Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross & Mark Perini – a Review

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Description:
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?

Review:
Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross & Mark Perini is considered a YA novel. I have read just about everything by Julie Cross, as I enjoy her writing. I wasn’t sure I would like this YA storyline that Julie wrote with Mark Perini, but I am happy to say it was different, but very good. The background of this storyline that more or less is detailed in the above blurb, which revolves around modeling and the fashion industry.

Eve Nowakowski is our heroine, who is a student in an Ivy League school. She lands an internship with a famed photographer, which Eve hopes will land her a scholarship. While Eve is helping with the setup of a photo shoot, she also makes an impression with her own pictures.

But while working, she sees someone from her past that brings back bad memories. It seems that Eve is former teenage super model, Eve Castle, who walked away from a modeling career that would have put her at the top. No one knew why the real Eve Castle disappeared, except the false rumors that followed.

Eve, who is now 18, has no interest in returning to her career, and tries to keep her distance from her former agent & ex, who was a major reason for her running away. Alex is the young model, who is the male lead of the photo shoot. Alex is also 18, and he has to pretend that the 14 year old girl in the shoot is his girlfriend.

What follows, without giving any spoilers, is a story of the dark side of the pressure filled fashion industry, as well as abuse. Eve and Alex become very good friends, both finding themselves attracted to each other. It is Alex who will discover the truth about why Eve Castle walked away. He will have to decide whether he can afford to become romantically involved with Eve, if it will hurt his career. Eve becomes entangled into worrying about the young 14 year old girl, who seems to be walking into her steps from years before.

Eve maybe out of her league, as she has financial troubles, and her association with both Alex, Wes, her former agent and Elana, the young girl, which could create problems that  will put her deeper in debt, and possibly lose her scholarship.  

Halfway Perfect is a very well written story by Julie Cross & Mark Perini. We get a nice peek into the fashion industry, modeling, the pressures, the weight issues and overall stress. There is a romance between Alex and Eve, but not too much. I thought the first 1/3 of the book was a bit slow, especially where Alex goes home to his family. But the groundwork needed to be laid out. The last 2/3 was very good. It is the story told in two Pov’s that makes you want to keep reading to see how it will all turn out.    


Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher