Thank you so much to the publisher, Usborne, for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The girl: Francine. Model teenager, dutiful granddaughter, absolutely no chill.
The grandfather: 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 It’s an outdated idea, but Francine loves him, and she has a plan to bring him the boy he always wanted.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 boy: 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 plan: 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.
After enjoying Michelle Quach’s debut, Not Here to Be Liked, I was excited to pick up her next release. This one was a lot of fun to read and had a wonderful feel of falling in love for the first time throughout.
Francine loves her grandfather, but their time together is running out. He has one last wish, to see a male heir carry on the family traditions. Although Francine knows his ideas are outdated, she would do anything for him. So, her solution is to ask Ollie, a family friend, to pretend to be ceremonially adopted and act like the grandson A Gūng never had.
This book is told in dual POVs which I am always a fan of. It allowed us to really get to know both Francine and Ollie. Francine wants what is best for those around her no matter how weird other people may think that is. She is extremely caring. Ollie on the other hand, just goes with the flow. He is caring but doesn’t quite know how to show it. The two of them are very different which makes it easy to distinguish between their chapters. Their scenes together are adorable and had me smiling from ear to ear.
Not only are their personalities different, there is also a juxtaposition in their home lives. Even though Francine’s grandfather’s ideas are outdated, there is still so much love there. Francine is also close to her mother and we see how much they care for each other. Ollie’s family was once similar, but since his parents business has taken over he feels isolated at home. I feel that is one of the reasons that Ollie agrees to Francine’s plan as it means he gets to see that love he is missing.
I’d like a follow up book about Francine and Ollie’s best friends. They both added a lot of humour to the book and I think they would make excellent main characters themselves.
Michelle Quach is certainly an author whose books I will be picking up in the future. They are fun, heart-warming and wonderfully written.
Overall, The Boy You Always Wanted is a wonderful YA contemporary that I would recommend. It is all about showing love to those around you and so much more.
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