As a fan of contemporary books you know I needed to read Anything But Fine when I heard about it. TBR and Beyond Tours actually hosted a tour for this one, but I didn’t have the time then to participate. I did end up listening to the audiobook as well as reading my e-arc. Today I want to tell you about this book and what I thought. Keep on reading to find out more!
All it takes is one missed step for your life to change forever.
Luca Mason knows exactly who he is and what he wants: In six months, he’s going to be accepted into the Australian Ballet School, leave his fancy private high school, and live his life as a star of the stage—at least that’s the plan until he falls down a flight of stairs and breaks his foot in a way he can never recover from.
With his dancing dreams dead on their feet, Luca loses his performing arts scholarship and transfers to the local public school, leaving behind all his ballet friends and his whole future on stage.
The only bright side is that he strikes up unlikely friendships with the nicest (and nerdiest) girl at his new school, Amina, and the gorgeous, popular, and (reportedly) straight school captain, Jordan Tanaka-Jones.
As Luca’s bond with Jordan grows stronger, he starts to wonder: who is he without ballet? And is he setting himself up for another heartbreak?
Review
Our main character Luca is a talented dancer and is getting ready to go to a private high school to dance. Then the unthinkable happens. He falls down some stairs and really injures his foot and his dancing dreams are shattered.
The start of this book really had me drawn in. I can’t think of waking up one day and having everything going for you and then have a fall down the stairs change your life forever. Luca is devastated of course and struggles to know what to do next. Honestly, I thought we would get a lot more of this aspect of the story, but we didn’t. I think that’s why I didn’t end up rating this book higher. As soon as Luca meets Jordan this story changes. It becomes more of a love story only focused on Jordan and everything surrounding him. Which wasn’t always fun. Jordan wanted to keep their relationship hidden and wasn’t out. I’m never a fan of the whole having to hide relationships and forcing someone to be out. And after reading the synopsis, I don’t think this really fit.
That being said I did enjoy Anything But Fine. There were a lot of interesting and emotional moments and this book even made me laugh now and again. Also, I love that Luca was flawed. He wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and paid the consequences. There was lot of character development in this story and I really appreciated it. I also enjoyed a few of the side characters. Amina was really sweet and I loved how welcoming she was to Luca. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing a book about her.
All in all, I did enjoy Anything But Fine. I’ll definitely be looking out for new books released by Tobias Madden.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to have an injury take away your dream and I hope to never have to experience anything like that. I did really enjoy reading a book that was partially about dancing! Do you have any favorites? Let me know in the comments!
