"With or Without You" by Eric Smith is a captivating and heartwarming contemporary romance novel that explores the intricacies of relationships and self-discovery. The story follows Evan and Fiona, a couple at a crossroads in their lives, as they confront their pasts and uncertain futures. Smith's engaging storytelling and genuine characters make for an emotionally charged narrative that resonates with readers on themes of love, sacrifice, and personal growth. This novel is a delightful and thought-provoking read, offering a glimpse into the complexities of human connections and the choices we make to find our true selves.

This was a cutesy YA novel about two waring food trucks and the rival main characters who navigate a “forbidden” relationship. The teenage relationships felt authentic, but the rivalry mixed with reality tv show definitely did not. I liked the message about pursuing what YOU want and not what someone else wants you to do. There were a lot of pop culture references which I don’t love in YA books. All in all? It will appeal to teenage readers and was cute.

I loved every second of this. It's such a sweet YA romance. This was a quick sweet read. Dual perspectives from Jordan and Cindy.
The only thing I have to criticize is the "big final plot twist" isn't as impactful as it could be.. but other than that I loved the story!
Looking forward to reading more from this author!

FLEW through this excellent, incredible book. Tightly written, earnest, laugh-out-loud funny at several parts—one of the best YA books I've read in ages

I love how the families interacted in this story. They were funny and full of life. Jordan and Cindy were supposed to be food truck rivals, but had a secret relationship known only to their families. Next, they are asked to do a pilot for a reality tv show. The stress and continued secrecy of their relationship due to the reality tv show threatens to break them up. I loved it!

a cute and charming romcom that was delightful.

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

A lot of this just wasn’t for me - I have no real interest in food trucks and as is often the case with Eric Smith, he gets into a LOT of detail about things that I don’t need detail on (this is generally my only complaint with his writing!) So I was already bored. And then there’s the whole fake rivalry between food trucks thing, which was also annoying me. It seemed like they were taking it too seriously to the degree that Jordan and Cindy felt like they couldn’t be seen out together, as if the general public cares that much about whether or not these 2 teenagers really hate each other. Naturally this seemed to be getting in the way of their relationship, although I don’t know how great their relationship could have been in the first place because Cindy sucks. She does not seem like a likable person at all. She seemed to prioritize her friends back home and her reality show podcast and dreams of stardom over her real life relationship with Jordan, checking her phone constantly while they were out so that she could see what her friends were saying, and then once she got home and had to stay up late to catch up on the reality show that she and her friends were going to talk about on the podcast, she said how she “did this to herself” as if she shouldn’t have gone out with her boyfriend, that wasn’t an important thing to do? I don’t have a lot of patience for the current popularity and focus on reality shows and fame and gossipy podcasts, okay!! And Cindy did not seem to understand Jordan’s dreams of having his own food truck and basically looked down on his goals like they were nowhere near the importance of her own goals. So like. Why????? I didn’t really get so far as to get into the storyline with their own reality show but I’m sure I would’ve hated that too tbh, nothing about this suited me. I was hopeful for a sweet romantic storyline that would outweigh all of the other details, since I do generally really love Eric Smith, but I wasn’t getting that.

Delicious Food? Yes, please!

Family Rivalries? In abundance!

Reality TV? OMG, yessss!

But what happens when our Romeo and Juilet decide to capture the moment and make it their own? Absolute cheesesteak perfection!

I couldn’t fully get into this book until the second chapter. A romance reader at heart, I felt it took a bit long to see the two mains/love interests interact with each other. Once they did I thought they were adorable and with a conflict already built in, I was excited to keep reading. At first I liked the confessional breaks and thought they added a different feel to the story. However as the story progressed there seemed to be too many distractors from the central romance plot for me. Granted I haven’t been a YA reader for some time, I simply could bring myself to care out the fmc’s friendships or their text chain about the show.
I think this book shines in the romance plot. Unfortunately for me, there wasn’t enough of it.

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU is Philly through and through. From the food truck rivalry, to the way the neighborhoods are described, to the science of cheesesteaks, it is absolutely *chef’s kiss*. I connected to Jordan from the get-go and loved following his dreams, motivation, and love for Cindy.

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU was easy to read, laugh out loud funny, emotional, and a great summer story for those who love reality shows, family secrets, and all things Philly.

With or Without You is a love letter to Philly. Eric Smith writes a really sweet story about two teens from warring cheesesteak trucks and gives it such substance that you forget it's all based in cheese. Bravo.

With or Without You was a decently cute story about two food truck rivals who were in a secret relationship. When their relationship is threatened to be exposed by a reality tv show, the two take matters into their own hands.
I tend to not like high school romances because the characters always end up being immature and can't have real conversations about their feelings. This book proved that statement to be true. Our main male lead, Jordan, was more on the mature side, knowing what he wanted and what it would take to get there. Cindy, on the other hand, was the absolute worst. She is the main reason I'm giving this book such a low rating. Cindy claims to know what she wants but as Jordan plans their gap year food truck adventure, Cindy doesn't speak up once about not wanting to go or that she was even waitlisted for college in another state.
All Jordan wanted was for their relationship to be public and he expresses this in many ways but Cindy refuses. They have to move forward with the reality show “for their families” but you knew it was mostly for her. Then when Cindy starts having feelings for another boy who she claims "see's her" she doesn't talk to Jordan but instead flirts and cheats. This is about the point where I lost all respect for her as a character. She kept saying Jordan didn’t want all the things she did like a pubic relationship and I really wish I could’ve knocked some sense into her. Jordan deserved better and the fact that he just moves past her cheating and lack of communication shows me how much he cares about her instead of his own feelings.
Although it was a quick and easy read, I don’t need to read it again.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and give my honest opinion of this book.

