BOYS COME FIRST

"Imagine the thirtysomething angst of Insecure meeting the queer Black friendships of Noah's Arc intersecting with the dating dilemmas of Waiting to Exhale all rolled up into the dynamics of a gentrified Detroit... and you've got Boys Come First. It's a fun novel that will have you eager to turn every page or scroll to the next screen to find out what's coming next for Dominick, Troy, and Remy." —Frederick Smith, Busy Ain't the Half of It "It's all fun and games with friends Remy, Dominick and Troy until they hit their 30s. As their fraught situationships and sexy entanglements start to reveal hard truths about themselves, the friends must deal with life's hard questions. Foley has written a delicious romp about the game of love. But at its core, Boys Come First is a laugh out loud story about Foley's first love—the city of Detroit." —Desiree Cooper, Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist and author of Know the Mother

"...sparkling debut novel... Foley's love for his city and his engaging characters shines through, and his novel is funny, naughty, and comforting. This auspicious debut will leave readers eager for more." (starred review)

"Uproarious, sharp, sober, biting, bumpy, bruising, hip, and real. Aaron Foley's Boys Come First moves along with a graceful self-assurance, spot-on characterizations, and a genuine assessment of extraordinary, yet mundane plight of Black queer men—how we must navigate the world, protect ourselves from violence and cruelties, construct our own safe spaces, and stitch together community from the strands of chosen family. This book is so brutally honest that it's hard to believe that it's fiction." —Robert Jones, Jr., author of New York Times bestseller The Prophets "My God, Aaron Foley's Boys Come First is an exhilarating debut! I'm obsessed. Sexy, heartfelt, unapologetically queer, and deliciously funny, this novel about friendship and finding love (in others and for oneself) in rapidly gentrifying Detroit really has it all. An absolute joy." —Chris Gonzalez, I'm Not Hungry but I Could Eat

"Readers who enjoy character-driven romance, especially LGBTQ+ fiction, will appreciate this book. Some may be put off by the explicit sexual content, but the plot and the strong characters should keep them turning pages."

"Mr. Foley's debut unfolds the romantic and professional misadventures of this group in the dishy, funny style of Armistead Maupin and Candace Bushnell, albeit with even more cheerfully raunchy sex. And like Mr. Maupin's and Ms. Bushnell's iconic series, “Boys Come First” is also a tale of the city, in this case Detroit in the throes of gentrification. The dilemmas of family—and what such a thing might look like for gay men—are fruitfully bound up in broader questions of community as Detroit's manic development threatens its identity. Mr. Foley knows the Motor City as intimately as he knows the workings of dating apps like Scruff and Grindr, and he details both with the swagger and fluency of a quality TV script. The only mystery, in fact, is which will come first: the HBO option or the sequel."

"Only a year away from its 10th anniversary, Cleveland-based independent publisher Belt has compelled writing mavens in New York to finally pay attention to the rich literary culture of the industrial Midwest. Long focusing on new nonfiction, reprintings of classic rust belt titles and their celebrated city anthologies, Belt's first novel is Foley's Boys Come First, an account of three Black gay friends in Detroit that upends popular expectations about race, class, gender, sexuality, and masculinity. Foley's novel evokes Brian Broome in its hilarious and very millennial perspective on what it means to be a 30-something as the first quarter of this century comes to a close, [and is] a love letter to gay Michigan." (Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2022 Book Preview) Read more...

"Aaron Foley's fantastic debut is a hilarious and heartfelt story of friendship, family, longing, and lust, wrapped in a beautiful love letter to Detroit. You can't help but root for Millennials Dominick, Remy, and Troy in all their messy magnificence. Fans of Terry McMillan and E. Lynn Harris especially will rejoice at Foley's smart, evocative prose. I devoured this book. And bonus: Reading Boys Come First made this Gen Xer feel just a little bit cooler." — Deesha Philyaw "A Sex and the City meets Waiting to Exhale about millennial gay Black men, Boys Come First is full of sharp-edged shade, raunchy sex, boozy good times with ride-or-die friends, hints of love and vulnerability and even a few five-hankie moments toward the end. That it's set in the rapidly gentrifying city of Detroit by someone who knows the city inside-out only adds to the richness. I rarely say this, but once I started it I could not put it down and finished it in two nights. Equal parts sassy and sweet and a completely satisfying, very up-to-the-minute read." — Tim Murphy, Christodora and Correspondents