A review by fortheloveoffictionalworlds
The June Boys by Courtney C. Stevens

3.0

Disclaimer: An eARC was provided via The Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Thoughts, opinions & feelings expressed in the review are therefore, my own. I also partway listened to the audio book on Storytel App.

The Gemini Thief is a serial kidnapper who keeps hostage three boys for more than year; each year and has been doing so for the past several years; and his identity remains unknown.
Until one summer; when a boy turns up dead. Now this is termed as an escalation, not just by the people but also by the authorities. But there is also a clue left with the body.

A clue that means a whole lot to the protagonist and narrator of this book; Thea. Now, Thea lives with her father; her apparently crazy father who has been building a castle and has kept it a secret from her. Thea’s cousin, Aulus has been missing – and she has been quite adamant that he was taken by The Gemini Thief. But no one seems to take her seriously.

Until the clue is found with the body of one of The June Boys – the victims of the Gemini Thief.
The plot is quite an intriguing one (hence why I actually requested access to the eARC of the book!); and it did hold my interest in it for the main part – I was actually quite invested in knowing or rather deducing who The Gemini Thief was from the variety of suspects provided to me as a reader.

But the format of the book was a little choppy for my tastes – the “Elizabeth Letters” that Aulus wrote to Thea during captivity took me a little while to get used to – wait; no I didn’t get used to the jarring way it was introduced and added to the plotline.

Barring that; it was quite an intriguing book; could have used a little more tweaking and the revelation of the actual thief had me surprised, hence the rating I have given to the book. And I have to say; I won’t be averse to more books by this author in the future!



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