4 Stars There are some books that are so cute and swoon-worthy that they make it hard not to spend my entire review just gushing, and Finding Gene Kelly by Torie Jean is one of them. I’m a sucker for the pining, “it’s always been you” trope and this book knocked it out of the park. Liam’s love for Evie since they got “married” when they were five years old was just so freakin’ sweet. And being set mostly in Paris? You can’t beat that.

What really sets this book apart is the endometriosis and chronic pain representation. Torie Jean did a wonderful job showing how endo/chronic pain can affect one’s life and their feelings about themself so much. How it impacted Evie’s feelings about intimacy was especially important and accurate (I speak from personal experience).

I absolutely recommend this one and it’s probably one of my favorite books this year!

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read/review this book. As a lifelong sufferer of endo I’m so happy to see if finally highlighted in a book. I can’t wait to see the character development and also the message that you could still find love despite a medical condition. The cover is also gorgeous by the way!

When five-year-old Evie O’Shea married her next-door neighbor in the wedding of the century, she had no idea she was swearing an oath to love the man who would grow into the bane of her existence until the end of time. Or that in ten years time, she’d start a long and winding journey to an eventual endometriosis diagnosis.

Now, aged twenty-six, Evie O’Shea lives in Paris, balancing precariously close to her Charlotte Lucas birthday. A burden to her parents, with no prospects and no money, Evie’s humdrum life needs a shake-up.

Enter Liam Kelly, the man Evie married at the age of five and promptly divorced at seven when he had the audacity to throw a muddy football at her while she was reading Eloise in Paris. Clad in a Henley and equipped with toned forearms and eye crinkles that rival Gene Kelly himself, Evie is determined to keep her ultimate temptation at a distance while she flails wildly navigating life, love, and endometriosis on the banks of the Seine.

But when a family announcement shakes up Evie's world weeks before her brother’s wedding, Evie seeks Liam’s help to get through the wedding with some semblance of sanity intact.

Her request? Fake date.

Making a deal with the Devil always comes with a cost, though, and when Liam’s conditions which include elaborate backstories and practice dates, reignite passions her disease smothered long ago, Evie has to learn to fight for her dreams and break free from her life measured in ibuprofen pills and heating pad settings. Or else risk being alive but never truly living.