4-Star Archives - Page 5 of 8

Book Review:: What Happens in Amsterdam | Rachel Lynn Solomon

Sometimes you have to go to the other side of the world to figure yourself out.

What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon Book Cover

Dani’s life is in a bit of a shambles – she’s left with no boyfriend and no job and decides to apply to something exciting across the world in Amsterdam, a place she’s dreamed of ever since her family hosted an exchange student from there when she was in high school. She gets it, and she stumbles into him almost immediately after arriving. Did I mention they were more than friends back in the day? And that he broke her heart? This is the story of their second chance.

This book is awesome. From the cover to the characters to the interesting steamy scenes the type of which I’ve never encountered…I won’t be forgetting this one anytime soon.

Turns out running away from your problems doesn’t actually solve anything, and her first few weeks in Amsterdam are not as idyllic as she’d hoped. She needs a new place to live and a new job if she wants to stay, and lucky for her, Wouter has a whole building he’s caring for and helps her out with the first of those things.

If you don’t love Amsterdam already before reading this book, you’ll probably fall in love with it just as much as the characters. Dani’s journey navigating her new life full of new friends and experiences is the kind of escapism we need in this timeline!

I bought in full stop with the connection between Wouter and Dani. There is big chemistry there, and though their past leads to some uncomfortable awkwardness at the start, when they loosen up, there is a great basis for friendship there that develops right alongside everything else.

This book got really close to five stars for me, but I couldn’t go all the way there. In this case it feels like mentioning some of the tropes is introducing spoilers, so I will just say that there’s one here that is usually really hard to pull off, but in this book, it mostly works. For me there is some level of cheesy about it though that is just never gonna wash off. The only other thing that sticks out as a strike is Wouter’s reasoning for breaking things off the way he did when they were younger. It didn’t cut it for me, but he’s an honest guy, so it doesn’t feel like he’s lying either…it just felt like a weak point in the backstory.

Would I recommend this book to other romance aficionados? Absolutely. This is one of the 2025 spring/summer romance releases I think you won’t want to miss!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: What Happens in Amsterdam
Author:: Rachel Lynn Solomon
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Berkley
Length:: 384 pages
Audio Length:: 11h
Audiobook Narrator:: TBA
Published:: May 6th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4.5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

This Summer Will Be Different | Carley Fortune
The Paradise Problem | Christina Lauren
The Tourist Attraction | Sarah Morgenthaler
The Slowest Burn | Sarah Chamberlain

Book Review:: Colton Gentry’s Third Act | Jeff Zentner

I haven’t read many (or any?) romance novels based on the male’s point-of-view. Colton Gentry may be the first! For awhile it seemed like everywhere I turned there was another glowing review of this book until finally I was too curious to resist.

Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zentner Book Cover

Colton Gentry shot down his own country music career with a gun control speech after his best friend was killed in a music festival shooting. His audience doesn’t care (apparently). His label doesn’t care. His wife doesn’t even care. Or, maybe she did, but she was already sleeping with someone else, so if she did care, it was about the wrong things. Now Colton is alone. Broke. Grieving. And trying not to soothe the immense discomfort at the bottom of a bottle.

There’s nowhere he can go but home.

After high school Colt left Kentucky in pursuit of his musical dreams. His high school sweetheart left to pursue hers in architecture. But fate has landed them both back home. Though he broke her heart once upon a time, Luann extends a much-needed sympathetic hand to help him get back on his feet.

This book is chock full of great themes. Friendship, forgiveness, redemption, resilience, courage, sobriety, second chances, and holding firm when you know something’s right or wrong. Colton’s journey isn’t an easy one, but if you’re looking for a book that is ultimately uplifting, you’ve found it here.

Zentner is clearly a talented writer. I was quite impressed several times as I read. However, I was missing a little x-factor spark that would have pushed this book into five star territory. With a goodreads rating of over 4 stars, clearly I’m in the minority there.

