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deyonce54's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Medical content
Minor: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Dementia, Car accident, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
toofondofbooks_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Classism
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Pregnancy
noellegrace8's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Jimenez does a great job at keeping her romance humorous and enveloping while still maintaining a plot line with character development. Both of these companion novels are about love, but also other huge, important concepts. This one in particular focuses on abuse and its different types, obligation to family/ found family, generation gaps, identity, and purpose. It is lighthearted and tense mixed together, just like life. You feel frustration with Alexis sometimes because it feels obvious what she should choose, but Jimenez, in that way, portrays what it's like to live with the effects of abuse and control.
Fair warning that this book has a higher level of spice than Yours Truly; they are not comparable in that manner.
A couple things that bugged me were how many times people "blinked at one another" and "sucked air through their teeth." I'm surprised an editor didn't point out the overuse of those descriptors. Also, I love The Princess Bride, but somehow I found the use of quotes from it a little cheesy. I don't think it's an actual or valid piece of criticism on my part haha, but I guess it just came off as incongruent to me. Lastly, I'm not a huge fan of the "acts of God/magic" thing. Random things happen in the book that have no explanation other than divine intervention. They're never explained, and it's a bit cheesy.
I don't factor audiobook performance into the star rating of the book itself, but I give both Julia Whelan and Zachary Webber 5⭐️'s.
Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Excrement, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
kayfab's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I wanted to scream at Alexis throughout the book that she was making things harder than they needed to be for herself. Her parents were toxic AF. I can kind of see why she thought she had to stay, but I wish her friend had been honest with her and snapped her out of it earlier.
The book was much longer than I felt it needed to be. I get that the author wanted to tackle different kinds of domestic violence, but I think that one storyline with it and a more minor mention or two would have been enough. The whole book was steeped in toxic relationships and abusive dynamics, excluding the romance between Daniel and Alexis, and their relationships with some of their friends.
Overall, just too dark and depressing for me, and I had hoped for more of a romantic comedy, this was kind of that but with so much darkness included too.
Narrators' Rating: 3.25 stars
Overall, they did a good job, but the tone that Zachary Webber used for Alexis was quite irritating.
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Pregnancy
honesty_reads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Moderate: Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Pregnancy
kyrstin_p1989's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
tspice24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Sexual content and Medical content
Minor: Pregnancy
ju_harue's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Addiction, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Medical content, and Pregnancy
heyimberbie's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Don’t get me wrong, there were moments where I put down this book because it wasn’t as interesting as other books I was reading at the time. There were also moments in this book where it was very cliche, read like a Hallmark movie, the writing wasn’t as good in some parts as it was in others, and sometimes I just felt like the fmc was a little emotionally immature at times. But aside from all that, I didn’t hate it.
I think the thing that truly moved this into 5 star territory for me was reading the authors note combined with the Q & A portion at the end of the book. Seeing how much research Abby Jiminez did and how many professionals/people were involved in the core idea for this book is exactly what I want to see from all authors in all books that I read, like let’s just be real.
The book was good, the romance was cute, Daniel Grant is the man that literally every woman probably wishes they had, Alexis was a typical fmc, and some of the characters in the book I really wanna push off a cliff tbh. But, one thing that impressed me the most was the abuse and domestic violence portion. I thought it was amazing how the author handled it while also including scenes that could educate people reading this book on what emotional abuse actually looks and feels like. As someone who has been through emotional abuse, I really appreciated that especially with how Alexis grew as a character in regard to her trauma with her family. It ended up being really important to me even though there were many times where I did not like Alexis because she did not act like a 38 year old woman would irl (especially as a woman with immense privilege).
Furthermore, albeit rather typical in “part of your world” kinda stories, seeing the classism and elitism of other characters play out was actually pretty interesting considering the dynamic that Alexis and Daniel had and the stance that Daniel maintained throughout the story. Sometimes I just think that books with this trope of “I can’t love you because I’m rich and you’re poor and therefore we’re living in separate worlds” is often overused and just predictable, but I actually enjoyed it here because most of Abby Jiminez’s more detailed writing was when we got to see this level of classism and how it impacted the mentality and trauma of the main characters. It made it interesting and gave a good look at what led to the found family trope in Part of Your World. I was also very happy to see a book with an fmc, who works in the medical industry, actually talk and acknowledge wealth disparity and how access to medicine is not easy, and even moreso how underserved communities need to be taken care of. As someone who comes from an area and lives a life where that is very common, I’m glad it’s being spoken about in a published book especially with recent cyclical chatter online being “reading is not political” which… that’s just a wild take.
I will say though, I did predict the ending by at least chapter 5, and honestly I wasn’t really disappointed by it. It was moreso one those moments where you say “haha I knew it”, but I personally don’t see the main affect of this story being how the ending turned out, so I’m cool with it.
Overall, it was pretty good. It was a fun read. There were some moments that were pretty predictable, but I feel like there is more to take away from this book than just the romance and a fun time and I like seeing that in my books. So maybe I’m an Abby Jiminez fan 👀
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism