rivalry – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: With or Without You

Author: Eric Smith

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 368

Publication Date: 11/7/23

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Rivalry, Coming of Age

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Inkyard Press for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

New from Eric Smith comes a delightful YA rom-com about two teens caught in the middle of their families’ orchestrated rivalry between their Philly cheesesteak food trucks.

All’s fair in love and (food truck) war.

Everyone knows Jordan Plazas and Cindy Ortiz hate each other.

According to many viral videos of their public shouting matches, the Plazas and Ortiz families have a well-known food truck rivalry. Jordan and Cindy have spent all of high school making cheesesteaks and slinging insults at each other across their shared Philadelphia street.

But the truth? They’re in love, and it’s all just an act for the tourists.

When the fake feud lands them a reality tv show pilot, Jordan and Cindy find themselves having to lie on a much bigger scale. Trapped between pursuing their dreams or their love, can they find a way to have their cheesesteak and eat it too?

Content Warning:

I have a husband who was born and raised in Philly so I love books that are set there because I get to learn more about the city and culture. We get a lot of the culture in this book through Jordan who is a Philly boy and then the other perspective through his girlfriend, Cindy, a transplant from Boston, MA. They both run a food truck and they have a rivalry going on between them when they are outside but in secret they have been together for awhile. When a television company wants to do a show on the rivalry, things start to unravel.

Jordan and Cindy already have an established relationship, so I thought this book did a good job showcasing the different challenges a young relationship could face when both parties are about to start their lives after high school. Jordan has a dream that he and Cindy will do a road trip together and run a food truck. But Cindy has dreams of actually returning to Boston, her hometown, and go to college. With all the secrecy going on, trying to hide their relationship from the public – they realize they were keeping secrets themselves…well actually mostly Cindy. I felt bad that these teens couldn’t be together without lying to the public and on camera. I don’t read a lot of books where the couple is already together so I thought this was different but in a good way. Thing is you don’t get the falling in love feels in this book, but more the -“I love you, let’s fight for our relationship” vibes instead.

I did wish Cindy could have told Jordan right away what she was feeling but it’s not always easy. And I was surprised with Jordan – yes he should have listened to Cindy and realized the food truck business was not her passion, but he was pretty forgiving of her after some things went down. I felt like that showed both of them were pretty mature for their age and were in it for the long haul, which is heartwarming. I like how they made it work in the end.

There are other themes in this book other than Jordan and Cindy’s relationship. The story explores how their families went into debt from their small businesses and how they dealt with that challenge. Some of that burden falls on Jordan and Cindy’s shoulders, but they deal with it in different ways, just like their parents.

Tropes: secret lovers, family rivalry

My Thoughts:

Instead of a falling in love type of romance, we get an established relationship between two teens who hit a few road bumps in their relationship, but they decide to fight to make it work. I loved that the story is set in Philly, and that it’s a story based around one of their favorite foods, cheesesteaks. It definitely made me hungry! All the characters are vibrant and unique and I liked the themes about family, debt and belonging. I like how both Jordan and Cindy are coming of age and really have to make some big decisions about their lives, with or without the other. I enjoyed this one!