Details

Title:: Colton Gentry’s Third Act
Author:: Jeff Zentner
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Grand Central Publishing
Length:: 400 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 1m
Audiobook Narrator:: Charlie Thurston
Audiobook Publisher:: Grand Central Publishing
Published:: April 30th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Summertime Punchline | Betty Corrello
Wild Love | Elsie Silver
Funny Story | Emily Henry

Book Review:: Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice | Elle Cosimano

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice is the fourth book in a contemporary mystery series starring a romantic suspense writer (and young mother) who has gotten herself into quite a real-life kerfuffle involving crimes she never imagined being wrapped up in. It is a consecutive series, so please click over to my review of book one of the series, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, to avoid any spoilers.
(Links to the other books in this series can be found at the bottom of this post)

So, let’s talk about book four…

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano Book Cover

After seeing Javier abducted by some goons at the garage, Finlay and Vero are off to solve Vero’s financial problems once and for all. The only thing is, they’ve brought the whole kit & caboodle with them. Fin’s mom, her ex-husband Steven, and the kids are all tagging along for the holiday in Atlantic City. Now they just have to find Javier, get Vero’s debtors off her back, and deal with the two dead bodies they stumbled into on their quest. That’s not all – wunderkind-hacker Cam calls for help when he gets himself in way too deep with Feliks, and to top it all off, the usual entourage of police characters show up unexpectedly soon after their arrival. Should be no problem pulling this off without anyone getting suspicious, riiight?

There’s a lot going on in this installment of the Finlay Donovan series! Maybe the most so far in one novel? Though it always seems that way, doesn’t it? There is a lot of overheard intel and one near miss after another as Fin and Vero struggle to solve their problems without being discovered themselves.

I am so impressed with Cosimano’s ability to constantly raise stakes for these characters while keeping everything relevant to so many aspects of what is going on, and still making it somehow plausible that everyone we care about stays out of trouble. It keeps you so far on the edge of your seat thinking again and again – it can’t keep on this way forever, can it!? But somehow it does, and it’s so yummy to read.

In the last book we got some clues into Vero’s relationship with Javier going far deeper than we might have previously expected, and it raises the stakes immediately in this book when he’s in danger and Vero is the one responsible. I’m hoping the best for a happy future between those two.

Finlay and Nick on the other hand…I fear they may be destined to keep a certain distance between them considering the obstacles standing between them. At the beginning of this book he was a superhero – assuring Finlay that she deserves a man who can handle all her imperfects and standing strong there with her to be that man. But Nick has been burned…repeatedly…in this series…and is all the more protective over his heart. I don’t know how the author could pull this off, but I’m hoping somehow Finlay is able to come clean to him before the series is over and he doesn’t have to choose between her and his career.

I’m dying to read the next book in the series, and lucky for me, I got my hands on an arc copy! The review is coming for book 5, Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave, next week!

Details

Title:: Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Finlay Donovan #4)
Author:: Elle Cosimano
Genre:: Contemporary Mystery
Publisher:: Minotaur Books
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 9h 5m
Audiobook Narrator:: Angela Dawe
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: March 5th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars
Spice Rating:: 3

Linky Links!!

Goodreads
Author Website
Amazon Affiliate Links
[Hardcover] [Paperback] [eBook] [Audible]

If you liked this book, check out…

Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Five

How to Solve Your Own Murder | Kristen Perrin
I Did Something Bad | Pyae Moe Thet War

Book Review:: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun | Elle Cosimano

What have Finlay and Vero gotten themselves into next? Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is the third book in a sometimes-hilarious contemporary mystery series led by a novelist mother of young kids who gets caught up in schemes way over her head.

The series needs to be read in order, so to avoid spoilers for you, please click to my review of the first book, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, if you haven’t read the first two books yet!

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano Book Cover
Finlay is peeking around a corner, chewing on her nails.

So here we start: the site is down, Steven is safe, but Finlay is on the hook now for discovering the identity of EasyClean, and Feliks is not the most patient of men. Behind bars or not, Feliks’ people are everywhere and she can’t afford to get this wrong, or waste time. Cam says the suspect is a dirty cop and Nick, with his injuries from the finale of the last book, is on desk duty and volunteered to teach at a week-long citizen’s police academy. His squad invites Finlay along so she can do ‘book research’, and Vero won’t let her say no. Ah, what the hell, Steven has the kids for the week anyway.

The usual shenanigans ensue immediately, and don’t let up.

The first time I read this third book it was my least favorite of the series, but reading through it a second time, I think it was an issue with my own comprehension. There is so much going on, and so much to mentally juggle, I think I just didn’t absorb everything going on the first time. My advice is not to rush through it, as tempting as that may be. I think maybe the greatest flaw of this series is that it’s too easily bingeable. At this point in the larger story there are so many lines of complexity running through it’s more difficult to keep everything straight.

