*I received a free copy from Netgalley and the publishers for an honest review, so thank you!*

First off, the synopsis grabbed my attention. I immediately thought of the Zodiac killer, and maybe that’s because it’s called the Gemini thief.
Secondly, I try to not read synopsis’s fully because some can be spoilery or say something that when you head into reading it’s not exactly what you thought. That’s how this book was.
There is a Gemini thief out there who takes three boys and holds them captive for a year; June 1st-June 31st. And no one knows he this person is, because they are really good at hiding their tracks.
It’s dark and twisty and creepy for a YA thriller. The kind I really like that keeps you up and thinking. I read this at night time and don’t recommend if you jump easily by shadows lol. My only downside was the formatting. I get it’s unedited early draft and shouldn’t take that into effect, but it did throw me off at times. It also became confusing with the back and forth dialogue and that got me a bit lost. But all in all, I like the uniqueness of the story that the author was trying to deliver.

I had high expectations for this one and it owned up to it.
From the very beginning, I was invested in the story, caught up in the mystery and the terror next to Thea, the main protagonist.
I liked her for she was mature, empathetic and was able to reassess everything and everyone around her in spite of her feelings. She was a likeable character.
The atmosphere was perfect: suspenseful, sordid and terrifying. The chapters with Aulus's letters were hard to read but a good addition to the plot and suspense.
I liked the writing style, very captivating from the get-go.
The plot moved fast enough to never lose interest. A couple of plot twists at the end turned up to be startling. The logic was never off and I enjoyed my reading very much.
Would highly recommend!

"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 always operates the same way. Three boys are kidnapped on June 1st, they boys are then returned a year later, unharmed. Last June the Gemini Thief may have kidnapped four boys instead of three. Why did it change? Last June Thea's cousin Aulus went missing, he was the fourth boy to disappear. No one is sure if he was part of the Gemini Thief's kidnappings, but no trace has been left behind. Leading up to June this year one of the boy's showed up dead. Why did the kidnappings change? Thea and her friends are determined to find the Gemini Thief and rescue her cousin Aulus.

I have been a big fan of the Court Stevens' books that I have read. One of my favourite parts of Stevens writing is her ability to write about friendship groups. She writes friendship groups that are powerful and strong, that are intense and loving. This book is no different. Even though it is a different genre than I am used to seeing from Stevens, the powerful friendship comes through. I loved the friendship that Thea, Nick, Gladys and Tank had. You could see that they loved and cared for each other immensely.

The June Boys was an interesting take on a YA Thriller, and I really hadn't figured out the ending until it was revealed. I like this in a thriller, it's not a necessity, but definitely welcome. I did find the pacing slow at times, and the moving around between times was a little jarring. Near the end of the book however, it seemed to wrap up quickly. There was a lot of time spent on building up on the story, but it seemed to stop short when it came an in depth explanation of the why behind the Gemini Thief. I also think that at time some of the characters (especially the adults) and situations were not developed as in depth as I would have liked. Though I could feel the love and friendship with Thea and her friends, I didn’t feel I knew enough about them individually.

Overall, I found The June Boys a solid book. I would have liked to see more individual character development, but found myself guessing enough to stay entertained. I look forward to reading more from Stevens. 3.5/5

I received a copy of this from NetGalley and the publisher for an open and honest review. All opinions are 100% mine.

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.

Thirteen months. The Gemini Thief kidnaps three boys on June 1 and keeps them for thirteen months before returning them, unharmed, to their families. The Gemini Thief has been outsmarting the authorities for a decade, capturing twelve boys in total. Now, Thea Delacroix believes her cousin, Aulus, was the Gemini Thief’s latest victim, and unfortunately, one of the previous June Boys has turned up dead.

What’s worse, evidence is leading the police to believe that Thea’s father could possibly be the kidnapper. Thea enlists the help of her boyfriend and her best friends to crack the case of the Gemini Thief and find her cousin before it’s too late.

