Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Genre: Romance
Blurb (on back of book):
A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match. Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.
And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,” and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can’t refuse.
MY OPINION: ****
I loved this book with all my heart and was surprised by how good it ended up being. I did not read the first one in this "series" because they're all standalones and the plot of this one sounded much more interesting. Additionally, many of my friends also said they really loved this book so I decided to just jump right in and skip the first one, which I haven't heard as much excitement about.
This book was 400 pages but I blew through it in a day. It was engaging, well-paced, romantic, and beautifully written. I loved the characters, the plot, and the tropes, and that makes for a very good romance book. It was funny, it was trite, and yes, it was a little cliche but that made it all the more fun.
Briana is a doctor at a hospital fresh out of a divorce with her cheating husband of ten years. Her younger brother is going through kidney problems and she finds herself in a competition with one of the new doctors for a promotion at her workplace. Of course, this new doctor is the love interest, Jacob Maddox. We start out with a enemies to lovers sort of ordeal which soon morphs into friendship, fake dating, and then, finally, love.
I loved the pacing of this book. I feel like it was the exact right amount of slowburn that a rom com needs. I hate books that put them together too fast or put them together when there's ten pages left. I need like 80% build-up and 20% cutesy lovey-dovey, because we all know somewhere in that 20%, there will be a typical third act breakup. I feel like this book definitely built up our characters. There were some points where I wish we could have done some reveals later in the book to build up angst and tension but honestly, I'm so sick of the miscommunication trope that I shouldn't be complaining about their honesty and communication.
I loved Jacob. He comes off from the outside as rude and cold to many people he's just meeting but once you get to know him, he's a sweetheart. He suffers from incredibly horrible social anxiety and anxiety disorder and I resonated with him on a different level. I know that some people found his constant anxiety about how people perceived him annoying but I personally feel like that IS me. Everything that man had to say about anxiety and the situations he was thrown into was literally me to the tee. I have honestly never felt so seen by a book and this was one of the rare moments where I felt like the representation actually REPRESENTED in the way that it was supposed to.
Sure, some things moved fast and some things were unrealistic. However, I ate this book up. It was so fun and entertaining and heartbreaking and swoonworthy and I can't wait to read the other one in this world (which I have heard isn't as good, so maybe I should have done it the other way around). I found myself highlighting countless passages in this book in inordinate amounts and I just loved so much about it. It's dual POV so you really get to dive into Jacob's head and learn more about his mental health, which I loved.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a perfect romance for the summer. It has all the tropes you could ask for and more. I loved it so much and would definitely try to persuade any of my romance-reading friends to pick it up, as one of my friends did to me.
<3
Main Character: Briana, Jacob
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Anxiety, miscommunication, etc
Romance Elements: This is a romantic comedy built into a book.
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