With or Without You

By: Eric Smith

Narrated by: Elena Rey, Gary Tiedemann

"Joyful, thoughtful, and real."—Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners

"Rom-com perfection."—Rachael Lippincott, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Five Feet Apart

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?

Also by Eric Smith:

Don’t Read the Comments

You Can Go Your Own Way

©2023 Eric Smith (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Good Concept!

With or Without You was a unique contemporary romance that surprised me, but in a good way. Just from the cover alone, I wouldn’t have guessed this book would be about two teenagers who are sort of “star crossed lovers” in a modern Romeo & Juliet type situation. Well, not quite exactly. But if you read it, you’ll see what I mean.

The competition of the food truck off and the fake fighting and enemies to lovers vibes the two put on for onlookers is quite cute and comical. But when a producer turns it into a reality tv show, the fake fighting reached a new level. And I didn’t like it, but I think that’s the point trying to be made.

It led to real fighting and some of the insults and actions the two pulled on each other were very hurtful in my opinion. I didn’t like all of the manipulation from adults in this book, seeing as these two main characters were newly graduated from high school. That part felt wrong. But I guess, that’s a reality for some people! I think the Cindy and Jared situation was awful, and found it to be quite betraying. I agreed with some of the feelings Cindy had, but she shouldn’t have let it go that far.

I won’t spoil it, but I will say I thought this book had a great turn around and an ending I did not quite expect! The last few chapters I didn’t see coming, and I found that unpredictability and surprise factor to be quite brilliantly tied up at the end.

Overall, I rate this one:

🌟🌟🌟 Stars (3/5)

Fun YA romance story

I don't have too much experience with books in this genre so take my review with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book through and through. Definitely not your typical love story. A good book for anyone who's an admirer of love stories, and lovers of food, and a bit of drama and reality TV for good measure. The performance of the book was great. However, I just wish someone told Elena Rey how to properly pronounced "Reading Terminal" (redding). When she says it as "reading" it cuts deep into this native Philadelphian.