Fall Risk - A short Story by Abby Jimenez

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
82 Pages

From Goodreads: 

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.

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Aurel's take: 

I told you I read 3 Abby Jimenez books in one week. Did you think I was joking? 

This was sadly just a short story, but I definitely could have done with a couple more hundred pages of this book. (A fellow coworker agrees.) I think the thing I enjoy most about Abby's writing is how the characters play and joke with each other. The witty one liners, comebacks, and callbacks make me smile IRL as I read them. That's what I want in romance books: playfulness, comfort, and wit, which Abby gives us in droves. 

Charlotte's back story is one that sends waves of fear into any woman with a pulse, which makes it both easy to root for her, and easy to understand why she acts the way she does. 
Again: Props to Jimenez for giving us a plot with real adult problems. This really sheds light onto what life would be like if any of us had issues similar to Charlotte's. 

Seth's story is less dramatic, in my opinion, but still valid. I like when writers include characters that are divorced relatively young. Again, its realistic to me, as I have several friends in the same boat. I enjoy the author's ability to give us believable characters with real world hurdles to jump in order to better their lives. (Whether that's with or without a partner by their sides.)

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐✫ 4/5
                                                                     389 Pages

From Goodreads: 

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.

While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?
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Aurel's Take: 

Oopsie, this is book #1 in a series and I accidentally read #3 first. 
That didn't detract from the content or enjoyment of this book though. 
I sang Abby's praises in my last review and most, if not all, of the praises still ring true:

• We have realistic adults in realistic adult situations with realistic problems that are tricky to solve.
• Mature main characters who communicate feelings, thoughts, issues, etc.
• Fun banter, loveable friends, not so loveable antagonists, but all still believable and not just a bestie giving us a bunch of exposition or reiterating everything we just learned in the last chapter, or an evil half-sister who decided to marry our ex husband.

A classic country boy vs city girl plot; and as a girl who grew up in the sticks, I loved how well written the small town was. I have been to those bars and diners, and met those townsfolk, and I appreciated the authenticity of how believable this fictitious place was. I can't speak of the believability of the dichotomous city lifestyle involving fancy galas and fundraisers, but it felt like the author gave us enough background and context to understand the settings and really understand how each character felt in the different "worlds."

Another lovely read, I think I only docked one star, possibly because I had just read book #3 and I loved it so much it was hard to measure up. That, and I am possibly less enchanted with certain aspects of small towns having grown up in one. 
I do LOVE how this plot wraps up though, and find myself wishing my own small hometown could have a similar fate somehow. 

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

 

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 
                                                       432 Pages

From Goodreads: 

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?
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Aurel's Take: 

Before this book, to be perfectly honest, I'd been slumming it in the Kindle Unlimited random finds. As a result, I forgot that good dialogue, good plot, AND romance could all exist in the same book. I'm super happy I found Abby Jimenez; I quickly devoured 3 of her books in one week. 

The banter between the two main characters feels natural and endearing. I like Abby's style of writing both characters as loveable but slightly "flawed." It's a refreshing break from the tropes of Grumpy/Sunshine or Enemies to Lovers, or worse: A "plot point" that could totally be resolved with effective communication from two grown adults. 

Tangent aside: I love that this book has none of that. It treats the two main characters as actual adults, and they do have understandable, frustrating adult-level issues, stemming from something a lot of us can't avoid: our families, that seem to put huge hiccups into their lives. Something that even the healthiest of couples (or individuals) would struggle with. 


This book is a definite feel good read and I highly recommend it. 

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

 

341 pages, Paperback

Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost perfect…

Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left him the flower shop, he considered it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did. 

When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there's a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot's hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐✰ 4/5

Twisted Games, Ana Huang

 

456 pages

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Regal, strong-willed, and bound by the chains of duty, Princess Bridget dreams of the freedom to live and love as she chooses.

But when her brother abdicates, she’s suddenly faced with the prospect of a loveless, politically expedient marriage and a throne she never wanted.

And as she navigates the intricacies—and treacheries—of her new role, she must also hide her desire for a man she can’t have.

Her bodyguard.
Her protector.
Her ultimate ruin.

Unexpected and forbidden, theirs is a love that could destroy a kingdom…and doom them both.

