Review: Anyone But You

Info:
Title: Anyone But You
Author: Kim Askew and Amy Helmes
Series: Twisted Lit #3
Publisher: Merit Press
Publication Date: January 1, 2014
Source: eARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: 
These violent delights have violent ends...

Gigi Caputo is fed up. A vicious act of vandalism has dealt another blow to her family's proud pizza heritage, and the Montes--owners of a rival Italian restaurant--are clearly to blame. The hostility goes far beyond bragging rights for best pizza in Chicago. The Montes have been bent on destroying Cap's for four generations. Even if it means putting herself in harm's way, Gigi's determined to get to the bottom of the feud. Instead, in a secret encounter with Roman Monte, the very boy whose relatives have brought her family such grief, she finds both danger and love at first sight. If the daughter and son of these two warring families fall for each other, can it be anything but a recipe for disaster? Slowly, Gigi and Roman learn that their story is fatefully linked to the summer of 1933, when two twelve-year-olds, Benny and Nick, hop the turnstile at the Chicago World's Fair. The most stunning wonder of the fair is Stella, who innocently causes a lasting rift between the two boyhood. Wending its way through past and present day, this modern take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is bittersweet, funny, and intensely exciting. It's classic romance--a tale of hate and the only force that can ever defeat it: love.

Review:
I'll come right out and say it: Romeo and Juliet is my least favourite Shakespearean work that I've read. But when I got the opportunity to read and review the latest book in the Twisted Lit series, I took it on anyway.

This one is told in alternating past and present chapters. I'm not a huge fan of alternating chapters, but these ones were wildly different between narrators and situations, that at least I wasn't confused. I ended up preferring the past chapters over the present ones.

Our main character is Gigi (short for Julietta) Caputo, who, not surprisingly, falls in love with the enemy, Roman Monte. This was a major case of instalove. Like three days to "I love you". But Romeo and Juliet is kind of the definition of instalove, so I guess it fits right? But I didn't enjoy Gigi and Roman's relationship as much as I would have if it hadn't gone so quickly.

The past story centers on two best friends: Nick Monte and Benny Caputo. Like I said above, I actually preferred Nick and Benny's story over Gigi and Roman's. And it was sad! I actually cried in this one, which I was completely not expecting.

This one took me ages to get into. In fact, the first 70% of the book was kind of meh for me. I didn't connect that well with Gigi and reading about a couple of young boys decades ago didn't connect with me that well either. However, I loved the last 30%. That's when all the excitement happens and I raced through the last few chapters to see exactly how things would end up.

As far as being a retelling, the basics were there, but there was definitely a lot of original content as well. It's been a long time since I read the orginial, but there were some characters I definitely found familiar (a headstrong, fiery Ty anyone?).

Overall, Anyone But You started off slow for me, but I ended up loving the final chapters. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for the next Twist Lit installment.

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Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository

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Website | Kim's Twitter | Amy's Twitter