#Review: Boys Like You by Juliana Stone

Boys Like You by Juliana Stone
Published May 6, 2014, Sourcebooks
Goodreads / Amazon
This is one of my #booksfortrade books!

IF
If I hadn't fallen asleep.
If I hadn't gotten behind the wheel. 
If I hadn't made a mistake.

For Monroe Blackwell, one small mistake has torn her family apart--leaving her empty and broken. There's a hole in her heart that nothing can fill. That no one can fill. And a summer in Louisiana with her grandma isn't going to change that...

Nathan Everets knows heartache firsthand when a car accident leaves his best friend in a coma. And it's all his fault. He should be the one lying in the hospital. The one who will never play guitar again. He doesn't deserve forgiveness, and a court-appointed job at the Blackwell B&B isn't going to change that...

There's No Going Back

Captivating and hopeful, this achingly poignant novel brings together two lost souls struggling with grief and guilt--looking for acceptance, so they can find forgiveness.

GUYS. THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK I'VE READ FROM MY #BOOKSFORTRADE HAUL. It's rather exciting. And my oh my are we off to a rather spectacular start.

Boys Like You is basically what I hoped it would be, with a few minor infractions. Monroe made a mistake and because of it she is consumed by a guilt she can't seem to drag herself out from. Anything besides sleeping is more work than it's worth. Then she meets Nathan. She meets Nathan when she moves down to her Grandmother's home for the summer in order to heal. At least that is what her family and friends are hoping for.

She meets Nathan and she finds herself reflected in his eyes. Or her finds himself reflected in hers. It the same hollowness and the same sadness and the same hopelessness.

Julia Stone composed a fantastic tale of...what do I even call this? Self redemption. It felt a whole lot like redemption. Monroe and Nathan have lost hope in themselves because they believe that they caused the tragedies that sort of destroyed what they used to be. They tragedies changed them- I mean how can tragedies not change a person? And people react to tragedies in different ways. Unhealthy ways. Healthy ways. But neither of these characters were able to keep themselves healthy.

I think it took seeing the other- Nathan seeing Monroe and Monroe seeing Nathan- for them to realize how far they fell.

So, lovely reader, why should you read this book? Although the story- I felt- should have been slowed down, it was heart-breakingly real and totally butterfly inducing. And honestly, what could be better? I mean, yes, of course there were things I wish I could change.

The story pace (too rushed). Okay, so maybe it's really only a thing. I think if it had been slowed down a bit, all the reactions by the characters would have been slowed down a bit as well. Which I would have appreciated.

I loved the character interactions. I love the friends, I love Monroe's grandmother, I love the angry father and the sad mother and the nostalgic girlfriend. Yes, even her.

This was just a genuinely good book. It wasn't fantastic and isn't going to stop the world, but it was totally worth trading for and totally worth reading.