Let’s talk about Nick! I’m a great fan of this clever hot cop. The entire premise of whatever relationship he and Finlay may or may not have is so tension-laden. He’s the cop on Feliks’ case, and there’s no way she can ever reveal to him everything that’s happened to her without severe consequences for one or both of them. I was so tickled that he and Finlay got to spend a lot of quality time together in this book in this sleep-away camp situation 🙂 I also live for the fact Finlay has never outright lied to him. Oh my tender little heart…I fear it is destined to be broken by this…situationship?…sooner or later!

Now Vero: Finlay’s Latina partner in crime who plays waaay too fast and loose for my comfort. I love that she and Finlay can rely on one another – their trust is really the glue sticking everything together in this series. As soon as that starts to fall apart, they’re F*%#ED! I really enjoyed getting to peek behind the crack of her hard-enameled shell to see a little bit of possible-vulnerability in the person of Javier. The two clearly have a history, and that guy seriously caught no breaks in this book.

Though this book is complex as all-heck, it really holds its own in the series overall. I mentioned that it used to be my least favorite in the series the first time through, but this time it changed my mind. So far, I don’t have a least favorite. If one thing is true, it’s that this series is deliciously bingeable.

Details

Title:: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan #3)
Author:: Elle Cosimano
Genre:: Contemporary Mystery
Publisher:: Minotaur Books
Length:: 304 pages
Audio Length:: 8h 47m
Audiobook Narrator:: Angela Dawe
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: January 31st, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Book One)
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead (Book Two)
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Book Four)
Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Book Five)

How to Solve Your Own Murder | Kirsten Perrin
I Did Something Bad | Pyae Moe Thet War

Book Review:: Yin Yang Love Song | Lauren Kung Jessen

Love. Why is it so many are in pursuit of a thing that can cause so much pain? Heartache is a real thing, with real, physical, symptoms. Is it ever worth it?

Yin Yang Love Song by Lauren Kung Jessen Book Cover

Chryssy has dedicated her life to healing with an eastern, Chinese medicine, approach. She and her auntie’s run a retreat center to help the lovesick heal their broken hearts. She has plenty of experience with them. Her whole family does, in fact, because the women of her family are cursed. Not a one of them has had a successful long-term relationship because one of their ancestors cursed them. She’s come to accept it. So when a celebrity cellist comes along asking to strike up a deal for a publicity-relationship, she doesn’t see any reason not to. When she starts catching feelings though…she’s convinced they’re doomed for heartache all over again.

This book has a lot of really cozy elements. Chryssy essentially makes people cups of custom tea for a living, after all. She listens well to people, hears between the lines what they may need, and prepares for them something to help. Reading about that process was very calming.

The structure was quite good as well: having Vin’s brother be in need of Chryssy’s family’s services was an organic in for the fake dating element. For me, that trope is over-tired, but for this book it didn’t make me roll my eyes, at least. There was enough meat in the plot to keep things interesting.

That being said, I was hoping for a little more steam in the romance. I liked both Vin and Chryssy, and while there were some sweet moments, I was left wanting a little bit more. I was missing the fireworks. The pop and sizzle of real, deep chemistry.

Luckily there was more to this book than just the romance. I really enjoyed learning about Chryssy’s business and her knowledge of Chinese medicine. Her auntie’s added some layered interest to the story. The B-Plot of the family curse didn’t do a lot for me outside of it being the vehicle for Chryssy to do some soul-searching and self-examination of her own beliefs brought on by the curse-myth upheld by her family. I found this novel to be just as much about personal growth as it was about finding love.

I was granted an early listening copy of the title from netgalley and the publisher, and I really enjoyed the audio narration. I recommend it if you’re able to get your hands on it.

Details

Title:: Yin Yang Love Song
Author:: Lauren Kung Jessen
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Forever
Length:: 352 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 3m
Audiobook Narrator:: Eunice Wong & Eric Yang
Audiobook Publisher:: Forever
Published:: January 28th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

DNA Duology | Christina Lauren
Sunshine & Spice | Aurora Palit
Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour | Nora Nguyen

Book Review:: The House in the Pines | Ana Reyes

One summer can alter the course of everything. One new friend. One lost story. One betrayal. One house in the pines.

