'Life's Too Short' The Friend Zone #3 by Abby Jimenez

 

From the BLURB: 

When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted. 

But after her half sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her baby daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua. 

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.

'Life's Too Short' is the third book in Abby Jimenez's 'The Friend Zone' series - which I think is now over, completing as a trilogy.

This book centres around Vanessa Price - a renowned travel-vlog YouTuber who has just been handed the responsibility of taking care of her baby niece, because her 19-year-old sister - baby Grace's mother - is a drug-dependent addict and currently spiralling. So Vanessa is grounded, for the foreseeable future. This is how she meets her building's owner and her neighbour, Adrian Copeland who is also a successful criminal lawyer. They meet when Adrian knocks on her door one night to see if he can help her calm down a wailing baby Grace and the two strike up a friendship.

And that's all it can be - a friendship, because Vanessa makes it very clear that she can't get involved with anyone. That's because Vanessa has a history of ALS in her family - once known as Lou Gehrig's disease ALS is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and it took Vanessa's aunt, mother and older sister all before they hit 30, which 29-year-old Vanessa is rapidly approaching and has early signs of same symptoms. She doesn't want to get romantically involved with anyone, and she is wholly focused on taking care of her train-wreck family, and Grace especially, before her time runs out. Adrian is a temptation she wasn't counting on, and as the two grow ever closer she begins to wonder how much marrow she can suck out of life with the time she has left ...

So - look - I know that above description is going to give lots of romance-readers pause, but let me assure you; this is still a technical romance and all the HEA that entails. Because this is Jimenez's modus operandi; to set up female characters who are dealing with impossible odds (often physical and medical) that presents a swerve away from traditional romance tropes (namely; the marriage plot and 'barefoot and pregnant'), only to have it all work out in the end and for tradition to be restored. She did this in first book 'The Friend Zone' and a protagonist with endometriosis who cannot have kids, falling for a guy who comes from a big family and all he wants is children.

And this is my frustration, ultimately. Yes I still want a HEA - I don't particularly want to read romance novels with depressing, no-hope endings (that's not romance) but what frustrates me is that Jimenez does such a good job for 80% of a novel, of setting up alternate-romances full of compromises and tenderness, where the male protagonists in particular have to adapt their idea of partner and family because the women they love are not the "perfect" archetype. Like ... I could totally get behind a HEA that includes a woman dealing with the very real hardships that come with infertility because of endometriosis, and her and a partner having to adapt their ideas of family. But no. Jimenez is more likely to just fix everything with a miracle, against-the-odds pregnancy that totally negates all the hard work she put into getting these characters together and working to form a relationship.

She does the same here, in 'Life's Too Short'. I learnt so much about ALS and the realities of living with a genetic roulette like Vanessa is. This is the perfect set-up for a big concept of 'Happy For Now' between Vanessa and Adrian, but no ... not to give anything away, but there is a large degree to which everything is magicked away by the end. Or not - it's probably a lot more open-ended than 'The Friend Zone' and I guess it depends on if you're an optimist or pessimist determines how much of a HEA time-limit they get.

But, this is a frustration for me. Jimenez's books could be so progressive and adaptive in the romance genre, presenting a different way for female protagonists to be happy, and inverting traditional nuclear-family tropes largely by having male protagonists compromise and adapt for the women they love and the life they want to build with them. But she doesn't. Not really. It's always a cop-out at the end. Even more so in 'Life's Too Short' because Adrian and Vanessa's time coupled on the page is so short and fleeting, it really feels like the last half of the book fumbled their coupling and didn't quite pay-off for the slow-burn build up.

Overall, this series has been ~fine~. But it could have been great, and therein lies the rub for me. Jimenez always seems to pull her punches.

I think if you want a romance author who commits to subverting romance tropes and presenting different ways for characters in romance novels to ~be~, then maybe try Talia Hibbert?

3/5

'The Happy Ever After Playlist' by Abby Jimenez

From the BLURB: 

Two years after losing her fiance, Sloan Monroe still can't seem to get her life back on track. But one trouble-making pup with a 'take me home' look in his eyes is about to change everything. With her new pet by her side, Sloan finally starts to feel more like herself. Then, after weeks of unanswered texts, Tucker's owner reaches out. He's a musician on tour in Australia. And bottom line: he wants Tucker back. 

Well, Sloan's not about to give up her dog without a fight. But what if this Jason guy really loves Tucker? As their flirty texts turn into long calls, Sloan can't deny a connection. Jason is hot and nice and funny. There's no telling what could happen when they meet in person. The question is: with his music career on the rise, how long will Jason really stick around? And is it possible for Sloan to survive another heartbreak?

'The Happy Ever After Playlist' is the second romance novel by Abby Jimenez, and a loose sequel to 'The Friend Zone.' 

I did not enjoy this ... and in my heart of hearts it's a 1.5/5 rating.

I'd been excited for this book because I loved last year's 'The Friend Zone' so much. I thought it had a really progressive message and portrayal of a heroine with chronic-pain and fertility issues, and even though that book let down the bulk of its messaging by instigating a convenient "barefoot and pregnant" twist at the very end - I still enjoyed the ride and kept thinking about it long after I'd finished.

