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theavidreaderandbibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross and Mark Perini is a young adult romance story. Eve Knowakowski is eighteen years old and a photography student at Columbia University. She has to write an artist profile paper for Dr. Larson’s class and he has helped her get an interview with Janessa Fields, a well-known photographer. Eve is going on a photo shoot with Janessa. When they arrive at the location, Eve is upset to discover they are at the offices of Seventeen Magazine. Eve is hoping no one will recognize her, but luck is not with Eve. She runs into her former agent, Wes Danes. Eve used to be known as Eve Castle when she was modeling. Eve quit modeling the day before shooting a big Gucci campaign. Wes is the last person Eve wants to see.
Alex Evans is eighteen and a model. Wes Danes is his agent. Alex is on the set and recognizes Eve. Alex does not reveal her identity to anyone else in the room. Alex and Eve start talking and they enjoy each other’s company. They would like to get to know each other better, but there is a small glitch. Alex’s agent has arranged for a fake romance with new model Elana. Elana is a fourteen year old French model, but they tell everyone she is eighteen. Alex and Elana are to be the golden couple to try and get a Calvin Klein campaign. This means Alex and Eve have to be very discreet.
Unfortunately, the paparazzi are everywhere. One day Eve and Alex are seen going into his building. Wes tells Alex to break things off with Eve (Wes has his own motives) and makes the reporters think Eve and Wes are an item. Unfortunately, this causes more harm than good especially for Eve. You will need to read Halfway Perfect to find out what happens with Alex and Eve and why Eve left modeling so abruptly.
I give Halfway Perfect 3 out of 5 stars. It is an interesting story, but it is very predictable. I normally love Julie Cross’ books, but this one was just okay. I love books that make you think, draw you in and keep you engaged, and you keep thinking about it after you have finished the book. Halfway Perfect was not one of those books. It actually left me a little sad when I finished it.
I received a complimentary copy of Halfway Perfect from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are strictly my own.
Alex Evans is eighteen and a model. Wes Danes is his agent. Alex is on the set and recognizes Eve. Alex does not reveal her identity to anyone else in the room. Alex and Eve start talking and they enjoy each other’s company. They would like to get to know each other better, but there is a small glitch. Alex’s agent has arranged for a fake romance with new model Elana. Elana is a fourteen year old French model, but they tell everyone she is eighteen. Alex and Elana are to be the golden couple to try and get a Calvin Klein campaign. This means Alex and Eve have to be very discreet.
Unfortunately, the paparazzi are everywhere. One day Eve and Alex are seen going into his building. Wes tells Alex to break things off with Eve (Wes has his own motives) and makes the reporters think Eve and Wes are an item. Unfortunately, this causes more harm than good especially for Eve. You will need to read Halfway Perfect to find out what happens with Alex and Eve and why Eve left modeling so abruptly.
I give Halfway Perfect 3 out of 5 stars. It is an interesting story, but it is very predictable. I normally love Julie Cross’ books, but this one was just okay. I love books that make you think, draw you in and keep you engaged, and you keep thinking about it after you have finished the book. Halfway Perfect was not one of those books. It actually left me a little sad when I finished it.
I received a complimentary copy of Halfway Perfect from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are strictly my own.
kaylareadsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this. It was filled with intense themes (I dont remember off of the top of my head) but I really did like this one.
trisha_thomas's review against another edition
3.0
I'm sad I read these companion books out of order. I wish I'd found this one first but I loved them both.
This is Alex and Eve's story. Eve is a breakthrough model from years ago. She hit the scene very early and then abruptly left. Alex is new to the world. And he's the current latest and greatest guy wading through modeling's ugly waters.
Eve is brought back to modeling with her love of photography and a teacher in college with connections.
I like that Eve wasn't all good and light and sunshine - she'd made mistakes and was perfectly okay with living with them. I liked that Alex was such a sweet guy and hadn't let his looks go to his head....too much.
I loved that Finley made an appearance in this one (since book 2 is based on her) and I was able to understand the housing and the control of the agencies on the kids. This one was pretty cute with some real life situations and dramas.
This is Alex and Eve's story. Eve is a breakthrough model from years ago. She hit the scene very early and then abruptly left. Alex is new to the world. And he's the current latest and greatest guy wading through modeling's ugly waters.
Eve is brought back to modeling with her love of photography and a teacher in college with connections.
I like that Eve wasn't all good and light and sunshine - she'd made mistakes and was perfectly okay with living with them. I liked that Alex was such a sweet guy and hadn't let his looks go to his head....too much.
I loved that Finley made an appearance in this one (since book 2 is based on her) and I was able to understand the housing and the control of the agencies on the kids. This one was pretty cute with some real life situations and dramas.
canadian_booknerd's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book as an ARC from Goodreads Giveaways. It was a nice, quick, easy read. Really light look at what happens when Eve's life as a photographer takes her back to the world she thought she had left in the past - modelling. The unexpected happens and she meets Alex but the timing could not be worse. He has just started a fake relationship to help his career and his agent is the guy that forced Eve to leave modelling behind.
