Review: Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross and Mark Perini

21900150Halfway Perfect
By: Julie Cross and Mark Perini
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: May 5, 2015
Genre: YA
Rating:
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Eve’s time as a fashion model nearly destroyed her-now she’s determined to build a career behind the camera lens. But landing a coveted photography internship brings her face to face with her dark past-and her ex.

While Eve is snapping pictures, up-and-coming male model Alex is launching his career-which, for him, involves maintaining a fake relationship with his (secretly) underage co-star, Elana.

But Alex is falling for Eve, and Eve won’t let herself get hurt again. If Alex can pull off a fake love with Elana, can he convince Eve to risk a secret affair with him?

 

1thoughtsEve used to be a great model. However, she made headlines when she up and left a huge gig with Gucci, never to be seen or heard from again. The rumors swirled that she went to rehab but what really happened was something much deeper. She was being taken advantage of by her parents and abused by her boyfriend/agent. Now, Eve is trying to live life out of the spotlight. She’s behind the camera instead of in front of it. However, when her job takes her to the one place where it all went downhill, her new life starts clashing with her old life. Pretty soon the cat’s out of the bag and Eve is trying to stay afloat.

This was an interesting story. I wasn’t expecting it to be weighed down by such dark things like abuse and statutory rape. I thought this would just be a fluff piece about young models behind the scenes feeling pressured to lose a few more pounds. I think those darker parts are what really made the story unique. It really brought out the darker side of modeling while still giving you that fluffy romance to balance it out.

Eve and Alex were an interesting couple. They definitely have a slow building romance. They start off as friends and then slowly move to relationship status throughout the course of the book. It doesn’t help that Alex is currently fake “dating” his co-star model, Elaina, who everyone thinks is 18 but is really 14. After-all, you can’t sell a very-much-in-love couple to a high-end campaign if the couple is really a child and an adult. I love that things didn’t get messy there. Elaina and Alex are up front in the fact that it’s all for show. Alex views her as a little sister and does everything he can to protect her from the bad things in the world. The author’s could have made the whole thing messy. Like Eve getting jealous, or Elaina developing feeling for Alex, but they didn’t. They didn’t add crazy drama into the mix. The story already had enough of it.

This was an entertaining story. I wasn’t sure what I was going into when I started reading but it has a good mixture or drama and romance to keep the reader flipping the page. However, I never fully got into the story or cared for the characters. I just felt a little disconnected from it all.

 

1favepart“I feel sick. Really sick. In the dark, I told Eve I wouldn’t think leff of her, but now I’m not so sure. And I think I only said that because it kept me from seeing everything I didn’t want to see. I don’t want to see it now, and I don’t ever want to hear Wes calling her Evie again, like it’s a nickname with a long history. A very personal history.”

kRISTIN

2 Thoughts on “Review: Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross and Mark Perini

  1. Jeeze, yeah, some dark themes. Sounds good.

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