Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

My second Abby Jimenez novel and the first of the Part of Your World series (I accidently read the third in the series first), Part of Your World is a New York Times bestseller and an Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Books of the Year for 2022. It is a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist, one of Booklists' Best Romances of the Year, and a finalist for Book of the Month Club's Best Book of the Year. But don't let that fool you, Abby Jimenez puts some serious issues in her books. This one deals with bullying, domestic physical and emotional abuse, toxic relationships, grief, pregnancy, references to death and abandonment, injury, and classism.

When Alexis Montgomery enters the VFW hall looking for dinner after driving off the road and getting stuck to avoid hitting a raccoon, Daniel Grant feels like it's his duty to warn her that his friend is taking bets on who she will go home with. He's not interested in the bet, but as the person who pulled her out of the ditch, he feels obligation to protect her from his friends. But Alexis has other ideas and hatches a plan to win Daniel the money. Ever the gentlemen, Daniel offers to make her dinner and let her snuggle a baby goat, no strings attached. After one really good grilled cheese and an even better night together, Alexis can't stop thinking about Daniel or how good the hoodie that she stole from him smells. But Daniel is a carpenter who is firmly enmeshed in his community, his family has a house there that was built 125 years ago, and Alexis is a legacy doctor at the hotel two hours away. Her family's name is on buildings there. The two of them do not, will not, cannot fit together. So why is it that Alexis cannot seem to stop thinking about him, or the town that he comes from?

Mark me down as a Abby Jimenez fan, this book was delightful! You fall in love with the characters so quickly. Daniel is charming and wonderful, and although his faults are few, his self-doubt is high enough to make him feel realistic. You quickly feel for Alexis and the predicament that she is in when it comes to her ex-boyfriend Neil, and her parents, and her brother. Alexis' best friend Briana is fantastic and has some of the best lines in the book, I'm pretty sure the next book has her as a main character and I'm very excited for it, and you'd think that you wouldn't like the guy that starts the book betting he can get the only stranger in the bar to go home with him, but Doug really grows on you. The town that Daniel lives in is easy to picture, small and on the poor side, a tourist town that struggles out of season, while Alexis' life is just as easy to picture, centered as it is at the hospital. The plot was fun and you find yourself rooting not just for Alexis and Daniel, but for some of the side characters as well. It was fairly fast paced but nothing felt rushed, the only thing I didn't love was the twinge of magic that the author adds. I don't think it was necessary and felt a little hokey to me, but it wasn't so pronounced that it would deter me. All in all, solid for anyone who needs a happy ending right now.

I'm giving Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez 4.75 stars out of 5. Spice rating is .75 out of 5. It's not very spicy at all. We are reading this one for the butterflies, not the smut. I didn't like this one as much as I liked the third book in the series, Just For the Summer, but I still really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the second novel, Yours Truly.

For more from Abby Jimenez, visit her website at https://www.authorabbyjimenez.com/

Pairs well with spinach and broccoli quiche (screw you Neil! We can make our own quiche!) and getting to feed a baby goat.

My favorite quotes (they all belong to Briana):

"I want to cage fight your entire family."

"I'd follow a clown into a storm drain if he had a baby goat in pajamas."

"Eight thousand nerves in the clitoris and still not as sensitive as a white man not getting his way."