This was the perfect quick read to start off the summer.
This was the perfect quick read to start off the summer.
cupcakegirly's review against another edition
3.0
A cute, quick read about following your dreams and finding love along the way.
kristy_k's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this. It gives good insight to the world of modeling and the effects/pressures it can have on young teens. It touches on some heavy subjects, but not in a way that makes it too depressing. At the heart though, it is a coming of age, YA romance novel. Overall, a cute story.
alienor's review against another edition
3.0
What Julie Cross and Mark Perini offer us is a gritty and wide-eyes worthy incursion into the modeling world, and for that fact alone, Halfway Perfect is worth reading in my opinion.
Truth be told, I never thought that the modeling world was that great. Guess what? It seems that I was right. A book about what hides behind glitter and glamour written in collaboration with a former model? I'll take that.
The truth is, this book made me rage. I was furious to see how models had to comply with the requirements of ... Of what, exactly, tell me? Of what is considered as hot? Since when a fourteen years-old teenager too skinny and without breast is considered as a sex-symbol? Said WHO? What is wrong with our society? Seriously, what is wrong with us? To me this book brings a good kind of rage. A kind of rage which makes us think about what standards our society runs and above that, about everything we don't want to see because "that's not our problem". ← The favorite sentence of humans, if any.
However, we don't see only the darkest sides of the modeling world, but also the good parts, and it was refreshing because it sounded real.
Frankly, it was difficult to connect with the characters at first, yet I slowly grew attached to them. Take Alex, for example. I'm pretty sure that I followed Eve's evolution in my opinion of him. Indeed there is no-insta-love here but characters who try to know each other's and who don't fall in love quickly. So, as Eve, I changed my mind about Alex. From judgmental toward him to interested to ... Well, the moment when I found him downright adorable and sexy, Eve shared for sure my opinion. Don't get me wrong, he's flawed. Oh, yes, he is, and I couldn't fathom how he could believe this piece of shit of an agent he has and not completely disregard what tabloids say about Eve. But you know what? I'm okay with that, because it's realistic to me : real people don't always believe the truth and need time to gather their thoughts. Real people are frustrating and need time to evolve. So did Alex and Eve.
Moreover, I'm not gonna lie, I was waiting for Eve to fucking realize that her relationship with Wes (her former agent) wasn't healthy at the time and in that particular case I found that Julie Cross did a good job at picturing how we can be blind when it comes to our relationships sometimes. The fact is, Eve was 14-16 at the time and NO, she didn't realize that Wes was taking advantage of her and acting like a huge controlling and violent asshole - and years after, at 18, she still has this false opinion about what was wrong in their relationship. In my opinion it was realistic because unfortunately I do believe that the end of a messed-up relationship doesn't stop the crap right away if nothing is resolved and if nobody talks about it. Don't get me wrong, I was APPALED to see how she still isn't able to figure out how jerk and creepy he is/was, but even if I wanted to shake her, I could understand why she acted and thought that way, because nobody never supported her, nobody never told her that Wes's behavior wasn't acceptable but downright CREEPY and pedophile.
And then, when shit goes down for Eve, IT WAS SO FRUSTRATING. I cried out of RAGE because it was so unfair. I felt the walls closing around her as it was me and felt claustrophobic. Even though I'm not sure if the way everything is resolved in the end is believable, at this point, I don't fucking care, because I'd have taken ANY way to stop Wes and to make him pay for his actions.
Or, more accurately, about how French people are pictured. Yes, sexual majority is settled at 15 in France, that's true. Now, there is a difference between what's legal and what's considered as acceptable. Would Wes have been in trouble for sleeping with Eve when she was 15? Actually, yes, because he had authority over her, being her agent, and in that case the sexual majority is settled at 18. In Elena's case, that's a little different, that's true, but frankly, even if it's legal, I don't know anybody who would think that it's okay for a powerful guy of 27 to date a 15 years-old teenager. We're different from our laws, guys, and I'm sick of hearing people judge French as if reading our laws was enough to know how we think. Same thing about the legal age to drink : I had already a problem with that fact in Anna and the French Kiss actually. In France, it's FORBIDDEN to buy alcohol in a club or a bar (or in a shop, for that matter) under 18, okay? So, yeah, we can drink in family or in a party if somebody else (understand older) buys alcohol, that's true. Of course NOBODY does that in the US, RIGHT? Let's be a little frank one second here. Finally, I don't understand what's the deal with the topless thing. Twice characters said that as Elena was French, she would be okay to pose topless, because "she's probably walked around topless since birth", being French and all.
