BOOK REVIEW: You Before Anyone Else by Julie Cross and Mark Perini

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The supportive friend, the reliable daughter, the doting big-sister: Finley is used to being the glue that holds everyone together. But while her sweet demeanor makes her the perfect confidant, her wholesome look isn't landing her the high paying modeling jobs, which are what Finley needs if she is going to reopen her mother's dance studio. Enter Eddie. He's intense and driven, not to mention the life of every party, and he completely charms Finley. The last thing she wants is another commitment to stand in the way of her dreams, but when she's with Eddie, their chemistry takes over and she can let go of her responsibilities and just be. After all, what's so wrong about putting herself first once and a while? Except Eddie is hiding a secret. A big secret. And when it surfaces, he and Finley are going to have to choose between their love for each other and everything else.

It's hard to review this one because I kind of felt blech about it. Is blech even a word? I'm going to say yes. I liked the book at first. Finley and Eddie are both models living in New York City (I'm trying to ignore the fact that modeling jobs seemed to come so easy to these people). They meet at a party and there is instant chemistry. Finley is trying to shed her cute girl image and Eddie is hiding something. I loved their rapport and it was kind of cute that Finley was so determined to not hook up with Eddie again because she is determined to "succeed" at a one night stand. I had no idea what that even meant, but I thought it was amusing. Of course, they see each other at modeling jobs and he moves into her same building, so they run into each other a lot, blah, blah, blah. The more the book went on though, the more I wondered what the heck was wrong with Finley. She was do adamant that she didn't want a relationship with Eddie and I had no clue why. They were both single, there was chemistry, they got along . . . I didn't get it. She kept saying she didn't want anyone she had to rescue, but Eddie seemed pretty self-sufficient to me.

I think I started to lose interest around the 60% mark, which is one Eddie's secret was revealed. I don't want to spoil anything, but the secret was almost too much. At that point, I stopped rooting for Eddie and Finley to be together because I didn't really think Finley needed that kind of drama in her life. I thought the conflict with Eddie was too much and I didn't think there was enough conflict with Finley, if that makes any sense. When it came to the ending for Eddie, it was more realistic than I thought it would be. The ending for Finley was wrapped up a little too neatly, in my opinion. This was an okay book. It just didn't evoke any really strong feelings on my end. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip this one.