When it comes to YA contemporary fiction, there is no opinion I trust more than Shanyn’s. One of the authors she consistently recommends is Terra Elan McVoy. Of course, I immediately jumped on the chance to read Being Friends With Boys which explores the complications that can arise with having only male friends.
Atlanta teen Charlotte, called Char, has been stabbed in the back one too many times by her female friends. So she decides that being friends with boys will help her stay drama free and not have to deal with all that back biting crap. She spends all of her summer writing songs for and managing Sad Jackal, a band lead by friend Oliver.
Yet, drama finds it’s why to Char when the shcool her begins. Her BFF Trip who she trades a notebook back and forth with quits the band and starts acting weird towards her. Char finds herself attracted to newcomer Fabian but also to classmate Benji. AND oh yes, she also sort of has feelings for someone else.
What I especially enjoyed about Being Friends With Boys was how complex Char’s situation was. Yet, I never felt overwhelmed or like there was way too much going on. Like, Charlotte’s dealing with feelings for multiple boys, band drama, girl drama, and home drama, but I never once thought the book was all over the place. Instead, I thought Terra Elan McVoy made Charlotte’s struggles feel real and authentic, because for some people their lives have more than one complication or twist.
As for Charlotte’s character, I actually didn’t find her weird or annoying. It can suck having social climber friends who ditch you for someone with better status, so I totally felt her on not wanting to hang out with girls anymore. I also didn’t find her to be skanky or anything for having feelings for multiple guys. That sort of thing happens as a teenager and is pretty realistic. When I was a teenager, I definitely was into several guys at once. Those feelings develop when you spend a lot of time with one person. Charlotte just came across as total rational and willing to communicate her thoughts rather than stew over it and wonder why things aren’t magically working out in her favor. Personally, I LOVE that sort of behavior.
Terra Elan McVoy perfectly blends music, family and complex relationships in Being Friends With Boys. As a reader, I could relate to Charlotte’s search for identity — is she a singer? A song writer? Who exactly are her real friends? I recommend this book to anyone who has discovered that being friends with boys is a lot more complicated than you may have originally thought.
Disclosure: Received for review via Lit Logistics blog tour.
Be sure to check out Terra Elan McVoy’s guest post for your chance to win a copy of Being Friends With Boys.
Other reviews of Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy:
Hobbitsies – “Heavy doses of musical and romantic awesomeness. ”
The Story Girl – “A fun and well-crafted young adult book”
Galleysmith – ” Hit the ups and downs of having friendships with boys”
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Oddly, I still haven’t read anything by McVoy, even though I love contemporary YA… Great review, April!
I think this would be a good one to start with, Sara.
Thanks 🙂
That sounds interesting and the premise is very unique for a contemporary, high school kind of thing! 🙂
Yes! I haven’t really read a whole lot of books with this premise. It’s pretty decent too. 🙂
I hadn’t heard of this book or author before, but it sounds right up my alley. Thanks for adding to my TBR list! And I didn’t mean that sarcastically (at least not entirely 🙂
Great Review.
Ahahahaha I love making people add books to their TBR list, since other people are constantly increasing my TBR Mountain.
Thanks.
Ooh, yay! This book sounds pretty good – and the title is enough to make me want to pick it up. Glad you liked it!
Being Friends With Boys is rather good. I think it’s definitely worth a summer read.
I see this book in the bookstore ALL the time, and it’s like it’s taunting me. My husband and my bookshelves and my wallet would shoot me for buying another book… so I’m going to have to wait it out. I really trust your opinion though, April, and I’m happy to hear you say such positive things about it. Adding it to my library books list!
I’ve been doing that a lot lately, waiting things out and borrowing from the library just to save some money, but also to increase my library’s circulation numbers.
This one looks interesting because I had a lot of guy friends both in high school and in college. 😛
Me too! And it is pretty reflective of that sort of experience, I’d say.
“Atlanta teen Charlotte, called Char, has been stabbed in the back one too many times by her female friends. So she decides that being friends with boys will help her stay drama free”
Yeah, I’m not sure I love that. I don’t like the stereotype of women competing and backstabbing one another while men aren’t like that. I guess it will depend on how this is presented.