Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Life's Too Short

Vanessa is famous on YouTube for travel vlogging and raising money for ALS, because she most likely has it, and will probably die soon. She’s suddenly homebound and taking care of her newborn niece. Adrian is a rockstar workaholic criminal defense lawyer, and why won’t that baby stop crying next door?

I think I’m starting to understand Abby Jimenez as a writer. The male main character is unrealistic in the same way that all MMC’s are: completely dedicated to their lady, totally invested in the relationship and willing to apologize and make drastic changes to fix a relationship problem after 2 days apart. This is what (nearly) all women read romance novels for.

However, her female main characters are more unrealistic. Vanessa has zero women friends. She has one younger sister who is absent for most of the book. Her younger brother is occasionally present but rarely supportive. She has a male friend who supports her rarely but is long distance. What is that mess? I have so few friends and I have a ton more support than Vanessa has. Yet she’s is almost endlessly cheerful with the rare brief sob? Not possible. Not with that diagnosis, no therapist and no support. The math is not mathing.

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poupimali's review

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emotional funny inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I really laughed multiple times. I liked the way Abby Jimenez brings joy et colorful characters in her books.

This one is my less favorite because it is a little bit too much. It shows a lack of reality despite the fact that it is about disease (ALS) and the way you can possibly handle it.

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maggieroon's review

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emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The last 1/3 of this book was ROUGH (emotionally). I stopped believing there would be a HEA and it was making me sad. But I kept repeating HEA HEA HEA and it came though only at the very end.

Jimenez is a new author to me and so far she’s got a real knack for smart dialogue and fun MC.

It is rare that a romance is a heart clutching tear jerker for me (and I’m fine with that! It’s a lot!). But this one was and it’s good to know that my heart is still capable of spasming in pain because of a book. ❤️‍🩹

I will note that this is a pretty tame romance s@x-wise. Almost a closed door romance, which is usually not my thing. But my tears were so distracting I didn’t even notice until the book was over (I’ve read 2 Jimenez books so far and both have been witty and funny but the s@x has been kind of bland).

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