Anyone But Him
Cassie Graham
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: November 25, 2014
Whitley Hayes is an ordinary girl with a gypsy heart. College is the only constant in her life. She’s made a lot of mistakes and she intends on keeping them in the past.
Move on and forget.
That’s her motto.
Jennings Cohen is no ordinary man—not at all. He would have never imagined his life would turn into such a spectacle. The tabloids exploit him, fans stalk him and the paparazzi are relentless. It’s not always fun being Jennings.
It doesn’t help that he has a secret. One that comes at a price he’s not sure he can pay.
Relationships get complicated and hearts shatter.
It’s not easy living a lie, but it’s easier than telling the truth.
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Anyone But Him is a fun new adult novel, filled with romance, secrets, and at the end a whole lot of drama and action. This book hooked my from the cover. I mean, did you see it? It is gorgeous. The old cliche “Never judge a book by it’s cover” is a valid cliche but sometimes you are just drawn to something stunning, like I was to this one. When I began reading, it was a bit hard to find my grove at the beginning. This story is written in dual POVS, both Whitley and Jennings. There is a large amount of introspection and snark, at sometimes a bit much, but once I familiarized myself with Cassie’s writing, I was golden. This story is about a boy and a girl who fall in love. But life is never that simple. Both Jennings and Whitley have secrets. Whitley is living in the shadow of a spotlight trained specifically on her best friend. She enjoys her anonymity and lives her quiet life, looking forward to graduation. Jennings is looking for something more. He is an A list actor, living the American dream, but his life is all about the big screen and it is lonely. There is little true deep connection in his life outside of a couple of friends. When they meet by chance, it is all very kismet and cliche yet perfect. Whitley is heading home in a cab and someone flings themselves into the same cab when it is paused for traffic, demanding to get out of the area ASAP. Lo and behold it is Jennings Cohen, cue story here. There is an instant connection. From that moment things progress at a steady pace. It is a story of two people who connect and learn that there could be more to life. They both have been through a lot and deserve to have a happily ever after. Yet lies and ever after endings rarely coincide. These two are keeping major secrets about themselves. As the story continues, you see Jennings deception and secret immediately. It is a major focal point of the story. Whitley’s secret is one you don’t truly understand until much later in the book. She has been through tragedy, that much is certain, but her secrets are well hidden. As if those factors aren’t enough, Jennings public life and fans bring chaos and fear into their love affair.
Whitley is an interesting character. At first, she seemed both deep and shallow. You know absolutely nothing about her past, so all you see if the woman who is determined to graduate, dating a younger guy for his connections to the party scene and some monkey business in bed. She wants to break up but will not dump him. Things like that always annoy me and I was worried that I would not be a Whitley fan. Yet as the story continues, she grew on me. She is slammed with the news of doom for her impending graduation and her life shifts into a new focus. That is when I really started to like her character. She exuded a “take no prisoners” attitude after her emotional break down and decides that she will enjoy her last few months of freedom from adulthood and do what needs to be done. You see a strong woman with a streak of vulnerability, the perfect combination that leaps from the page.
Jennings comes back into her life and things get complicated. There is a definite connection there and I appreciate that there was not an insta-love. Jennings is the perfect dream boat of a man, yet he has a secret and it is big enough to destroy their growing friendship and relationship. He is sexy, a smooth talker, and like an open flame drawing Whitley in. At times I wanted to shake the crap out of him and yell at him to stop his path of destruction and share his secrets. Then he is in so deep that you are not sure if the truth will bring hope and reconciliation or the end.
This story begins as a story of two people falling in love. The sweet moments are adorable. I loved the theme of the stars in this story! It was romantic and perfect! Then there is an element of second chances for Whitley as she deals with her secrets and past head on, finally able to begin to live her life free from fear and self loathing. When the surprise plot twist appears, I was shocked at what happened. BAM! It set the last quarter of the book on fast forward and it was intense, suspenseful, and I loved it! I loved watch two strong characters fall in love, learning through trial and error, that they are worthy of this once in a lifetime love. They connect and that connection has the power to be something beautiful and lasting or break them into a million pieces. Anyone But Him is a story that will draw you in slowly. It will be sweet and mysterious, taking you on an adventure you did not know you signed up for!
I journey past the carved-by-hand eight-person table, and walk to the master bedroom. The white, canopy bed sits in the middle of the room. The barely see-through sheets that hang on the sides move and dance in the breeze. Whit walks quietly behind me, and I turn to look at her. Eyes wide, she takes in everything the house has to offer. Setting her soda down, she walks to the queen size bed and plops down.
“Would it be completely inappropriate if I jumped on the bed?” she prompts, looking reluctant.
I give a good belly laugh, and spread out my hands. “I’d be offended if you didn’t.”
She shoots up, takes her sandals off and, in one swift hop, she lands on the bed. Bending at the knees she bounces. I sit down in a white armchair across the room and watch her as she lets loose. This is another one of those moments that is so rare, that I feel the intense want to capture this moment forever. She jumps with glee, squeaking with happiness with each bounce. Every time her feet come off of the bed, her arms go into the air. Her long blonde hair bobs with each movement, and she pushes it out of her face, just like the way she did it that day I ran into her at the beach.
“Jump with me, Jennings.”
Any macho doucheface would tell her to keep jumping and have fun. That he would sit in the chair and watch. But, I want to keep her smile fully intact for as long as possible. So, I take off my slip-on, stitched loafers and approach the bed.
– If you notice the cover, it has a lot of clues to what you’ll find in the story. Not only are there stars and rain, which are HUGE key points, but also if you look closely, you’ll see a person behind the couple taking a picture. A paparazzi.
– The idea for Anyone But Him came to me in the shower as I was listening to one of my favorite bands, MKTO. The main singer is an actor and a singer and the idea just sort of blew up from there.
– Jennings was originally named Bradley, but I saw one of my ‘likers’ last name was Jennings and had to have it. Bradley is still in the book as Jennings’ best friend.
– Holli is loosely based off of a friend I have. She’s a spunky girl from Texas with a cute twang that I love. Holli helped me a lot when writing my first book and I promised her I’d write a character into my story using her name.
– My husband and I have always had a fascination with stargazing, so I felt it was appropriate to incorporate it into the book.
– When my husband was away with the Military, we would have moon dates. He would promise me he’d go outside and look at the moon and tell me he loved me. I promised to do the same. We moon dated for six months before he came home.
– The ending was partly planned and partly unexpected. While I always promise a happily ever after, I’ve left it open ended so I can give you more of a story.
– Chapter Ten was made specifically for one of my beta readers, Ashlei. We talked and joked about Whitley and Jennings date and I decided to give it life.
Cassie Graham is the author of Unable to Resist. She also hates talking about herself. It makes her nervous and somewhat sweaty. So, she’s going to make this short.
While writing is her true passion, her family is even more important. Her ultimate happy place is sitting in her house with her husband and daughter while writing stories about lovers who are meant to be together. She’d live in that world forever if she could.
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