You Before Anyone Else – Julie Cross and Mark Perini – Sourcebooks Fire – Published 2 August 2016
♥♥♥♥♥
Synopsis
Model Finley needs someone to help her shed her “good girl” persona, so she’ll try Eddie on for size.
New York City model Finley is fed up with hearing the same feedback at castings: she needs to take some serious action to wipe the “good girl” stamp from her resume if she wants to launch to stardom.
Enter Eddie Wells. He’s shallow, predictable…and just as lost as Finley feels. Deep down, Finley is drawn to Eddie’s bravado, his intensity. Except Eddie is hiding something. A big something. And when it surfaces, both loving and leaving Finley will become so much harder.
My thoughts
Consider this a standing ovation. This book was a million times better than I expected. I fell totally in love with the story, with the romance, with all of the characters, but most especially with Eddie and Finley.
Okay, so there is the summary for this book and then there is what I consider to be a whole story underneath that. In the book’s summary, Finley is a model who is trying to break out of her ‘good girl’ shell. And yes, that’s true, but Finley is also the girl who loves and supports her family and who is using modelling to fund her dreams. Eddie is, at the start, portrayed as the ‘bad boy’ with plenty of deep, dark secrets. And yes, Eddie has a shady past and plenty of secrets, but he is one of the most genuine, caring male protagonists I have read. It is hard to say more without giving anything away, and I think it is better to know less about this story, but please don’t take the summary at face value. There is so much more to this story.