formatting or the pacing. Just not for me.
Thank you for the eARC and hopefully the finished version will address some of these problems.
#TheJuneBoys #Netgalley

DNF at page 112

I'm honestly facing the same issue most other readers are facing. I absolutely haye the way the story is structured. I don't mind the writing style or the slow paced plot but form page one it seems that we're thrown in the middle of something and it's so....confusing? Uneasy? I couldn't connection much to the characters because it literally felt like I should have already known them.

I had such huge expectations but I'm sad that it didn't work out.

The list of facts:


-The Gemini Thief has been kidnapping boys for almost a decade.

-The kidnappings occur every June.

-The boys are kept for thirteen months until their release.

-Thea's cousin, Aulus McClaghen, was taken by the Gemini Thief.


What Thea suspects:

-The Gemini Thief is someone she knows in her hometown.


The question is....who?


The June Boys by Court Stevens was just the kind of thriller that absolutely engulfs me. While the case of the missing boys opens the book, Stevens had a masterful way of increasing the suspense of the story, chapter by chapter, until you're practically racing to the end. What I loved about Stevens' writing was that she was able to do this through her atmosphere. Sometimes thrillers tend to increase the tension by adding gore or elements of horror. Instead, Stevens cultivated an atmosphere built on Thea's quest to find her cousin and the Elizabeth Letters written by one of the June Boys.


Additionally, the nonlinear narrative heightened my zest to know who was behind the June kidnappings and, even more so, why? As the book progressed, Stevens' deliberately chosen narrative makes you compelled to know more about each character rather than having readers hone in on a singular protagonist. This expanse on the thriller genre was an excellent statement about taking a further look at those around you and realizing that even though we might know people for years, we will never truly know what they are capable of....until June.


If you're looking for a compelling narrative with a half built castle, a small town mystery, and a clock that silently ticks behind you, I'd highly recommend The June Boys by Court Stevens.

I absolutely loved two of Courtney C Stevens other works, Dresscodes for small towns and Four Three Two One, so I kinda freaked out when I was approved for this ARC!
I knew going into this one that it would be very different from the other two books I read. But for some reason it still surprised me!
I kinda struggled with reading the beginning of this book. The kidnapping of Aulus has happened a year ago and one of the other boys who was also kidnapped has been found dead. So we start kinda in the middle of the story. There were quite some characters introduced and their relation to certain people, in a short period
of time.
But once I got into the story, and got the characters straight, it definitely got better!
The main story we read from Thea´s perspective, were she, her two best friends, and her boyfriend try to solve the mystery around Aulus´s disappearance of the year before. But in between this story we also get letters from Aulus to someone. This part made the story so interesting. Because you do get some inside in his kidnapping story. But also these letters describe moments that haven´t happened yet in the main time line. So you keep wondering how we get from one situation to the other. This is definitely one of the reasons why I just had to keep reading the book!
I did get a bit worried when I had 100 pages of the book left. At this point I was convinced we knew who the kidnapper was, and everything pointed at it being true. We just didn’t know why. But since there were still 100 pages left, I thought Stevens would go and blame someone else, and I was worried it wouldn´t be as convincing.
In the end it did make sense, but I wasn’t too happy with the ending, but discussing that will give spoilers!

I have a little dilemma with this book. I have read a few chapters of if and really loved it so far. It is intriguing and Im really enjoying the writing style. However, I have heard there are major changes in the final copy compared with the advanced reader copy. This makes me have a lot of trepidation to finish the ARC. I am enjoying the book so much that I think I would rather stop reading my ARC and just pick up a finished copy. I appreciate the author and publisher for sharing this e-ARC with me and I'm very excited to pick up a finished copy to finish the story.

Thea’s cousin Aulus is missing and she’s sure he’s been taken by the Gemini Thief. A serial kidnapper who takes and holds boys captive for just over a year. When her boyfriend asks her if she would turn in the culprit if she knew who they were, the answer is obvious – of course she would. But as they dig deeper into the mystery, a few too many clues point to her own father. A father she loves, but knows all too well just how secretive he can be.