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes Book Cover

Maya is convinced the strange boy keeping her company over her last summer before college killed her best friend Aubrey during a disagreement. The only problem is, he never touched her. Maya knows this because she watched it happen. He and Aubrey were talking, then she fell over. Dead.

Seven years later, she sees a viral video online of the same boy in the very same scenario. Another girl, dead. Not a finger laid upon her.

It can’t be a coincidence.

But ever since that summer, with her insistent conviction of his guilt, she’s been repeatedly told she is mentally ill. Delusional. Crazy. She’s even been medicated. And now, having quit her medication cold turkey, she travels back to find out the truth and get justice for Aubrey and all the other women he might have hurt.

I was surprised to see the Goodreads rating so low on this book. At the time, it was 3.10, which is one of the lowest I’ve seen on a book I’ve actually read. There were no major dealbreaker type flaws in my view. In fact, I was quite captivated.

This checked all the boxes of a psychological thriller. The possibly untrustworthy narrator, a strange and compelling mystery to solve, a setting that toes the incredibly thin line of being either idyllic or incredibly creepy, a suspect that could as easily be a murderer or completely innocent and misunderstood…

The narrative is sprinkled with flashbacks from that pivotal past summer where everything ended up so wrong. I thought the flashbacks were handled very well and felt as compelling as the current events. It is in the past that we get to know our suspect, after all.

It all just felt very well crafted to me. The details kept me doubting my own theories, and while there were plenty of clues to the truth that was ultimately revealed, I was never sure until quite late into the story.

I wasn’t as interested in the part of the story that didn’t have to do with the mystery – her current boyfriend and the conflict she felt with spending time with his parents – but it didn’t take up much time and ultimately didn’t bother me.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. If you’re looking for a compelling psychological thriller to add an extra chill to your dark winter evenings, consider this one!

Details

Title:: The House in the Pines
Author:: Ana Reyes
Genre:: Mystery/Thriller
Publisher:: Dutton
Length:: 321 pages
Audio Length:: 8h 34m
Audiobook Narrator:: Marisol Ramirez
Audiobook Publisher:: Penguin Audio
Published:: January 3rd, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Reappearance of Rachel Price | Holly Jackson
The Truth About the Devlins | Lisa Scottoline
The Haunting of Maddy Clare | Simone St. James

Book Review:: Only in Your Dreams | Ellie K. Wilde

As you may know, timing is everything from love to war, and Melody and Zac never had theirs right.

Only in Your Dreams by Ellie K. Wilde Book Cover

They met in high school, growing close as Zac and Melody’s twin brother Parker were on the same football team. They both held secret crushes on one another, but in one night all hope of potential between the two of them was dashed. Now years later Melody is back in town after a breakup she’s only now realizing was a terrible and manipulative relationship in the first place, and she and Zac face each other for the first time since that night.

He never forgot about her.

This book is what I like to call candy. It’s not hyper realistic, but it is full bodied and compelling. There’s just this layer of escapism required to really sink into. It’s like some kind of bubble gum alter reality that encapsulates the story. That’s not to say there is lots of drama, just that it’s hallmark drama. If there’s an issue, it’s a big ass issue, and he’s not just longing for her, he’s framed his whole life around her. Everything is bigger, so you can’t mistake the message.

Poor Melody was in a relationship with a real douchbag. He slowly but surely tricked her into getting the ‘right’ kind of job and having only the ‘right’ type of friends, dressing in the ‘right’ kind of clothes and eating the ‘right’ kind of foods. And then he dropped her like a hot potato when he wanted to sleep with other ladies on a boys trip.

This is what lands her back in her hometown. Her brother thinks it’s a good idea to throw her directly to the wolves when he sends her on a camping trip with a handful of friends, one of them being Zac, who she hasn’t spoken to since his broken promise all those years ago.

She’s struggling to figure out what she wants to do with her life, and Zac has been pushed into a job he wasn’t ready for as a head coach for a flailing football team. She was always his good luck charm in high school, and now she’s back.

What she finds in Oakwood is a support network surrounding her, helping her to heal from the shitty things she put up with for too long from the ex-boyfriend Cooper. Only then is she able to picture her future.

I really enjoyed this book. It pulls on the romance heartstrings we love. The boys are really protective, the feelings stretch back for years, and the reconnection is fire. It wasn’t perfect for me though. The camping trip rubbed me a bit of the wrong way and it turns out it was the basis for most of the plot in the first half of the book. I couldn’t quite give it five stars for that.