Super cute quick book. However it’s very scripted.
Two families work with food trucks. Supposed to bed really complicated when Jordan and Cindy fall for each other but it’s not. They rather get along. Little do they know that their kids plan on taking a food truck across the country. A little road trip rather.

All in all, it’s cute. Almost like a small town romance in a big competition.

"I feel like… *sighs* I don’t know, maybe in another life we’d be friends, right? We both love food, we both love cooking. Our families have similar stories about why we’re here. We lost our urban farm, his family lost their diner. Why not, you know?"

thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
I feel like this book was made for me. I love food, I love a good secret relationship story, I love reality TV... As a kid, I saw a Travel Channel show about Philadelphia and the fact that this one cheesesteak restaurant they were showcasing made a huge deal out of ordering properly really stuck with me and made me fear that if I didn't order exactly correctly (wiz, witout), I would be banished from the city. I've never even been to Philadelphia.

This book was made for me because it combines all of those things -- Cindy and Jordan are two teenagers that live in Philadelphia and each work in the food trucks their families own. Cindy's family focuses on high quality ingredients and tries to put a healthier spin on their cheesesteaks (inspired by their past owning an urban farm in Boston before they sadly had to give it up for financial reasons before moving to Philadelphia) while Jordan's family makes the classic steak, cheese, and onion sandwiches (very much influenced by the fact that the family used to own a diner in Philadelphia before they had to close down due to rising costs and slowing business).

In true Romeo and Juliet fashion, the two families can't stand each other. Their food trucks are parked nearby each other and Jordan and Cindy will make a scene and really put on a show of their rivalry for the tourists that line up to get their choice of sandwich. But when the two of them aren't calling out the window to each other, they're secretly in love and the rivalry and delicious food attract the attention of a reality TV producer who wants to make a show around their rivalry as each family competes in a Philadelphia-area food truck festival's competition.

This book was so cute and fun to read. It alternated between Jordan and Cindy's POVs and there were occasional confessional interview transcripts from each of them inserted as they talked about what was going on and tried to really play up the rivalry between the two of them. Eric Smith's writing is really engaging and he made reading their story and the reality TV confessional segments so much fun.

I enjoyed the way that the story really showed how difficult being on reality TV can be and how much things can be twisted and pieced together to make people appear differently than they are in real life and how things can be played up and made so dramatic to be interesting on TV. While the reality show was a focus of the book, it was more about the way that being on the show impacted Jordan and Cindy's relationship. I liked that, but I was hoping for more about the show in some way, but I did enjoy the way it was incorporated into the book.

The main thing about the show's involvement that bothered me was the fact that Cindy is introduced as being a huge reality TV fan -- she and her friends even have a rewatch podcast for a Real Housewives-style show -- but she seemed really taken aback by the way that the show works. I feel like in the modern day, most people know how scripted a lot of reality TV is and I feel like someone who is into it to the degree that Cindy is would be less shocked by how sleazy the producer is and how much they were trying to push a narrative.

There were a few little side plots that annoyed me and that I felt like weren't really necessary and just kind of took up space, but I recognize that those parts ((view spoiler)) being annoying to me was a personal preference. I just felt like they didn't really add much to the story and during the scenes that focused on them, I found myself just wanting to get back to Jordan and Cindy and the reality show.

I loved the way everything came together in the end. I felt like the end of the reality TV subplot was slightly rushed and just kind of ended without a lot of closure, but the rest of the story had a really cute ending that tied everything together.

With or Without You was another amazing book by Eric Smith. I loved the original idea of a food truck reality show, I love the new trend of food based books and this one was very different from others that I have read. I always enjoy Eric Smith's writing style and would absolutely recommend this to my teens in the library.

This was a total must-read. it had a lot working for it. I really enjoyed the story and all that it was about. Good story and will read more from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy! This was a heartwarming, cute read. The author clearly loves Philly and so do I so it was nice to see that shine through in the story. I love established relationships so it was also fun to jump right into the drama. The food truck names were cute (so punny) and there was an interesting exploration at what’s real and what’s not on reality tv. Some of the conflict of the secret relationship got murky when Jordan and Cindy also started keeping secrets from each other but I wonder if an actual 18-year-old would relate to that more than I would. The last couple of chapters had the urgency and hopeful tone I’m looking for in an easy read like this, too. Overall a really sweet story.

Cindy and Jordan have been public rivals ever since their parents got cheesesteak food trucks across from each other, but privately? They're in a secret relationship. The rivalry is kept up for the sake of the customer in hopes of helping both businesses.

I thought this book was very cute and had a great idea behind it! All of the side characters were amazing and well written. They each had their own personalities, which isn't always the case in books. However, this did not make up for what the main characters were lacking.

In the beginning of the book I struggled to get through Jordan's chapters. He just seemed so focused on the truck and cheesesteaks in general that it was boring. Cindy's chapters seemed to have more depth to them, at least at first. She talked about more than just the truck business. Yet, by the end of the book my opinion had flipped.

The main characters spent so much time keeping secrets from each other that it made it hard to know what their relationship really was. I struggled to really connect with either and neither was overly likable, especially not Cindy. I believe that this book had a great idea, but it just fell a little flat in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I was looking forward to it once it was announced, Eric Smith is definitely in my top 5 favorite authors.

What happens when an exaggerated food truck feud lands you an opportunity to film a reality TV show? How do you balance love, family, friendships and your dreams all while trying to remain true to yourself? This book had a bit of everything, had some laughs and great pop culture references.
If you love food, movies like Chef or shows like The Bear then I assure you you’ll enjoy this book. It has a lot of heart and will definitely you hungry LOL.

The book is full of witty banter and Eric Smith's love for his city radiates form the page. Overall, it's a fun and heartwarming read that's perfect for anyone looking for a lighthearted romance. Definitely recommend