This book enthralled me from the start. I felt connected to the characters, felt the disbelief, anguish, and fear that Thea felt trying to determine if her father was involved in the kidnappings. I was rooting for Aulus to get out alive, for the Gemini Thief to be revealed, and justice to be served.

I enjoyed the fact that at the end of the chapters, there was a letter from Aulus while he was held captive. Kind of a sense of hope from his perspective, describing all the things that were happening, all the things he was thinking and hoping.

I found it hard to put this book down once I started reading. I needed to know what happened next, who the Gemini Thief was, and what Thea was going to uncover next.

The only issue I had with this book (and don’t worry, this does not reflect my rating of the book as I know it is not the author’s fault. It should also be mentioned that I had an ebook advanced copy version) was that those letters and drawings Aulus was writing, the images in the book were all distorted. There would be a drawing of three boys, with their names and captions above the heads. The heads and words would be at the bottom right of one page, the next page would be completely blank, the next would have the legs of two boys in the top left corner, then the next page would have the leg of the last boy in the lower right corner. The Thomas Nelson logo was also in the middle of the pages, sometimes twice, which was distracting, and at times interfered with sentence flow. A sentence would stop in the middle, a new paragraph would start and finish, another paragraph would start, and in the middle, the remaining words from the missing sentence would appear. This made it a little difficult to follow and comprehend in some places, and I felt that not being able to see the letters and drawings from Aulus took a little away from the emotion of the story.

Overall, I loved this book and I can’t wait to see it skyrocket on the market. I think this will be a book that is talked about a lot this year, and for good reason! 4 stars, highly recommend!

Though I don't typically read much young adult fiction, the description of this one drew me in and I knew I had to give it a read. I must admit though, it took me awhile to get into the story. Part of that, I do believe is based on the formatting. For those unfamiliar, oftentimes the advanced reader e-books reviewers receive are not 100% formatted as they would be in the final copy you purchase. Sometimes that means logos placed in weird places or weird line breaks, etc. That can certainly impact the flow of the story. In this particular book, there were a few formatting issues but the most noticeable occurred in the Elizabeth Letters found throughout. From what I gather, in the finished copy these will be featured as images of the letters... with drawings, etc. While I liked this insight into the mind of one of the kidnapped boys in theory, in this version there were random paper images that broken up with the words written separately, making it distracting and a bit hard to follow. Now, typically I don't make note of any type of formatting issues within my reviews, because I know these will be fixed but in this one it truly did impact my enjoyment of the story. While I would still give it a solid 3.5 stars, I do believe it could have been higher had those issues not been there.

That aside, the story was very unique and interesting. Each year on June 1, boys are kidnapped. They are unharmed and then returned one year later. Intriguing, right? More intriguing was the idea that this kidnapper could be absolutely anyone. Throughout the book, doubt and suspicion was cast in all directions keeping me guessing right up until the final reveal. It's much different than any other suspense or mysteries that I typically read, but I found the story itself to be quite fascinating in the end. While some of those previously discussed issues had me questioning whether or not I should finish it, I was very glad I pushed through to see all the answers revealed.

At 32 years old, I'm certainly not the target audience for a young adult novel, but I feel like this is a story that you could enjoy at any age. To me the only thing that really made it feel even slightly like a young adult novel was Thea's age. Though it talked about graduation and being a senior in points throughout, the content of the story made it easy to forget that she is in fact still a teenager. If you have an older teenager that enjoys suspense, this is one you can feel confident doesn't have language or inappropriate content... or enjoy it yourself with that same assurance.

Overall, this was an interesting read that is worth checking out.

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley for consideration. All thoughts are 100% my own.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this ARC of The June Boys by Court Stevens.

Aulus is missing and another "June boy" has just turned up dead. Because this town has what they call The Gemini Thief, otherwise called the Welder by the victims. And normally the boys don't die, they disappear June 1st, and turn up a year later, June 30th. So to have a dead victim is new and frightening.