Also, this book is very spicy. Not erotica territory, but I thought I’d mention it. If you’re sensitive to spice, I’d pass on this one.

Note: I received an audiobook copy of this book from the publisher though netgalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

Details

Title:: Only in Your Dreams (Oakwood Bay #1)
Author:: Ellie K. Wilde
Genre:: Romance
Publisher:: Atria Books
Length:: 432 pages
Audio Length:: 14h
Audiobook Narrator:: Teddy Hamilton & Carly Robins
Audiobook Publisher:: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published:: January 21st, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars
Spice Rating:: 4.5

If you liked this book, check out…

The Graham Effect | Elle Kennedy
Play Along | Liz Tomforde
Business Casual | BK Borison

Book Review:: Where the Black Line Ends | Meagan Williamson

Where do I start with this one? I went through most of this book expecting it to fall firmly into three-star territory. But then I finished it. The last 15% had me debating five. So let’s begin with basics: is this an indie romance worth your time? Absolutely.

Where the Black Line Ends by Meagan Williamson Book Cover

Reed and Hailey are two people with complicated relationships with their parents. They meet on a plane and don’t realize they’re both going to the same place – literally. They’re both starting new jobs on the Iron Summit Fire crew, Reed as a fireman, Hailey as an EMT. It’s where her father works, and by a strange twist of fate, he’s a man Reed knows from a formative childhood camping trip. Some might say fate has brought them together 🙂

The strength of this book is in the complex character relationships. First, great characters: Reed is a golden retriever puppy, the kind who is always looking for the next exciting thing and shies away from getting scolded. He always means well, but he’s gotten very good at running away when things get hard. Hailey’s past is full of grief and rejection. She’s coming back home as a last-ditch effort to connect to the father who never knew how when she was a kid after her mother died when she was born. It’s a big web of intersecting lives weaving in and amongst one another in a very organic and skillful way. Everyone, by the end, is meaningfully connected on par with one of my favorite romances of all time, The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker. The emotional impact is undeniable.

The biggest issue for me in this book was the pacing. The beginning felt like it was stretched out far too long and further in the book there are weeks upon weeks that are glossed over. I wanted to sit in more of the conflict, I wanted longer intimate (not spicy, but intimate) scenes between characters. Without giving spoilers, I wanted to see the most emotional scenes, not just the aftermath of them. I wanted to see all the down and dirty details so I could feel it the same way as the characters. I wanted the hurts to hurt more at the time, not sinking in slowly afterwards. Skipping around like that can take a reader out of the story as they try to piece together what they missed, and that was the case for me multiple times with this book. I literally flipped back a few times to see if I missed a chapter.

Despite those flaws, it still made me cry. There were two moments that really got me, and one of them had real tears streaming down my face. The resolution really felt well executed (apart from the time jumping). The characters got the well-justified resolutions they deserved, so much so that in my heart I feel like it should be a five-star book. I just can’t go all the way there with the pacing being such a flaw for me.

Note…

Reading this book in the midst of the L.A. fires (2025) gave the story extra weight. I live in a state that struggles with wildfires anyway, but literally seeing the flames in the news every day as I read enhanced the impact of those scenes in the book. These firefighters are superheroes, and that’s not an exaggeration. They are doing God’s work.

Thank you to all who put their lives on the line every time they go out there to fight such a dangerous element so others of us can stay safe. You are loved and appreciated. Thank you, thank you.

Details

Title:: Where the Black Line Ends (Remember Me)
Author:: Meagan Williamson
Genre:: Romance
Publisher:: Indie
Length:: 332 pages
Published:: October 29th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars
Spice Rating:: 2

If you liked this book, check out…

The Simple Wild | K.A. Tucker (Review Forthcoming)
Before We Were Us | Denise Hunter
Haunted Ever After | Jen DeLuca

Book Review:: After Life | Gayle Forman

There are a lot of lessons we learn the hard way in our youth. but what if we got a second chance to change things?

Seventeen-year-old Amber rides home on her bicycle one day, but when her family sees her, they’re terrified. Amber was killed in a hit and run seven years before. But somehow, she’s there. Alive?

