Thursday 30 March 2017

Release Blitz & Review..28 Boys by Ashleigh Giannoccaro

28 Boys by Ashleigh Giannoccaro
Release Date: March 30, 2017
Underneath these gang tattoos beats a heart three times a year. I’m a slow puncture death, a murderer, a rapist, and a number. I killed my best friend. Death doesn’t stalk me, it walks ahead of me by twenty-eight paces.
I went home after I sold my soul to the devils. I thought life would begin, I was a free man, instead within days the bullets fly and my last hope dies with the slain. There is nothing left to live for in this world. I belong to the 28s, I’ll always belong to the 28s.
The woman across the road judges me, she hates me, and takes every opportunity to let me know it.
Yet, somehow, when grief etched our names down in the book of the dead, we dared be bold enough to find love.
I’m not a good man, and I’m not pretty. I come from the Cape Flats where my life was reduced to a prison cell number. In all this ugliness I found beauty, innocence, and forgiveness. I can’t forgive myself for the crimes I’ve committed, but I’ll die trying to earn hers.
In a world where nothing matters, she does. 
NOTE
28 Boys contains foreign language, and South Africanisms throughout the story, this was done to stay true to the nature of the characters and setting of the story. there are not typos they are intentional. 18+ due to content, and triggers.
Cover Design by Southern Stiles Design
Cover Photography by FrankysFunkyFotos
Cover Model Franklin Petersen


★★★★★ Five Stars



I honestly don't know where to start with this review. This book is unlike anything I've read before. It's not you typical hearts and flowers love story that's for sure. 

Francis is not a nice man. He's done some really horrific things and I should hate him, but I didn't. Born into a life he didn't want and stuck there through circumstances beyond his control, he really is just trying to survive one day at a time. This book left me torn. On one hand i really didn't want to like Francis but on the other hand, what else could he have done? He's stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

This book tore me up. I finished late last night and it was the first thing I thought about when I opened my eyes this morning. The author sets the scene so perfectly. It was very easy to picture the street, the houses, the people. To feel the hopelessness and fear. This isn't a particularly easy book to read. It deals with some very real issues, it's not sugar coated and it is hard reading at times. To know that this is a way of life for some people broke my heart. 

I've deliberately tried to be vague with this review. It's one of those books that you need to experience for yourself. I do want to mention the language in this book. Set in South Africa, it threw me off a little at first when the characters (occasionally) spoke in their native language but it turned out to be one of the things that made this book stand out that little bit more for me. It adds to the realism and helped to really set the tone of the book. 

I went through a massive range of emotions reading this book. It left me feeling conflicted, so very sad and massively grateful for the life I live. This is one of those books that will stay with me for a long long time. 

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