Told in alternating chapters between the captive lives of Aulus and the other June Boys, and Thea’s desperate hunt for the kidnapper, this was a unique and harrowing story. The kidnapper’s identity wasn’t the only big reveal in The June Boys and I loved trying to piece together the puzzle throughout the book. I really appreciated the inclusion of Aulus’s story, which was narrated via letters he was writing, while held by the kidnapper. It gave the story such a tense feel, knowing how the boys were trying to survive and the way their time was running out.

The E-ARC was a little hard to read as I assume the finished copy will have images showing the letters, and these images broke up the text in the e-book, causing some of the paragraphs to be a little jumbled up. In saying that, I think the images will really lend something to the finished copy though.

The characters in The June Boys were fantastic and really made the book (something that I find is sometimes lacking in mystery novels). Thea’s relationships with not only her boyfriend but best friend, cousin and other friends had me just as invested in their plight as the kidnapped boys.

I’d highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of YA thrillers and mysteries!

I really enjoyed this book. The pace was fast and I really had no idea how it would end. I finished well into the night, just couldn't put it down. I had to know who the Gemini Thief was. The ending did not dissapoint. there were several twists near the end that i really did not see coming.
The characters are honestly flawed, but it a good way. It made them all seem more human. It also made it really hard to figure out who was taking the boys. I usually can figure out how a book is going to end, at least a little. I truly did not see this ending coming. I really loved the fact that this wasn't like every other thriller/mystery out there. It has a very unique plot and I found it very entertaining. I can't wait to see what comes next from the author.

This is hard to write a review. I actually had to Dnf The June Boys because of the formating, after about 25% I couldn't handle it anymore. So I jump ahead and read the big reveal and I guess I couldn't have guess it, it was a nice choice for the Gemini Thief. I'll try to read it once I had the hardcover and update my review at that time.

Thank you for providing me with an early copy.

Like many readers have stated the formatting in this book, is not good. For me it took away from the reading experience (not the authors fault).

If you like fast paced mystery/thrillers you may not enjoy this, it definitely more of a slow burn. The characters are just OK, and the ending lacked some spark.

Sometimes authors will add extra passages from characters, (example a comic series the character is writing on a blog), in my opinion that extra passage has to be exceptionally good in order for me to read each one/care about it at all. In this book it was the Elizabeth letters. I did not think it added anything to the story and most of the time I just skipped over it (the formatting didn't help these letters succeed at all).

While this wasn't my favorite book I would still recommend to others and give this author another go.

I very much enjoyed this! The author’s writing style is distinctive and unique and I felt that it fit the story well. The characters were well-developed and gave me something to root for. The book holds a special place in my heart because it’s set in TN and mentions my hometown and my current city, and I’ve NEVER seen either of these tiny towns in a book before 😂 I really appreciated the suspense at the end but I didn’t feel much of it throughout the novel as a whole, which is what knocked it down a star for me.

Thea's cousin, Aulus, disappeared a year ago. The police said runaway, but Thea knew better. Aul was take by the Gemini Thief/Welder. Thea, her boyfriend, Nick, her best friend, Gladys, and friend, Tank, decided that they would study the case and find Aul. The Gemini Thief started taking boys in 2001. One June 1st, three boys disappear. They're kept in an underground bunker until June 30th of the following year and then released. The boys didn't see their captor's face because they wore a welders mask. There is a dormant year or two and then it starts over. The boys taken became known as June Boys. Things change that year when a child was found dead and dumped off the road. This boy had a key chain in his mouth. There were only two keys like that made. Thea had one. Aul had the other. Thea's father had given them the keys. This changes everything and Thea needs to start looking into her dad and everyone around her.

"The Gemini Thief could be anyone. Your father, your mother, your best friend's crazy uncle."

Thea's father had been going to Canada for the past ten years. But that was a lie. He was actually building a castle after being told by a higher power that he needed to. None of it made sense and he became obsessive about finishing it. He makes a good suspect, especially when Thea and Nick find a receipt from the night the boy was dumped. Nick's sister, Dana, is an FBI agent and she's involved in the case. While she doesn't tell the kids everything, she does share some details with them. She sees all the research they've done and they know the case well.

The book takes place late May into June. Some chapters are "Dear Elizabeth" letters that Aul is writing. The Welder left them and the boys have no food or water. They realized that the Welder isn't coming back and they are going to die underground somewhere and never be found.

