Book Review: Finding Gene Kelly by Torie Jean
[ID: A pink book with an illustration of a woman and a man in front of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by a border of pink and red flowers. The man is wearing a yellow vest and the woman is wearing a black dress. The book is laying on a gray wooden floor covered in a piece of lace and pink carnations. A gold cherry blossom bookmark sticks out of the top.]
Finding Gene Kelly was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 so I’m beyond thrilled that @authortoriejean sent me an early copy. This romcom follows Evie, an American expat in Paris with endometriosis who reconnects with her childhood nemesis to fake date for her brother’s wedding.
I’m always saying we need more romcoms with disability rep and Finding Gene Kelly delivers! I loved walking the streets of Paris alongside Evie. We get an intimate look at her disease (based on the author’s own experience with endometriosis) and it feels incredibly real. At times, Evie made me laugh, cringe, and clutch my heart in agreement. Some of her musings on pain hit so hard I cried.
The romance is also filled with cute moments and genuine understanding between the two. I’m not a huge fan of the childhood enemies situation, but I loved their eventual camaraderie and affection. The classic movie references were enjoyable as well, and who can say no to the unending puns?
My nitpicks are few. I wish that there had been more development spent in the last third of the book. I needed more time with Evie’s character growth (especially her relationship with her parents). I also wish things like her mobility aid had been mentioned earlier.
Overall, this was a delightful read with plenty of heart. The author’s comedic voice was good fun and I can’t wait to see what she writes next!
Trigger/content warnings: TW: endometritis, chronic pain, medical trauma, internalized ableism, ableism, infertility, sexual references, open door sex scenes, vomiting, guilt-tripping parents
Plot summary: 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.