YOU DON'T SAY?! Yeah, right. Just come to France, guys, we're all wandering around topless waiting for you to stare. Oh, wait - that's wrong. We're not. Come back in your plane. Perhaps you think that I'm overreacting, and maybe you're right. What can I say? I'm sick of reading about French pictured as reckless parents who let their kids walking around almost naked and drinking wine, because 1)that's wrong, and 2)that's fucking hypocrite in my opinion.
To sum up, I ended liking this book despite its flaws, and yes, I recommend it. Just know that it's not free of stereotypes and that the characters can be downright annoying at times.
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hazelstaybookish's review against another edition
4.0
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Excited is an understatement for when I heard that Julie and Mark were co-authoring a book. This was way back when Halfway Perfect was still in the works. Now that it's been out for months and now that I've finally read it, I can say it was well worth the wait and anticipation.
It's no secret that I'm a fan of Julie Cross's YA contemporary books and this one just further proved that I need to read everything she writes, not that I wasn't already dead set on doing that beforehand. It also proved that Mark Perini, Halfway Perfect being his debut as an author, needs to write more books so I can read them. The duo did such a fine job making the model world that their characters were in come to life, not to mention weave such a compelling story with relatable characters.
"Maybe the only way forward is to simply move forward, one half-step at a time."
Knowing that Mark was a model himself, I never doubted that Eve and Alex's experiences would be anything less than believable. What I really liked about Halfway Perfect though is that it wasn't just an insider look into the fashion scene. It made me feel like I was right there along with the characters. Aside from this, I really liked the gritty take on how underage models can be taken advantage by people in the industry.
It was easy to adore Eve, what with our shared passion for photography. I also enjoyed watching her work as an intern for her awesome mentor, Janessa. More than that, it's the fact that she's been through some tough shit and yet determined to move past that (with some understandable struggle of course), not let herself be defined by those awful events and work hard to achieve her dreams, that made me admire her completely.
"There’s so much good in him that I’m desperate to find a way to unzip him and crawl inside and let myself be even closer."
Meanwhile, Alex was a sweetheart. Who cares if he's a hot model? His good guy personality in itself is enough to make you swoon. He was so unexpectedly down-to-earth and seemed especially genuine when it came to his family relationships, specifically with his fun siblings. Great charm + heart of gold- that's Alex for you.
With how fleshed out both protagonists were, it only followed that the romance worked really well since the two also had awesome chemistry. Alex and Eve's relationship really develops throughout the story and the challenges they had to face to achieve their HEA were so realistic.
"Everything else will work itself out. Everything else is unwritten."
Wonderful romance, lovable characters and an enjoyable story- Halfway Perfect is equally touching and entertaining. If you want to read about the modeling industry or are looking for a quick but heartfelt read, this one is for you.
Excited is an understatement for when I heard that Julie and Mark were co-authoring a book. This was way back when Halfway Perfect was still in the works. Now that it's been out for months and now that I've finally read it, I can say it was well worth the wait and anticipation.
It's no secret that I'm a fan of Julie Cross's YA contemporary books and this one just further proved that I need to read everything she writes, not that I wasn't already dead set on doing that beforehand. It also proved that Mark Perini, Halfway Perfect being his debut as an author, needs to write more books so I can read them. The duo did such a fine job making the model world that their characters were in come to life, not to mention weave such a compelling story with relatable characters.
"Maybe the only way forward is to simply move forward, one half-step at a time."
Knowing that Mark was a model himself, I never doubted that Eve and Alex's experiences would be anything less than believable. What I really liked about Halfway Perfect though is that it wasn't just an insider look into the fashion scene. It made me feel like I was right there along with the characters. Aside from this, I really liked the gritty take on how underage models can be taken advantage by people in the industry.
It was easy to adore Eve, what with our shared passion for photography. I also enjoyed watching her work as an intern for her awesome mentor, Janessa. More than that, it's the fact that she's been through some tough shit and yet determined to move past that (with some understandable struggle of course), not let herself be defined by those awful events and work hard to achieve her dreams, that made me admire her completely.
"There’s so much good in him that I’m desperate to find a way to unzip him and crawl inside and let myself be even closer."
Meanwhile, Alex was a sweetheart. Who cares if he's a hot model? His good guy personality in itself is enough to make you swoon. He was so unexpectedly down-to-earth and seemed especially genuine when it came to his family relationships, specifically with his fun siblings. Great charm + heart of gold- that's Alex for you.
With how fleshed out both protagonists were, it only followed that the romance worked really well since the two also had awesome chemistry. Alex and Eve's relationship really develops throughout the story and the challenges they had to face to achieve their HEA were so realistic.
"Everything else will work itself out. Everything else is unwritten."
Wonderful romance, lovable characters and an enjoyable story- Halfway Perfect is equally touching and entertaining. If you want to read about the modeling industry or are looking for a quick but heartfelt read, this one is for you.