The best way I can describe this book is that it's different. The writing style is different, and in a way that was intriguing to me, but I'm not sure how. I thought it was interesting how the author did not play on the teen romance at all. I also thought the way the two characters launched immediately in their suspicions was also unique. I have to say I really liked this book. I could kind of see the ending coming, but not all of it, so that was also fun.

A dramatic read, the June Boys revolves around The Gemini Thief: a mysterious and unknown person who kidnaps boys in June and returns them a thirteen long months later. Because of the mystery, everyone begins to suspect the person near them. It doesn't hit home until Thea's cousin disappears. As bodies appear from the last time the Gemini Thief came around, Thea begins to worry that her cousin may be one of them. She makes it her choice to try to find the Gemini Thief herself, but she may not like where the signs point.

I can't put blame on the author, but the ARC I received wasn't formatted well at all, making it tough to get through this. I was initially interested in this novel because of the suspense and drama. After reading the blurb, you're drawn in wondering who the Gemini Thief will actually be. You have the town's suspicions and Thea's and have to read between the lines to figure out who is capable of committing such atrocious kidnappings and murders. The book starts in one of my favorite ways: with a death. It reels you in with such strong suspense early on and keeps you engaged throughout. As Thea finds clues, you begin to piece them together yourself until you want to solve the problem as bad as she does.

I definitely enjoyed the sense of mystery throughout, but I was looking for more character background and personality. I wanted to know Thea inside and out, but I think that's what adds to a mystery book: believing the narrator is unreliable and being forced to make connections and see past the limited view you are given. Though mystery and realistic fiction have never been my favorites, I did enjoy reading this one and recommend it for those who enjoy mystery and high suspense novels that require just a little bit of problem solving.

When Thea's cousin Aulus comes up missing she wonders if he is part of the June Boys who the Gemini Thief has taken captured. As the mystery starts unfolding Thea starts to feel like maybe her dad has something to do with it. Thea will do anything to find out who has taken her cousin.

The story was a good concept. I liked the beginning but I felt like I never connected with any of the characters and I felt the story start to drag for me. It took me a little longer to get through the book. I just want to say thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for a copy of this ARC for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this book. When I requested this book I had no idea what it was about, but I thought I would request it and when I got approved I was happy but apprehensive as some of the reviews were not great. This book surprised me and I actually enjoyed it, this book is full of twist and turns and I think that’s what made it more enjoyable for me. The plot was good and the characters were enjoyable to read about. I would definitely recommend this book and give it 4 stars

This book is full of twists and turns, I couldn’t put it down. Don, Elizabeth’s father is a quirky man who you want to get know but you also don’t trust. Everyone it seems is hiding things, and just when you think you know who kidnapped the boys, you don’t. It is told in two parts, Aulus writing letters to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth trying to save him. Up until the very end this book kept me guessing, I would definitely read it again. The only problem I had with this book was the Thomas Nelson logo was on every page. Sometimes even twice on the same page which distorted paragraphs and it was confusing to read. Also, in sections of the novel, there were “pictures” of letters written, and I could not make out what they said since the “picture” was split into 4 or more pieces. Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an interesting premise but was lacking in several areas.
But first, let's start with the good, which was the mystery/suspense in itself. It was very intriguing and I couldn't help but want to catch the bad guy alongside the characters.
My #1 complaint is the number of characters. They were all introduced at a very rapid rate and I had a difficult time remembering who was who. They were all very similar and did not have distinguishable personalities. I did not connect with any of them, feeling more like an outsider looking in.
I also have to note that I was reading an eARC that had some formatting issues that hindered my understanding of the book due to pages, logos, drawings, and sentences being all over. If you are reading a finished copy of the book, you will not have any issues so ignore this paragraph. I thought this necessary to add to my review to help explain why I gave this book the rating I did.
All that said, I will be bypassing books by Stevens in the future.
Rating: 2 Stars
Content: 4 Stars
*I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I feel really bad rating this book at a one star, but it is what it is and here we are.

