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spillthetbr 's review for:
Just for the Summer
by Abby Jimenez
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
4 stars ⭐️ | 1 Spice 🌶️
Just for the Summer was my first Abby Jimenez book that I’ve read. It was an emotional read for me, one that often left me with a pit in my stomach. There were moments of levity and sweetness that broke up the toughest moments. The story follows Emma who is a traveling nurse. Emma has never let herself settle down in one place for long and travels the world with her best friend. One summer she discovers a Reddit post that features a guy named Justin. Justin is “cursed” in the sense that every women he dates finds ‘the one’ after they end things. Emma sees this and happens to suffer from the same curse. They start chatting and put into effect an experiment to see if they can cancel out each other’s curses. All they need to do is date just for the summer— I see what you did there Abby!
What was supposed to be a summer fling turns out to be a series of events where two people, who are very broken, find love and a home in each other. When I opened the book, I noticed that they had trigger warnings for parental abuse, emotional abuse, PTSD, mental illness, and a few other heavy topics. I thought this was going to be a light hearted read and quickly determined that my heart was going to ache for these characters. How they dealt with (or avoided) their traumas felt extremely real and authentic.
Majority of the book was spent hashing up all of our main characters PTSD. We get some crazy reveals towards the end that really challenged and pushed our FMC to really assess their own mental health. I told a friend over the phone that it felt like this book gave me tiny paper cuts over and over again. Just when a romantic moment came and healed it with a bandage a new paper cut would appear. I admit I had to put it down a few times.
(Below— I share some thoughts on the ending and recommend only reading if she finished the novel)
Despite that, I really enjoyed this story. I love a book that makes me feel things. Now the reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because I felt forgiveness was rushed. I wanted more dialogue between our 2 main characters about their inner hurt. Justin’s development wasn’t nearly as fleshed out as Emma’s in my opinion. I wanted more for them at the end than what we got. Though that epilogue gave me all the warm and fuzzy feelings. I wish we got more of a front row seat to their healing than the time skip that we got. I wanted to see the work and how they’d enforce that in the relationship. I would rather have had Abby remove some of the middle scenes to make more room for the healing.
Final Thoughts- No Spoilers:
Overall I really enjoyed this story and annotated so many sweet moments. Abby Jimenez is a fantastic writer and I’ll definitely check out some of her other books.
Should this spill into your TBR? Yes— just read the trigger warnings!
Just for the Summer was my first Abby Jimenez book that I’ve read. It was an emotional read for me, one that often left me with a pit in my stomach. There were moments of levity and sweetness that broke up the toughest moments. The story follows Emma who is a traveling nurse. Emma has never let herself settle down in one place for long and travels the world with her best friend. One summer she discovers a Reddit post that features a guy named Justin. Justin is “cursed” in the sense that every women he dates finds ‘the one’ after they end things. Emma sees this and happens to suffer from the same curse. They start chatting and put into effect an experiment to see if they can cancel out each other’s curses. All they need to do is date just for the summer— I see what you did there Abby!
What was supposed to be a summer fling turns out to be a series of events where two people, who are very broken, find love and a home in each other. When I opened the book, I noticed that they had trigger warnings for parental abuse, emotional abuse, PTSD, mental illness, and a few other heavy topics. I thought this was going to be a light hearted read and quickly determined that my heart was going to ache for these characters. How they dealt with (or avoided) their traumas felt extremely real and authentic.
Majority of the book was spent hashing up all of our main characters PTSD. We get some crazy reveals towards the end that really challenged and pushed our FMC to really assess their own mental health. I told a friend over the phone that it felt like this book gave me tiny paper cuts over and over again. Just when a romantic moment came and healed it with a bandage a new paper cut would appear. I admit I had to put it down a few times.
(Below— I share some thoughts on the ending and recommend only reading if she finished the novel)
Despite that, I really enjoyed this story. I love a book that makes me feel things. Now the reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because I felt forgiveness was rushed. I wanted more dialogue between our 2 main characters about their inner hurt. Justin’s development wasn’t nearly as fleshed out as Emma’s in my opinion. I wanted more for them at the end than what we got. Though that epilogue gave me all the warm and fuzzy feelings. I wish we got more of a front row seat to their healing than the time skip that we got. I wanted to see the work and how they’d enforce that in the relationship. I would rather have had Abby remove some of the middle scenes to make more room for the healing.
Final Thoughts- No Spoilers:
Overall I really enjoyed this story and annotated so many sweet moments. Abby Jimenez is a fantastic writer and I’ll definitely check out some of her other books.
Should this spill into your TBR? Yes— just read the trigger warnings!
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment