Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez

9 reviews

amybartoli29's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Chronic illness

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Dementia

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

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

5.0

She’s a vacation blogger showing the world her life with possible ALS whose drug addict sister just dropped off her newborn and disappeared. Of course the super hot, rich, lawyer that lives next door wants to hold the baby to her at 4 am so she can shower. Like, that’s totally something that happens in real life. But there he was helping and that’s what started an epic friendship, and maybe a little something more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dementia, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident

whitneyce's review

Dementia jumpscare + generally wasn’t really feeling it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia

zalouis's review

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Abandonment, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Infidelity

Minor: Dementia and Alcohol

laheath's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• 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

4.0

For a genre I don't read very often, this was hard to put down and I'll definitely be reading more from this author. I've heard this Friend Zone series can be read as stand-alone novels, so I'm hoping that's right. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Adrian and Vanessa. Some reviewers have mentioned that it's too syrupy sweet for them, but I felt there was enough real life in this to balance both characters often reflecting on their feelings. They're both successful in their careers, and dealing with dysfunctional families, while Vanessa may be facing a diagnosis of ALS. Their relationship has its hurdles, somewhat predictably, but that and the side characters all make for a great, emotional story. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Car accident, Dementia, Sexual content, and Panic attacks/disorders

hayleyw's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Abandonment, Death of parent, Death, Car accident, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Stalking, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, and Dementia

nebraskanwriter's review

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

1.25

My goodness. This book was such a rollercoaster. As a paralegal for a small defense firm and having a family that is pretty self-destructive like Vanessa’s family is, I could relate to this book in so many ways.

The book started out so well. We see Adrian at his law firm, Vanessa navigating the minefields of her toxic family as well as beginning to take care of baby Grace that her 19 year old drug addicted sister just dropped on her door-step. 

But around the 60% mark, things started to fall apart for me. You see, Vanessa from the beginning has made it very clear to Adrian that she has no intention of dating anyone because her family carries the ALS gene so she thinks she’s going to die by the time she is 30 because that is when her sister died from ALS. But then she gets all hurt when she kisses him (while intoxicated) and he doesn’t kiss her back. After this awkward situation, Adrian wants to talk to her about it (like any adult would), but when the next day comes and she agrees to talk it him about it but instead she blindsides Adrian into watching Grace for 4-5 hours while she goes off with some guy Adrian has never met before while they go film content for their YouTube channels. She completley disregards his feelings and even though she promised they would
talk, she refuses to address the situation because she’s “hurt” even though SHE IS THE ONE THAT SET THESE BOUNDARIES AND TOLD HIM SHE WOULD NEVER DATE ANY ONE BECAUSE SHE IS AFRAID OF DYING. Like how dense can a person be? Geez Louise.  And when Adrian explains this to her and tells her he was just doing what she had said from the get-go, she gets even more mad and projects all over him.

I liked the rep of the ALS subplot story-line as I feel like that illness is one that is not talked about, especially in romance novels. But Vanessa’s crippling doom that she is going to die by the time she is 30 because she MIGHT have this disease kind of drove me crazy. Especially since she refuses to do anything about it, including getting an actual diagnoses from an actual doctor. Her wrist/hand is tingling/ losing feeling so this sends her into a spiral. When Adrian finds out that its hereditary and that she could have the gene, he encourages her to find other ways to possibly live longer but she refuses, yells at him and then hangs up on him, promptly ending their relationship. She then goes off gallivanting for a few months in Europe, trying to find herself, and Adrian has been taking care of Grace this whole time in the states and is actually going through the process of adopting her.  

The author tries to paint Vanessa as the one sibling who has their life together and who is not toxic but honestly, she TOTALLY is. She emotionally manipulates Adrian literally all the time. The moment something doesn’t go her way or he disagrees with her/does something she doesn’t want him to do, she freaks out. She also drops Grace like a sack of potatoes (much like her 19 year old sister did that she’s “so much better then”) and Adrian is the one who steps in to take care of Grace. 

The whole second half of the book was just absolutely ridiculous. I understand that you would have a lot of emotional baggage with all that these two characters have gone through but my gosh, the way Vanessa treated Adrian was not okay at all nor was it romantic in any way. It was not a healthy relationship, she just used him because he was grounded and an attorney so he could help her with literally all of her family’s criminal drama and as a built in babysitter for Grace. 

Not cool, very disappointed in this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

emily_clay's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Medical content, Grief, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Drug abuse, Dementia, and Abandonment

Minor: Stalking and Car accident

100_pages_hr's review

emotional lighthearted reflective sad fast-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

4.0

This series has been amazing and I really loved this book.

I'm not real big on social media so I'll admit to being a little nervous at first reading about a YouTuber, but the more I learned about Vanessa the more I loved her platform. I really love books that bring awareness to conditions and Jimenez is one of the best at this.

I loved baby whisperer Adrian! At times he came across a little too good to be true, but then Jimenez would throw something in to humanize him. 

For me this was a fast read, but it was a slow burn romance for sure. The build up was pretty intense and I loved it. 

It was also fun to revisit old friends. After reading this I have a very strong urge to re-read the first two and then this one again.

I love how Jimenez builds her characters. I especially love how the Kirsten and Vanessa have NO filter. It makes for a super fun story!

I hope to see many more books from Jimenez in the future!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Torture, and Drug use

Moderate: Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident, Death of parent, Infidelity, Medical content, and Mental illness