Between the mystery of her spontaneous reappearance is a story about losing faith, finding faith, forgiveness, family, and priorities. It’s about enduring love. It’s about making mistakes and learning from them.

Death has a way of instantly reprioritizing your life – especially, as it happens in this book, when it is your own. Families break apart. Other relationships strengthen. Our lives are constantly evolving, and it isn’t always until we’re not part of something anymore that we realize how much.

I really enjoyed this poignant young adult story that demonstrates that mistakes don’t make or break our lives. It’s a good message.

I was lucky to receive a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from netgalley and the publisher. All thoughts are mine.

Details

Title:: After Life
Author:: Gayle Forman
Genre:: YA Contemporary
Publisher:: Quill Tree Books
Length:: 272 pages
Audio Length:: 6h 36m
Audiobook Narrator:: Gail Shalan, Jade Wheeler, & Andrew J. Andersen
Audiobook Publisher:: Harper Audio
Published:: January 7th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Last Love Note | Emma Grey
Ghosted | Sarah Ready

Book Review:: Yours Truly | Abby Jimenez

Do you believe in life after love? Specifically, once your (ex)husband of more than a decade turns out to be sleeping with someone who pretended to be your friend…the whole time? Or maybe after the woman you’ve been seeing more than two years dumps you after your first couple’s counseling session and starts dating your brother three months later? Meet the two heroes of Yours Truly, the second installment of the Part of Your World series by Abby Jimenez.

Jacob is starting a new job at the hospital as an ER doctor where Briana Ortiz is the frontrunner for the director position. He has high anxiety, especially social anxiety, and he’s not the best with making friends. No one at the new hospital likes him. He’s the odd man out, and Briana is convinced that he’s come for the job she wants. When he stumbles into the supply closet where Briana is sobbing after another ER visit from her brother (who has failing kidneys), something changes between them. In order to apologize for the incident that got them off on the wrong foot, Jacob decides to write her a letter, knowing it will be much easier to communicate clearly that way for him. A new friendship is born. Letters turn into texting which turn into phone calls which turn into a friendship which quickly morphs into a fake dating situation Jacob accidentally created trying to reassure his family he’s fine about his ex and his brother now announcing their engagement!

I have to say, Abby Jimenez is great at crafting characters that fundamentally fit together. It’s no question that Briana and Jacob belong together and will be very happy together forevermore. In this case, Jacob’s family has direct experience not only with medical issues like her brother’s, but specifically a kidney transplant, so he knows intimately how she must be feeling at this difficult time of her life. And her brother grew up with a lot of anxiety, so she knows how much of an effect it has on Jacob’s every.single.day life. He is quiet, but his family is loud and extroverted, like Briana. Vice versa, Briana is extroverted and overtly friendly (if not vengeful), and her brother is more reserved. They’re both doctors. They’re both pet owners and outdoorsy. It doesn’t get more synchronous than that!

Their love story is sweet and convincing and swoon-worthy.

However…

I didn’t like that Jacob was involved with Briana’s brother’s kidney donation. It really gave me the ick early because it felt like this was something that was going to taint whatever chance at a genuine relationship they might develop. There’s no way around how much complication that adds to the situation. It really caused me a lot of stress as I read, thinking it would ruin the book for me if it was used as a point of drama later in the book.
(SPOILER:: All said and done, it ended up fine, mostly because she found out immediately what was happening.)

I also started to feel by the end of this book that the author was telling us far too much about how the characters were feeling. She does a great job already of crafting situations that exhibit and justify the complexity and depth of their feelings, so I felt like the constant “I loved this”‘s were unnecessary as often as they were used. Sometimes, supporting character voice? Okay. Constantly? Please give me some credit as a reader that I can figure out what’s going on here.

Also the final complications between the two of them before the H(appliy)E(ver)A(fter) soured things a little bit. All 100% understandable, but still.

Sigh.

All in all, I couldn’t quite give it five stars.

I’m looking forward to reading the third book in this series finally. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Just for the Summer. I’m hoping for a Part of Your World level romance epic, but gosh, that’ll be hard to beat!

Details

Title:: Yours Truly (Part of Your World #2)
Author:: Abby Jimenez
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Forever
Length:: 416 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 23m
Audiobook Narrator:: Kyla Garcia, Zachary Webber
Audiobook Publisher:: Forever
Published:: April 11th, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars
Spice Rating:: 2