Member Reviews
The Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green has put this author's other books on the top of my to-read list! This was a laugh-out-loud, sweet, and lovely book that will entertain the reader and make them fall in love with Nate and Jack. Although the boys' adventures in the book were off-beat, there's not an off-note in the story.
This book is so much fun and incredibly funny. I laughed out loud several times. I loved the main characters and had a blast reading this!
This road-trip HEA is a sweet summer coming of age romance between two friends who don’t know what’s right in front of them. Full of Green’s unique humor this is perfect for fans of British rom coms.
So this ARC is a bit strange, simply because this is an ARC for the US edition of this book as it has been out in the UK for a while. It seems like parts of it have been updated in the past few years for this purpose, which I would assume is why it's on NetGalley as well - though I haven't read the UK version so I can't speak to the differences or lack thereof here.
This book is very cute. It reminds me a lot of Paper Towns or something similar, in the roadtrip / humor kind of aesthetic. Obviously, the LGBTQIA+ rep is great here, and though there are some stereotypes used they are discussed and analyzed within the novel about why they're stereotypes, etc.
I thought this book was really fluffy and cute, and I very much enjoyed it - although I will say that the Elliott storyline dragged for me, and I felt like there was a lot of lead-up to the year nine drama that didn't seem totally worth it (not that it should have been worse drama, just that I felt they should have talked about it was earlier in the novel). Overall though, I would recommend if you're looking for a light and enjoyable read!
I really wasn't vibing with this book from the first few chapters, but I stuck it out until about 60% of the way through before I just /had/ to put it down. I really wasn't enjoying the characters, the writing style felt very juvenile in a way that I HOPE will appeal to younger readers (like 13+) but I don't think would've appealed to me even at that age, and the plot just didn't stand out as anything special among the growing canon of queer YA. I decided to DNF this as I really didn't want to force myself to read til the end and grow to completely hate it in such a strong way that I would've needed to give it a negative review on my social medias, so instead I simply won't be mentioning it anywhere. Again I really hope this has appeal to an audience of some kind, but I fear I'm just a bit /too/ well read in this genre to like this book.
Sometimes I give a book five stars because I really enjoyed reading it and sometimes I give a book five stars because it was perfectly written. In this case, Heartbreak Boys fits both of these requirements. Simon James Green is a very talented writer and had me laughing out loud with his characters' actions and dialogue. If you are a fan of romcoms and enjoy YA fiction, Heartbreak Boys is a title you must add to your reading list.