Thank you to Hachette Australia for this book in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
Can two broken boys find their perfect home?
Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.
But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him
Review:
Heart. Boot. Crushed.
Feelings. Boot. Crushed.
C.G Drews literally pulls your raw and pure emotions from your beating body, lines them up on the pavement and crushes them under her boot.
What. The. Actual. Hell.
Just stop what you are doing. Honestly if it is reading The Boy Who Steals Houses then you are not really doing anything of note. I usually hate contemporaries, I find them dull, unrateable and a huge snore fest of bad characters, odd and weird situations and a whole lotta nope I ain’t got time to waste reading this contemporary. Buttt – The Boy Who Steals Houses plucked the cords of my heart with its edgy and unique story, beautiful, soft and afraid characters with flaws and OH GOD someone get them a blanket and protect them from the chill in the air. Protect those characters like your life depends on it.
See what I mean. A contemporary book where I want all the characters to stay alive, loved and well feed. See what Drews does? Takes your heart when you get all the emotions and crushes it in a somewhat heartfelt way… I mean do I get angry or thank her? I might have to dwell on that for a while before deciding.
And for those that don’t know, I usually want to kill at least 1 character per book I read from sheer annoyance (especially in a contemporary) however, I found myself instead loving all the characters and their quirks. And for those that do know, this is a massive thing for a character hater like myself. This never happens. Christmas miracle. Someone get the pudding!
The Boy Who Steals Houses is a book you do not want to put down, I mean it, hold it close to your heart because that’s where you will feel the most pain. I almost shed a salty tear when I read the last page of the book. I wanted more and there was none. How do I get more? How does Sammy Lou’s life pan out? I need the answers!
Speaking of characters, what I loved about this book was there were no real bad and good characters, just young characters trying to survive in the harsh life they were thrown upon. And no matter how dark it got they had each other, they would survive together and it was sweet and adorable and protective and now I have goosebumps with all these feelings floating in the air. Sam, our main homie, did anything he could to survive, even if it meant breaking into people’s houses to have shelter for the night. It even meant that he would look after his brother Avery, even if he was a hard task. The characters had flaws and yet still found their reason to smile. I loved it. I love them. Again, I want more!
I will say it once and I will stay it again, C.G. Drews is a compassionate and yet twisted writer and I adore her work. With her second book, The Boy Who Steals Houses released in the wild we know that she is a master of the craft.
Rating: 5/5
Publisher: Orchard Books
ISBN: 9781408349922
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