I really enjoyed this read! It was pretty chaotic from the get go but in the best way! The book is meant to be messy and it starts that way from the jump. Our MC has to deal with casual racism, boys, sex, POC characters living in a predominantly white town. Everything was handled well but it starts out a little all over the place.

I loved the romance and how the author handled it. One of my favorite parts of this book was the sex-positivity and also the realness of worrying about sex and partners so much as a teen! Overcoming expectations and finding out what you want is a long process but it starts out in your teenage years so I really enjoyed this portrayal of that issue.

Overall, I thought the characters were nuanced and emotional. The story was poignant and messy and entertaining. I loved it!

I would recommend this for readers who adore younger characters with messy lives like those written by Mary H.K. Choi!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

Relatable, real, brutally honest, uncomfortable, smart, hilarious. Diversity Representation: Asian American (Taiwanese) protagonist and author. A high school senior navigates messy boys and messier relationships in this unflichingly honest and much-needed look into the overlap of Asian American identity and teen sexuality.

Thank you @netgalley and @peachtreeteen for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

June Chu is your average Midwestern Taiwanese American teenager trying to figure out who she is in the world.

This is a coming-of-age story and was super realistic. The characters were all flawed and that made me very happy 😊.
June makes a series of mistakes (that we've all made) and begins on a journey to self-actualization.

Overall, I give this book a 3.75/5 stars.

Wonderful debut by Anna Gracia and I loved the messy MC and the acerbic prose as well too! Really hoping for more books by this author.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted book, all thoughts are my own.

Boys I Know is a coming of age novel. It follows June Chu, a Taiwanese-American senior as she navigates unhealthy relationships, always seeking someone to love her.

This book was so raw and realistic. I think so many people forget or don’t want to see how teenagers are. Anna Gracia didn’t shy away from having our MC make many mistakes.

As a mom so many times I would scream at June about her bad ideas. Being real, I was so much like June as a teen. We all want to feel like we’re good enough, feel loved, feel wanted, and that is what is at the heart of this story.

This is very much a character driven story. I wouldn’t say there’s a real plot outside of June and her life. It’s very much a coming of age story.

The author shows what it’s like to grow up in an Asian American home while living in a predominantly white area. As a POC I could relate to many things.

Overall, Boys I Know was a great book with so much heart. If you want something messy, and real this is the book for you.

I really liked the discussions of Taiwanese - American identity and was very sex positive. But I just wanted a bit more from this book.

DNF at 35%.

I couldn't get into this book. While I was intrigued by the idea behind it and how the author would portay the conflict between being a teenager and coming from Asian American family, the lack of plot and character development left me hanging.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the advance reading copy.

The book delivers on all the promises stated in the summary. The plot and characters are well developed and keep you hooked until the end.

The main character June is very realistic and down-to-earth. The characters aren't perfect, but neither are people! I really liked June's mother, she's a staple character.

This story is something you have to take your time with and wrap your mind around June's life and why she makes the choices she does. Overall, it's a great read.

June Chu is a Taiwanese-American high school senior growing up in Iowa. "Boys I Know" follows her through her last year of high school as she navigates boyfriends, sex, parental expectations, and choosing a college. The treatment of sex in the book is realistic and messy. However watching June navigate her relationships was actually fairly painful. I also felt like the book really slowed down at the end to the point of getting boring. Still a multi-layered book for high school readers.

It was so fun getting to know June in BOYS I KNOW by Anna Gracia. It is so wonderful to see YAs featuring Asian Americans. From the relationship between June and her mother to the exploration around not feeling "enough" to navigating young adulthood, this book captured such real feelings and experiences.

This book is really messy. I mean it made me question all the relationship choices made by the main character June.
June Chu is pretty complex. she has a lot of things influencing her from her parents to her sister to her friends. She lacks validation from her family and tries to find it within the men she "dates" (who all turn out to be not the best in some way or another).
This is her story of realizing her self worth, dealing with her parent's expectations, the Asian-American experience and the period of change from high school to college.

Boys I Know is the newest book by Anna Gracia. It is an Asian American young adult book, with a theme of finding your identity. I always enjoy a good young adult with romance and an underlying theme. But will I like this book also?

June is a girl who does everything just good enough, however this does not meet het Taiwanese mother’s expextations. Her mom insists her to follow in her sisters footsteps and the rest of her schoollife seems to be already planned out for June. But June doesn’t want it at all. Instead she tries on finding herself and her love life. She does everything she can to find the love of her live, and to figure out what future is best for her. Will June find the perfect boyfriend? What will Junes future have in store? Will this affect her relationship with her mom?

Anna Gracia has managed to write a very nice book, with humor and a realistic theme. You will get to know June very well, and in addition you will also get to know a bit of the side characters. The story is realistic, since this is a story that one could really experience.

This book is written with a really nice pace and the writing style is easy to read. In this book some Asian sayings come to the foreground, as well as their translation. I feel like these really were a great addition to the story and all are used in a situation where they really fit in. I really loved this addition to the writing.

All in all I really enjoyed Boys I know and I would love to read more by this author. Therefore I give 4.5 stars to this amazing book.

I received my copy of this book late and could not review it on the date I was assigned as I received the book after.