I had a lot of issues with this book. A LOT. The main thing that bugged me from the beginning is the formatting of this book. First of all, the Thomas Nelson logo was on every page. Sometimes even twice on the same page which distorted paragraphs and it was confusing to read. Also, in sections of the novel, there were “pictures” of letters written, and I could not make out what they said since the “picture” was split into 4 or more pieces. It was really annoying to not be able to see those as they played a pretty crucial part to the story. Also there was a lot of typos and the book overall seemed very unedited.

Anyway. My review.
Going into this book I could already tell there would be a plethora of characters. These characters were very poorly introduced, without any identifiable features or characteristics. They were just there. Suddenly there are 10 characters thrown at you and you don’t remember who is who. I thought the main character, Thea, was in her 20s or 30s at first, turns out she’s in highschool, along with a couple other characters who were her friends. That threw me off as I thought they were all adults and then I realize I’m reading about them being in highschool. None of the characters stood out to me, I didn’t care for them, I didn’t connect with any of them.
The premise of this story sounded really interesting but it just didn’t grip me like I thought it would. I didn’t like the story. I didn’t like the characters. This was just a big flop of a book for me. The storyline was very back and forth and slow and just didn’t make any sense. The “big twist” at the end that revealed who the Gemini Thief was, was just random and weird and didn’t seem planned out. The ending fell VERY flat. I just think this book could have been done a lot better. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

I am just... so disappointed in this one.

First, let me say that the formatting of this eARC really hindered any enjoyment I might have scraped out of this rather lackluster book. Have huge logos in the middle of every paragraph really took me right out of the story and it was honestly a pain to have to read around them. Even worse were the "letters" that just showed up as next with several pages of empty lined paper.

I've never been a huge Stevens fan but I adore thrillers and this one sounded so, so promising. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to the hype the synopsis created. All of the characters were terribly bland and flat with odd, unrealistic dialogue and interactions. I pushed myself through that, banking on a satisfying payoff, but that never came. It read a lot like a fanfiction- where you're supposed to already know the characters and it's just plot.

Unfortunately this book was a miss for me. I really wanted to like it as I’m a huge fan of cmCourt Stevens past books but this one didn’t work for me.

First of all there were so many formatting issues that really retracted from the experience and I understand that this is an ARC so I’m sure the final book will be impeccable. But the one I have here had a lot of issues - from just random logos breaking up the text every once and a while sometime multiple times in a page, to the weird disjointed letters that just didn’t make any sense and the bizarre cut up pictures across several pages. That alone was gonna throw off my enjoyment. But the story itself didn’t really work for me either. Just kind of brining and I didn’t care for the characters either.

A miss for me but I will continue to read Court Stevens books because I have enjoyed her work before and even this one was very well written.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

Many thanks to Thomas Nelson Fiction for an e-ARC of The June Boys by Court Stevens. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

“Because here’s the real truth: you can’t keep darkness out if he has a key.”

It has been almost 1 year since Thea’s cousin Aulus has disappeared, and in Wildwood, Kentucky boys disappearing points to one thing, The Gemini Thief. The serial kidnapper has been terrorizing Wildwood and the surrounding area for years, named after their M.O. of kidnapping teen boys every year on June 1st and releasing them the following year on June 31st, except this year when a suspected Gemini Thief victim turns up dead just weeks before the usual release date.

When Thea suspects her cousin to be part of the newest group of “June Boys” after his disappearance on June 1st, she and her friends band together, intent on finding Aulus and bringing the kidnapper to justice. The date of the June Boys release is fast approaching when evidence surfaces that implicates Thea’s father as a prime suspect for The Gemini Thief. Now Thea’s search for the kidnapper and her cousin becomes desperate. She grapples with the possibility that the crime she is determined to unravel will end with answers she isn’t ready for, and her own father behind bars.