The June Boys is a pretty dark book that makes you realize that you don't know everyone around you. Who can you trust? People aren't all good or all bad.

I gave this book 4 stars. Thank you to the publisher for my copy for review.

Warnings for kidnapping, death of a child, absent parents, mental issues, starving and dehydration, talk of suicide.

The June Boys is simultaneously devastating, captivating, and edge-of-my-seat thrilling; I read it on the heels of a book I absolutely loved, and not only did it not disappoint, it held it's own.

So the blurb pretty much captures what's going on here - every year (mostly), three boys are taken from rural areas in the Southern US, held for a year by the anonymous Gemini Thief (minor quibble; he changes about halfway through the book to Welder but apparently has also been that all along), and then returned. Thea's cousin has been taken, but as a fourth; and she's doing her best to both find him and prove he's another victim.

First and foremost, the writing is just delicious. I read maybe a sentence of this book before requesting the galley, and I'm happy to report the quality is consistently fantastic throughout. Each word feels well-chosen, polished and placed in order, but so organic that when the whole thing comes together it feels like it's found the place it was always meant to be. There's a really luscious quality to this book, and I could happily re-read it right now just for the pleasure of those beautiful sentences.

The story itself captured me too, it's not just a work of art with beautiful sentences saying nothing that ever matters; no, the emotional factors at play here feel real and raw, people bouncing off each other and finding comfort in turns.

This is a fantastic book, and I had a wonderful time. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The last 100 pages will keep you on the edge of your seat! Don't miss this twisty thriller!!

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced eGalley of "The June Boys" to read and review.

I really wanted this novel to be a home run for me - especially as it was one of my most anticipated reads. It was definitely intriguing from the first page, and the big mystery at the heart of the story (who is taking the June boys?) kept me turning all 368 pages - even when I wanted to put the book down. While the potential for this novel was staggering, I was ultimately left confused and unsatisfied.

Without going into spoilers, I was hoping for a fast-paced thriller/mystery with some realistic crime background. What I experienced was an incredibly slow-paced story with next to no background. For example, the June boys are returned after 13 months - why didn't we get to hear more of their stories? If this had been going on for over a decade, why didn't we have a better idea of what was to be expected? Instead, it felt like a never ending list of potential suspects, which left me tired and, ultimately, bored. I was often confused by the timeline, and felt as though certain plot points had no basis in logic.

What I wanted was a compelling mystery where the stakes were high and the characters were well-developed. I wanted to root for the June boys and all of those people trying to solve the mystery. Unfortunately, that wasn't my experience and I found myself just wanting to story to end.

📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: The June Boys
AUTHOR: Courtney C. Stevens
@quartland
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: March 3, 2020
https://amzn.to/39dgs8o

The premise of the June Boys intrigued me: 3 boys get picked up, kept for a year and then returned. But then one ends up dead and the family of one of the kidnapped boys works to figure out what happened. The story is told in part by a narrator and part from the letters written by one of the kidnapped boys. There is a slight mismatch of the timeline which you can figure out pretty easy if you are looking for it.

The bad thing about this book for me is that in the Arc I received, the formatting was off so the letter portion of the book was very hard to read. Nevertheless, it was satisfying and a little shocking to find out who was the actual thief. There is a TON of misdirection in this book for sure and I can’t even talk about why. But the analytical part of me definitely worked overtime on this one!!!

Small Summary:
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?
*****
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

The June Boys follows the story of Thea and her boyfriend Nick after Theas cousin Aulus goes missing they presume he has been taken by the notorious Gemini Thief, a kidnapper who snatches 3 boys every second year and keeps them for exactly 13 months before dumping them unharmed.

On this arc copy there is a really annoying ‘Thomas Nelson since 1798’ slogan at the top of every other page, sometimes in the middle of the text. It’s really off putting!

A few chapters in and it’s giving me Truly Devious and Sadie vibes. The main character Thea is trying to solve the disappearance of her friend Aulus and trying to prove that he’s been kidnapped by the Gemini Thief even though there’s a major break in his usual patterns, Aulus went missing on June 2nd instead of the usual June 1st and he was the 4th boy to go missing instead of the usual 3. When one of the boys is found dead on the same stretch of motorway that the boys are dumped on he is found with a keychain in his mouth, a keychain that Thea knows is unique to 2 people, herself and Aulus.

