Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Just for the Summer

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

555 reviews

lexa's review against another edition

4.0

Lots of heavy trauma at play here. Def not lighthearted. But had some funny moments (raccoons)

Content Warnings

lisettemarie's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective

Content Warnings

readwithria's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Just For the Summer was exactly what I have come to expect from an Abby Jimenez book - a lovely emotional rollercoaster with a beautiful romance at its center.

Once again, she has written a giant simp of a man and at this point, y'all should already know that I'm here for it. Justin got hit by the love truck so fast, and as soon as they met each other I knew they would be an adorable couple. Emma learns so much about herself throughout the book, and the fact that she went through so much and came out as well as she did is a testament to post-traumatic growth theory.

Read this book if you love
- amazing best friends
- strangers to lovers
- found family
- chaotic mommies
- personal growth
- healthy communication
- caretaking

I will always read what Abby Jimenez writes. 4.5 stars.

Content Warnings

ali1311's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ok, this one grew on me! Once I adjusted to the writing style--which I first thought was a bit oversimplified, but as I got into it, I was fine with it--I started to really enjoy this. Honestly, the plot of this was maybe the best part. And since the plot was reliant upon the main characters' emotional arcs, it made the whole thing feel even more rewarding. It was a really sweet and heart-wrenching story about love and creating family.

Content Warnings

racheln23's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

"The love stories sold us the wrong thing. The best kind of love doesn't happen on moonlit walks and romantic vacations. It happens in between the folds of everyday life. It's not grand gestures that show how you feel, it's all the little secret things you do to make life better..."

This book is such an excellent, easy read. The premise is so fun - two strangers get together in order to cancel out a suspected love curse. I anticipated that this would be a pretty light-hearted read, but it was so rich and deep at the same time and I was incredibly, pleasantly surprised.

There is so much trauma in this book, but dealing with it was so refreshing and for me, it lead me down quite a contemplative path. I think we all come in contact with people who have been or who are currently in mental health crisis. Whether these people are community members far removed from us or close contacts, their lives can affect us all. Being on the "outside" of the story, I think the reader is able to identify the good and the bad of people easily, and that can be carried over into the real world. Times where we need to give empathy, times where we need to place boundaries, times we need to recognize our bad behaviors are due to trauma and times to deal with our stuff. I loved it so much.

And in the midst of all of this, we do have a fun and funny story to go on, and we see it transform from kind of a silly fantasy to deep, true love in the real world. Justin says, "It's funny how when you find someone you like as much as I liked her, the destination is suddenly wherever they are. Even if there's someplace better, you wouldn't go if they couldn't come,"

And that's so accurate how I feel about the person I am in love with. So real and relatable.

Loved this book and now I'm on to find more books by Abby Jimenez!

Content Warnings

megbert581's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Absolutely amazing, Abby Jimenez does I it again. I love how her stories have such depth and examine hard things in life, like complex trauma and abusive parents, while also having the perfect mix of romance, comedy, and fun. She handles these aspects of life SO well and her characters always have growth and depth. I laughed, I cried, I swooned. I read this in 2 days, I could not put it down!

Content Warnings