📖Book: Boys I know
⭐️Rating: 3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
✍🏼Author: Anna Gracia
📚Genre: YA & Teen
🗏 Pages: 337
⚠️Warnings: Racism, Toxic Relationships, Culture Appropriation, Drug use, Misogyny
✍🏼First Line: "Aiya. You go to school all day looking like ji nu?

Things to expect:
✨Teens discovering their sexuality
✨Outlook on teen relationships
✨Growth

This type of YA novel should be read by most young teens trying to figure themselves out in the American Lifestyle. June Chu is a high school senior who is trying to figure herself out. She has some messy relationships and an identity crisis. Anna Gracia wrote about the Asian-American teen life in such a meaningful, impactful way. As a White Woman, I was able to see how much of the issues that most Asain-American faces are caused by my ancestors, and it takes reading novels like this to open our eyes and see things from others' perspective. The only reason it is not a 4-star book is for accessibility reasons. Italic font is present and for the dyslexic community being able to access books is half the battle; not everyone has access to e-books and audiobooks. so when you publish in a font that is not accessible to 10% of the population, you get a star knocked. Regardless I think this book should be read by teens in a classroom setting in either 11th or 12th grade.

Thanks to Colored Page Book Tours and Peachtree for the advance reader copy.

Boys I Know is a heartfelt and searing debut. High-schooler June is trying to find the places and people that she fits with. With strict parents who are laser-focused on college, June finds herself wanting to explore relationships and her life outside the violin. Throughout her senior year of college, June experiences several very different relationships and friendships. Along the way she is forced to grapple with questions of cultural identity, family expectations, and must define her goals for the future.

I read Boys I Know in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down- June is such a great character. She felt very real, like someone I knew in high school and I didn’t want to end my time with her. I loved that June is a messy and flawed human, who is also seeking love and validation. June learns something new about herself and the world as she experiences slices of life with each of the boys. Watching her grow and seeing the final choices she makes was so relatable. I think there is so much about June that readers will connect with- from complicated parent relationships, sex positivity, conflicting expectations, nuanced cultural identity issues, and feeling like you don’t fit in. I recommend this book for fans of Kristin Dwyer- it’s going to rip your heart out, make you cry, wish you could go into the book and yell at the boys, and then want to reread and do it all over again. I can’t wait to get my hard copy for my shelves!

Thank you so much to Anna Gracia, Peachtree Teen, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, Wordpress blog, and Barnes & Noble etc

A messy, complex coming of age for a young Asian American woman. The characters were well developed and the love stories were frustratingly true to life. A fun and thought-provoking read!

Starting off this is not a romance per se but a coming of age story about a girl named June and her really crazy and messed up love life. She's navigating the treacherous waters of first romances and boys at that very tender age when we're all confused between what's right and wrong. She makes many silly mistakes in an effort to fit in and be liked by the boys all in an attempt to be someone she definitely isn't

In certain parts I felt like the book was a mockumentary on how teenagers are today. Specially how they deal with their love lives. It's sad and relatable. Thank god for that age being over 🙈

I think every teenage girl should pick up this book, it will probably be a reality check for most and might help some make sense of their lives. The story started off on a light fun note so I assumed it would be a romantic comedy. Considering the hilarious one woman circus that is June's mother. But the more it delved into June's character and her confusions the more complex and intense it became. This was a far cry from a rom com.

The book also touched upon heavier topics such as cultural appropriation and identification. June often struggled with her heritage and who she identified with and the same was delicately but strongly put across throughout the book. Her confusion and pain at not knowing which side she belongs on is so palpable and raw.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

For once I read the blurb and the fact that the story talks about Asian American identity and teen sexuality immediately made me want to read it. Plus, it has such a pretty cover.
We follow June who is in her last year of high school and has to navigate through her feelings for the boys around her, her family and her future. I really identified myself in June when it came to boys, love and sexuality. I think Anna Gracia did a great job writing a character everybody can see themselves in in some way. June’s relationship with her mum was very interesting. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of what it is like being raised in an Asian American family. Moreover, there are many Chinese proverbs (always with a translation) in this book and I loved learning about them, some are really poetic. The romances in this book are never perfect, they feel realistic.
I recommend to all teenagers and young adults.
4/5

Boys I know is definitely a book that I haven't come across before, even though the tropes present in it are quite old and known. But what I love about this book is how genuine it was. I could see myself in June's shoes and I will like to say that it's a very clever thing that the author has done. I love everything that happens here though I am kind of angry at Netgalley for archiving this book before I could get my hands on it even though I was approved for an ARC.

DNF @~28%

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

I'll be real, I love the plot of the book and the parts I read that delved into Asian culture were super relatable for me ... but at nearly 30% in, there was no plot. I would make myself read chapters to get somewhere since there are so many great reviews for this book, but I really didn't want to continue.

June is the good girl, the just enough girl. But not good enough to meet her mother’s family’s expectations. She must follow her perfect older sisters foot steps. But June doesn’t understand why she must try so hard. She’d rather have a boyfriend and blur the lines than be picture perfect.

This is one book that is exactly what the synopsis makes it sound like. The journey June goes through is a challenge and unique. It was a one sit, enjoyable read. I loved the diversity and family issues the story presented.