My only thoughts at around the 30% mark is who the hell is Elizabeth? I’m also not sure if they are laying enough ground work for possible suspects, it’s not reading as much of a mystery when there’s currently only one suspect. I hope it picks up a bit.

Thea is a complex character, I can’t figure out if she’s a realistic representation of a teenage girl or not or if she’s just a needy annoying twat. It’s like she cares more about Nick than she does for her Dad or her missing cousin. I’m not entirely convinced if that makes sense or not to the overall plot.

Nicks sister Dana is a cop who is investigating the Gemini case and Thea goes from feeding her bits of information from her own mini investigation to hiding bits, not sure if this is trying to show her inner conflict or if it’s just disjointed. I’m really starting to see quite a few plot holes and unanswered questions.

I don’t think ‘The Elizabeth Letters’ added anything to the story, if anything they just make things more confusing

All the chapters are just ‘May’ I would have preferred dates included as a lot of things are happening over a 1 month period and it would have been nice to see a more detailed timeline of events, it also would have helped build the tension coming up to the end of June as the reader has no idea if the remaining boys will be released or not. I know the dates are briefly mentioned in the bulk of the text I just think it could have been a bit more structured.

There’s a few really irrelevant characters such as Constance, what is she really adding to the story apart from her god crap 🙄

The big reveal wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, I really wanted more from it if I’m honest!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

The Gemini thief is a very peculiar kidnapper. He took three boys and hold them captive for 13 months, observing and caring for them. Then they are released. But everything changes when one of the boy is found dead.
Thea finds herself involved into an investigation, with her friends trying to understand Who Is the Gemini thief.
The story is brilliant, captivating and even though I had problem with the formatting I was able to enjoy this book.

Based on the summary, I expected this to be a fast-paced, engaging mystery, but I didn't find that to be the case. I've never read anything by this author, and I might consider picking one up in the future, but I'm not sure.

First, there were some formatting issues with my copy, but that didn't play into my review. I just wanted to point it out, and I hope it's fixed int he finalized copy.

This is one of my favorite genres to read, and I've read a ton of thrillers. I had higher expectations for this one. There wasn't much character growth, and the dialogue felt stilted. I had a hard time connecting with the characters (or even caring about what happened to them). There wasn't much action to maintain my interest. Overall, it was lackluster.

The Gemini Thief is a serial kidnapper who takes three boys from June 1st to June 30th of the following year. The June Boys are held for thirteen months before being released. They aren’t harmed, only observed and cared for except for this year when one of the boys turns up dead. Along with the death of this boy another has been taken which is out of the ordinary. Thea Delacroix’s cousin Aulus is missing and she believes he has been taken by the Gemini Thief. Together with her friends Thea tries to piece together what has happened to Aulus and tries to save him and the other boys before it’s too late.

This story sounded so interesting and so promising. Unfortunately it fell a bit flat for me. I think part of the reason is because of the formatting of the e-arc. There are letters in this which are almost unreadable at times because of how it was formatted. I would have to skip ahead a few pages to finish a sentence, then backtrack to read the next paragraph. This would take me out of the story and honestly leave me a bit frustrated.

Besides that I did enjoy the mystery of the story and trying to figure out who the Gemini Thief is and where the boys were being held. Part of the plot is that Thea’s father could be the Gemini Thief and it was interesting to think what if someone that close to you could be this horrible person? I didn’t enjoy that aspect at first, but as the story progressed I liked how Thea wasn’t sure who to trust and she started to second guess everything.

I did have trouble at times remembering which characters were which. There were quite a few who didn’t have much of a personality which left it hard to distinguish who they were just by their name. As well as some of the relationships just didn’t make sense or weren’t explained well at all. Also, I felt like the amount of information the FBI was giving to Thea and her friends was unrealistic. Thea’s boyfriend's sister is in the FBI and she would basically give them evidence and help them along the way, which would never happen in real life and made it hard to believe.

If this was formatted correctly I think this would have been more of an enjoyable read. It had such an interesting concept and I enjoyed the writing when I was able to follow it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.