'The Friend Zone' also set-up the premise for 'The Happy Ever After Playlist' by depicting the death of a character - Sloan's fiancee. So I was invested in this follow-up because the set-up in the first book had been so gut-wrenching and I really wanted closure.

I'll say ... the first thing that put me off 'Playlist' was a really early reference to duck-hunting, and game-hunting generally. It's actually a minor plot-point in the book that Sloan's deceased fiancee was a hunter, the new guy she's falling for is from Minnesota and is big into hunting and she herself used to run a food blog called 'The Huntsman's Wife' which is all about cooking game.

Now. It didn't help that I read this coinciding with duck-hunting season starting up again in Victoria, when it really should be banned because it's dangerous and cruel. And I get that in America hunting generally is maybe more ... accepted? Normal? But it's not to me. I'd say it's not to majority of Australians. And it just *really* threw me off that with that pretty pink cover and a blurb all about falling for a musician - hunting of wild animals ends up having quite a few pages dedicated within. Ughghghgh. Ew.

The other thing that annoyed me in this book was the second-half - I'll call it - lollygagging. That's the only word I can think of for the really repetitive "we have to break up, I don't want to break up, but what if we break up, but what if I push you away, but what if I stay, but what if you deceive me in order to push me away, but what if I don't believe you and I stay ..." it went on and on and on. I felt dizzy the number of times the hero and heroine spoke about not being able to stay together, and the various convoluted deceptions. It was ridiculous.

This book frustrated me no end and I'm actually shocked I kept going with it (eh. I bought it in lockdown, it took forever to get here because I'd pre-ordered it and then there were quarantine delays...) I will say; after 'The Friend Zone' I thought I'd found a new auto-buy author for myself, but after 'Playlist' I think I'll have to sit back and really decide if other books by her are worth my time.

1.5/5

'The Friend Zone' by Abby Jimenez

From the BLURB:

Kristen Petersen doesn't do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don't get her. She's also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.

Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen—especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he'd be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it's harder and harder to keep him at arm's length.

The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.

‘The Friend Zone’ is the debut contemporary romance novel by US author Abby Jimenez.

Props to Dymocks 234 in Melbourne – their romance section is an absolute delight to browse, and a few weeks ago I did exactly that when I found Jimenez’s debut book! This had previously not been on my radar, which isn’t hard these days; I feel like I’m drowning in a TBR-pile which has resulted in this weird FORO (fear of reading-out) and a little reading-stagnation. So I’ve really tried blocking out chatter of the next “must-read” because much like grocery-shopping when hungry, you shouldn’t book-browse when in a rut because you’ll try to fix the problem buying more books you don’t really want to read. But buy this I did after the blurb intrigued me; I started reading it 2 days ago, and last night I finished it just after midnight and on an absolute high from having my mojo back!

What makes this book stand-out is the heroine’s journey and “obstacle” to her happiness. Kristen has fallen for her best friend’s fiancée’s best-man, and despite some initial relationship hurdles, the main thing stopping her from finding happiness with fireman babe Josh is her inability to give him a family. Josh wants enough kids to fill out a baseball team, but Kirsten suffers from Uterine Fibroid Embolization (non-cancerous growths in the uterus which can affect a woman’s ability to conceive children, results in 19-day periods for Kirsten and excruciating cramps/bleeding). Recent medical acceptance that things like endometriosis are in fact *real* and not female-exaggeration have made for really interesting discussions in the medical field (read Gabrielle Jackson’s Guardian piece ‘Why don't doctors trust women?Because they don't know much about us’ which boils down to; “The medical community have known for a century that women are living in constant pain. They’ve done nothing about it”).

In ‘The Friend Zone’ is the first book I’ve personally read that centres this narrative for the female protagonist – and really confronts the pressures and heartache of chronic pain, as well as the emphasis society places on women’s bodies to function a certain way (and when they don’t, some are left to feel “less than”). I’d love to read more books with this narrative focus; it’s refreshing, modern, complex and important. I’m sure many readers will feel seen via this book and story (which is also why the ending *kind of* fails on the premise – but romance is about wish-fulfillment and self-actualisation so I’ll let it pass).

It helps that ‘The Friend Zone’ is also a really HOT book; Kirsten and Josh are a fab couple to read about with just as much snark and spark as they have hot n’ heaviness – it means the stakes in their ‘happily ever after’ feel real and complex.

That being said – I will warn that the latter-half of the book becomes a REAL blindside gut-punch I was not prepared for. I’d already cried throughout the middle, so to be whammied with that ending was … a shock. I will say it left me *desperate* for the second book (‘The Happy Ever After Playlist’ coming in April 2020) but for a romance it was maybe just a little uneven for the last warm and fuzzy I want to be left with? But I guess that’s where ‘The Friend Zone’ is maybe hedging more into ‘chick lit’ and women’s fiction than straight-up contemporary romance. Fair warning.

Overall; I loved this book. It absolutely pulled me out of my reading-rut by delivering on heat and heartache and having me yo-yo between laughs and tears. I can’t wait to read more from Abby Jimenez; even if I’ll be going into her future books with a little more armour, knowing she’s one to enjoy a reader-blindside.

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4.5/5