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✭✭✭✰✰ 3/5

This plot interested me more than Twisted Love (Twisted 1) 

But I brought receipts of the never ceasing similies and metaphors for your pleasure/chagrin:

Within two chapters of each other: 

my voice fridgid enough to make antartica look like a beach paradise.
& an icy expression that made the frozen tundra of greenland look like tropical islands 

...face shut down faster than a house party raided by cops

moving slower than a turtle on morphine

frowning like a bear who woke up on the wrong side of the cave

Just to name a few...

To me this just reads as a person who can't articulate or describe anything in great detail. I'm not sure if it's a failed attempt at injecting humor into the situation, but it gets distracting after a while. Instead of picturing a face, I'm picturing a house party getting shut down by cops.. which has nothing to do with the situation being described.. we were talking about a person's face being happy and then not happy, but now I'm picturing cop lights shining on a dark lawn scattered with red solo cups. It's just not a good use.
Again, the last third of the book, even after the wild plot twist (which I guessed earlier on,) the book seems to be a lot of lazy filler. 
The slow burn concept is fun, but I find a lot of authors struggling to keep my interest after  thw two characters end up together, or after their secret affair is found out, etc. 

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

 

360 pages

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Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.

But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.

Her brother’s best friend.
Her neighbor.
Her savior and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen—but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear.
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✭✭✭✰✰ 3/5

I decided to read this due to booktok, which I'm realizing is not a great or reliable source for book reccomendations. 
The amount of childish similies and metaphors is egregous. 

Every other page, (or sometimes paragaph,) is littered with the author's poor attempts at description that read as extremely juvenille-like a 6th grader who's just learned the concept of metaphors and similies and needs to write a paper that contains a certain amount to get a good grade. (its not lost on me that I'm using a similie to decribe my distatse for the amount of similies.)

Aside from the childish writing style, the plot is interesting, yes, but towards the last third of the book, a lot of the book begins to feel like repetitive filler, internal monolouges especially. 

Fix Her Up, by Tessa Bailey

 

    400 pages

I'm not even sure this book is worth putting the descriptor up for anyone to read, as I would never willingly try to entice anyone to read this book. But here it is, just in case you are a glutton for punishment: 

Georgette Castle’s family runs the best home renovation business in town, but she picked balloons instead of blueprints and they haven’t taken her seriously since. Frankly, she’s over it. Georgie loves planning children’s birthday parties and making people laugh, just not at her own expense. She’s determined to fix herself up into a Woman of the World... whatever that means.

Phase one: new framework for her business (a website from this decade, perhaps?)

Phase two: a gut-reno on her wardrobe (fyi, leggings are pants.)

Phase three: updates to her exterior (do people still wax?)

Phase four: put herself on the market (and stop crushing on Travis Ford!)

Living her best life means facing the truth: Georgie hasn’t been on a date since, well, ever. Nobody’s asking the town clown out for a night of hot sex, that’s for sure. Maybe if people think she’s having a steamy love affair, they’ll acknowledge she’s not just the “little sister” who paints faces for a living. And who better to help demolish that image than the resident sports star and tabloid favorite?

Travis Ford was major league baseball’s hottest rookie when an injury ended his career. Now he’s flipping houses to keep busy and trying to forget his glory days. But he can’t even cross the street without someone recapping his greatest hits. Or making a joke about his… bat. And then there's Georgie, his best friend’s sister, who is not a kid anymore. When she proposes a wild scheme—that they pretend to date, to shock her family and help him land a new job—he agrees. What’s the harm? It’s not like it’s real. But the girl Travis used to tease is now a funny, full-of-life woman and there’s nothing fake about how much he wants her...

Beach Read by Emily Henry

 

 400 pages, Paperback

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

 

 384 pages, Paperback

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

Book Lovers, by Emily Henry

377 pages, Hardcover

 One summer. Two rivals.

 A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

Description from Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58690308-book-lovers

Aurel'sTake: 

As someone who reads a genre that contains a lot of, (sometimes annoyingly,) repetative tropes, I enjoyed this read's joking spirit in reference to the aforementioned tropes. There were a few times some of the jokes and quips made me laugh loud enough my husband was subjected to me telling him what had me giggling. My favorite of the two Emily Henry books I've read so far this month. 

People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry

                                                                                                                        364 pages

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Description from GoodReads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54985743-people-we-meet-on-vacation