Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez

105 reviews

sistatv's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad slow-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

4.25

Abby Jimenez writes excellent book boyfriends. Like A 1, perfect fucking book boyfriends. I loved this book. 
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amybartoli29's review

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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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biojesspj's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense 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? No

4.25

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rachels_booknook's review

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4.0

Life’s Too Short is the final book in Abby Jimenez’s The Friend Zone trilogy, but it’s not largely connected to the first two books. Adrian is briefly introduced in The Happy Ever After Playlist but he doesn’t have a huge profile. There’s a bit of a cameo in Life’s Too Short by the characters from the first two books, but it could definitely be read as a stand alone. This one also takes place in Minnesota as opposed to California. 

All of Abby Jimenez’s books have a serious and/or medical component and this one is no exception. We don’t find out for a while what the medical problem actually is but we know it’s probably something pretty severe. Add to this, Vanessa’s family, which she is holding onto by a thread – taking care of her younger sister’s baby, worrying about her brother (I ended up liking Brent by the end), helping her dad get his life organized. Vanessa is so many things to so many people and it’s just really nice to see how Adrian supports not only her, but her family, and the deep friendship that develops first and foremost between them. The ending was so good. I figured out part of what would obviously be involved in the grand gesture but it was great to see it play out. 

I love the message in this book about not living your worst moments twice – the first time being in anticipation. I think it’s really hard to actually do that but I appreciated Vanessa’s positive spirit and outlook. I loved that she helps Adrian with some of his own challenges by helping him look at things in a different way. 

I wish there was more about Vanessa’s travel blog and how she makes money from it, but I guess it make sense that since Adrian doesn’t know much about it, neither does the reader. 

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juanat77's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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vrrrmm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-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

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readingwithmeredith's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Characters: 4
Connection to the book/Enjoyment: 3
Setting: 3
Plot/Overall Story: 4
Writing: 4

Every point= 0.25 stars, max per category 4 points
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hopelessromanticbookworm's review

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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? No

5.0

I couldn’t see why he wasn’t all over Tinder letting women climb him like a ladder. I’d climb this man no matter what he had in his pants.

Just WOW! I picked this book up hoping to get out of my reading slump and it was such an emotional rollercoaster.

This book follows a young woman called Vanessa who has the gene of ALS and has been passed down through the women of her family. She basically was living life to the fullest, travelling the world and filling up her travel vlog on YouTube…until a baby literally was left with her and halted all the plans. What’s even more annoying for Vanessa is she has a grumpy, sexy, ‘Jesus abs’ neighbour who wanted her to shut the baby up at 4am…it’s not like that’s what she had been trying to do 😅 before he started knocking on her door.

When reading this book (and unable to put it down), it had humour , moments that was so cute!, times I just wanted to bang the main characters heads together, heartbreak that left me calling them both idiots and of course an emotional and sweet ending.

I loved the emotional storyline that was beautifully represented. The characters were so diverse and had a mixture of real life problems, relationships & families

This book is a Grumpy/Sunshine & Friends to Lovers romance. It shows representation of the struggles with ALS, Drug Addict, Grief, Mental Health Issues & LGBTQ+ x
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mels_reading_log's review against another edition

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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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amateur_bookworm's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Genre: Contemporary romance, fiction
My summary: Vanessa is a popular travel YouTuber and has found herself unexpectedly thrust into motherhood when she has to step in and take  her half-sister’s newborn daughter, Grace. When Grace’s wailing brings Vanessa’s next door neighbor over—at 4am—Adrian and Vanessa are immediately drawn to each other. Adrian, a successful criminal defense attorney, soon finds himself spending less time at the office because he wants to be with Vanessa and Grace. But Vanessa’s days are numbered, as an aggressive genetic disorder has killed every female in her family before the age of 30. Adrian and Vanessa soon find that love is hard, especially with a clock ticking. 
My thoughts: This one was a little tough to get through. Actually, almost this entire series was tough to get through. This book was funny, as in, I actually laughed a real laugh several times. Vanessa’s personality sparkled on the page and I enjoyed the unfolding of them falling in love with each other. But, it was also heartbreaking and a downer. I wasn’t even a third of the way through the book yet, and was absolutely terrified that Abby Jimenez was going to thoroughly wreck me before it was over. I didn’t shed as many tears as I thought I might, but it was sad at times. I appreciate this series and Abby taking on some tough real-life themes in the first and third book that I thought she handled well. But I also read as an escape and this sure did not leave me with warm and fuzzy feelings. I think this is a great series, but I caution that it is not as light-hearted as I expected a witty romance series to be. 
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