With or Without You: 02/23/25

Two food trucks alike in dignity. In all fairness to this romance about the son and daughter of dueling food trucks, With or Without You by Eric Smith (2023), isn't a tragedy. Although the blurb promises a rom-com, it's not really that either.

The story unfolds in alternating chapters from the points of view of Jordan Plazas and Cindy Ortiz. They are the recent high school graduates, new adults, of two cheesesteak food trucks. The Plazas stick with traditional recipes while the Ortizes have some other options on board.

Mixed in between the chapters are transcripts from confessionals taped in relationship to the looming Food Truck Wars. These things are unnecessary filler at best and spoilers at their worst. I know it's how reality TV does things but the novel doesn't need to be set up like a reality TV show even if one is involved, albeit tangentially.

With so much of the time spent on preparing for the competition I found the book dull. A typical chapter will be set mostly in one of the food trucks with the POV character going on a long internal monolog about what should be done for the competition. Sometimes if we're lucky the two are together on a date; those are sweet chapters. But mostly it's the day to day grind of working a food truck while preparing for a competition.

Three stars

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