Book Review: The Boy You Always Wanted by Michelle Quach
Published: August 3rd 2023 by Usborne YA
Rating: ★★★★ (4)
Genre: Young Adult // Contemporary Romance
Quick Thoughts: Heartfelt, complex and deep, this book will make you feel, feel, feel—something so very special for a book to do.
About The Book:
A girl, a boy, a grandfather and a plan.
The Francine. Model teenager, dutiful granddaughter, absolutely no chill.
The Francine’s beloved a gung. He has one final wish, a male heir to carry on the family traditions. It’s an outdated idea, but Francine loves him, and she has a plan to bring him the boy he always wanted.
The Ollie. Family friend, former crush, no idea how Francine has convinced him to get mixed up in her off-the-wall, and totally sexist, honorary grandson plan.
The might work. But as Ollie and Francine’s worlds collide, their secrets get tangled, and so do their feelings. Sometimes what you really want, isn’t at all what you expected.
First Thoughts
When The Boy You Always Wanted arrived, it was just after I’d got home from holiday and it was the sweetest package of pinks and purples, sweets and a gorgeous ARC. I knew I was going to wait closer to the release day to read it, but I couldn’t stop staring at it on my TBR stack the whole time, so eager to get started.
My Review
The book is split into two POVs, Francine and Ollie, who are nothing alike. Although they’ve been family friends for a long time, they haven’t really been friends in a while. Francine used to have a crush on Ollie, which adds to the awkwardness. But she has to put that aside when she finds out her grandfather is dying. His final wish is to find a male heir to continue the family traditions, however that’s a little tricky as the only grandchild is Francine. Faithful to her family to a fault, she sets a plan in motion: get Ollie to join the family and bring her grandfather the grandson he always wanted.
Naturally, the plan doesn’t get off to a great start. For one, Ollie doesn’t want to take part. It takes a little convincing at the start to get him on board, but when he realises just how much this means to Francine—and it being for her grandfather—he decides to help, despite being unsure how this reckless, quite sexist plan is going to be successful. As Francine and Ollie start spending more time together, mixing their worlds and secrets and complicated feelings, it spells trouble. There’s clearly some sort of romantic spark in the midst of the impending grief and complexity of the situation, but when the ground is so uneven, the path remains unclear. And when a bombshell threatens to derail everything Francine and Ollie knew to be true, the wilder the plan unravels.
Overall, The Boy You Always Wanted was nothing like I expected. I was anticipating well-crafted worldbuilding and heaviness, the mentions of dying, obviously—but I was expecting more of those fluffy, falling-in-love parts to be the central thing I loved about the book. Yes,we did get those bits (and I did love them) but the family heritage and traditions for me became my favourite starring element above that, which is odd as I’m normally more entuned to the romance side! I think it needed to be told in this way. I loved learning about Francine’s heritage and Michelle definitely makes the reader feel at ease with her writing style. Heartfelt, complex and deep, this book will make you feel, feel, feel—something so very special for a book to do. A beautiful four star read!
About The Author
Have you read The Boy You Always Wanted?
If you haven’t, don’t forget to add it to your TBR!
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happy reading!
