Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Life's Too Short

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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nebraskanwriter's review

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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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lorinew1'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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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