I didn't get all the way through this book so I can't give a review of the entire story but this was a DNF for me.

I really liked the idea behind it and I was really looking forward to reading it, but this one just wasn't for me.

It took me so long to get into and I found myself not wanting to pick it up at all. The writing was very juvenile and it's the only thing I was concentrating on. I wasn't really drawn in by the characters and I found it quite hard to care about where the story was going.

I think maybe the target audience for this book are a lot younger than I am, I usually enjoy books aimed at a younger audience but this was just a bit too young for me.

A massive thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy!

This was a very fast-paced read which I actually quite enjoyed.

The author gives us such an honest account of a coming of age story that very much pulled on the heart strings.

I liked how we got to know both Duke and Tommy through their own POV’s. You don’t realise how deep these characters feelings are until you really get into their heads.

I did find that perhaps they shared such personal information to each other rather quickly. I don’t think that would happen in real life.

Otherwise this was a great debut novel, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

This book was a lot, but overall, I was not a fan. The writing was very juvenile. It seemed like a badly written fan fiction, almost? All inn all, it took me a while to finish, I was confused with character relationships, the timeline bounced around to the point where I was always confused and I didn't really even understand what the plot was?

I really enjoyed this one.
Premise
Duke seemingly has it all. But his math tutor, Tommy, not so much. When their worlds collide, it forces each one to truly examine their own reality. Duke realizes he’s more like a sheep, who only knows how to follow. As for Tommy, he allows his tortured past to define his future.
I love books like this where two people from differently perceived backgrounds can come together and find common ground. It’s sort of the story of a popular protagonist meets a nerd and they have these preconceived notions of each other but the more time they spend and grow on each other they find out they are not who they both originally through they were. Also that there is more to some people than first meets the eye, but we automatically put these labels on people without truly getting to know them. It almost reminded me a bit of a recent episode of Never Have I Ever where the part of one of the main characters who is supposed to be so popular and doesn’t care about school ect. Has more underneath him than meets the eye.

Keep in mind that this book features drug abuse and mentions of domestic violence.

Duke & the Lonely Boy was a fast and easy read, and I could picture this as those books-turned-to-movies type of book. For a book that gives more emphasis to Duke, I found the story to be more directed towards Tommy and Roxy, which I'm not actually complaining about, but I think that if this was written in a single point of view (Tommy's), we wouldn't exactly miss anything relevant.

Duke felt more like a secondary character than a main one. I was annoyed by most of his choices, but as this type of book almost requires to happen, I'm glad things worked out in the end. Charlie as a side kick was also fun to read about, and Tommy's grandparents were the most precious, supportive people he deserved.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for something with simple writing you can enjoy.