When I requested this ARC I thought I was going to be getting a typical YA mystery: gathering clues, crossing out suspects, lies, deceit, chasing down a kidnapper. While that’s what initially drew me in, what kept me reading was the relationships between the characters. The mystery, while well plotted, paled in comparison to the intricacies of the family and friend dynamics. What I ended up reading was a beautiful story about trust, grief, hope, and the bonds that can be formed or broken in the midst of tragedy.

There is so much brilliance in Court Stevens writing and style. She writes single sentences that took my breath away, and somehow managed to make Aulus my favorite character, even though he is absent from the central plot. She didn’t need to rely on gruesome or tragic details to write a heart wrenching story. A reminder that everyone has locked basements of secrets.

I am sure this will be one of the top YA mysteries of 2020 and will be quick to captivate students. This title is a must have addition to any 8th-12th grade classroom library.

4.5/5.

This book had such a strong start. As a fan of criminal minds, I loved the mental aspects of this thriller. I really enjoyed the concept of this book and was really enjoying this. However, the middle section of this book felt like a bit of a slog and was pretty slow. Not a whole lot happened. I also felt like the big reveal of who had done it felt almost too surprising, like there weren't enough clues to help the ending make sense. I found it a bit hard to connect with the characters which didn't help with that slower middle part as well.. It wasn't a terrible book, but it wasn't my favorite either.

I had high hopes for The June Boys, but I just didn't click with this book. The concept for the story is good, but something just fell flat for me. Please note: this is a YA novel.

I didn't connect with any of the characters, and sometimes their relationships with each other just felt...odd.

I did receive an ebook ARC of this book, so by publication, these issues may be resolved, but I want to mention them. The ebook has some serious formatting issues in the sections of the book that feature letters written by one of the characters. The formatting issues skew the illustrations drawn, and cause these sections to be very difficult to read.

I considered not finishing this book, but felt that wasn't fair to the author, so I persevered. I'm glad I did, because I really wanted to know what happened to the June boys, and whether or not they were rescued or set free. The conclusion was not what I expected, and while I understand why it was written this way, it just felt somewhat awkward; like this review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

What an astonishing, captivating, complex, dark, dazzling, deep, dreary story!
After you read its blurb you may imagine how a book’s story can affect you so deeply and put your emotions everywhere. Not easy to read, absorb for every reader!

There is a Gemini thief out there taking three boys and holding them as his captivates from June 1st to the June 31th of the following year. He can be anyone. He can be she. Your pervert uncle, your lovely father, your talkative mother, your creepy teacher or the salesman who tried to convince you buy bibles. The thief is smart, never leaving traces, keeping his identity disguised.

I loved balanced, honest, genuine relationships and deep bond between the characters. All of them were well-rounded and relatable characters. I loved Thea, Nick, Aulus, Gladys and Tank.
At some parts the story moved back and forth too many times which was a little confusing so I went back to read some pages again to make sure I didn’t get any wrong assumptions. But this is brave, dark, unique, gripping book questioning everyone’s motives and confuses the hell of you. This one also killed my spider senses and I couldn’t find the identity of this vicious, terrifying thief.

It was fresh, brand new, different approach, I love YA thrillers. And this book is one of the best examples of them.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for sharing this incredible book’s ARC COPY in exchange my honest review. For a long time this brilliant author’s “Four Three Two One” is on my tbr list and I should get this book into my hands sooner because I enjoyed her creative writing.

This was so much of very many things! I really enjoyed this book. What a story, with so many layers and delightful oddities and really nice character dynamics.

I loved that there was a sense of whimsy to bits of the story. I loved how love itself was pouring from this book, pouring out of so many of the characters. There was so much vulnerability in the friendships and relationships that I felt glad to read. I loved the back and forth the book did with the suspects, I was so confused in a really fun way, not knowing where it was headed but excited to see the characters trying to work it all out with so many different variables.

The characters of Thea, Nick, Tank, Aulus, Gladys and their love for one another will likely stay with me in fondness when I remember this book. Teary eyes by the story’s close, and I read it in about a day and a half.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley and all opinions expressed in this review are completely my own! Thank you!