Let’s be friends on Goodreads

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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.

This is book #2, with the first being “Part of Your World” (also heavily recommend that. That’s the book that made me fall in love with Abby & her writing). Instead of continuing with Alexis & Daniel’s story from PoYW, Yours Truly follows Alexis’ best friend Briana and her dreamy love interest Jacob.

This post definitely contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk

I am 10000000000% on board with the fake dating trope AND the strangers to friends to lovers trope. The fact that this had so much involved and so many “cliches” made it absolutely perfect for me. I laughed so hard at how quirky Briana was, and I fell in love with how charmingly awkward Jacob is.

There are some pretty heavy topics, of which Abby does a great job warning the reader beforehand. Actually, the whole book is lighthearted with a sprinkling of heavy topics throughout. Brianna is dealing with infidelity and pregnancy loss and coping with the diagnosis of her brother’s autoimmune disease, and Jacob is dealing with his brother getting engaged to his ex girlfriend.

I REALLY, really loved how Brianna and Jacob “met” – I quoted that because they were coworkers, so they knew of each other, but hadn’t really interacted enough. Jacob being pissed that Brianna bumped into him, causing his phone to fall and break, then following her into her sick brother’s hospital room to confront her, only to completely swerve from that plan, yet still awkwardly accuse her of intentionally breaking his stuff. They then start writing letters back and forth to get to know each other, and somehow wind up in this fake dating relationship/friendship.

Personally, I wish the letters portion would have lasted a little longer, but I loved how Jimenez brought that full circle at the end. Jacob donating his kidney and being a “perfect match” was also slightly cringey, but because I was in the mood for syrupy sweet romance, I was okay with it. It was also nice to see a secondary character go through a lot of behind the scenes character development. Benny was a pretty unlikeable character (I’d likely be unlikeable too if I had chronic kidney disease and needed a transplant that was unlikely to happen), so watching his change and growth was refreshing.

A lot of people talk about this book like it’s an enemies to lovers trope. I’m not sure if I missed it, but I really don’t think they’re enemies at all. They got off on the wrong foot, sure, but I don’t think that automagically qualifies them as enemies. I think that just makes them less likely to become friends. Oh well, semantics, I guess.

As the story progressed, I found myself getting slightly frustrated. For two people who could actually communicate pretty well, they sure couldn’t be bothered to do it with each other. 😦 And when they did talk about it their feelings, neither believed the other. It probably has everything to do with the fact that they’ve both been dramatically hurt before. Regardless, I spent an obnoxious amount of time yelling at both of them while in my car driving to where I needed to go.

I loved the character development throughout, and the cameos by Alexis and Daniel from “Part of Your World”. I loved how Jimenez portrayed Jacob and his anxiety disorders, and how he and Brianna promised to not be harmful to one another.

Overall, this book was a real feel-good romance. Everyone got their happy endings, even if it took an obnoxiously long time to get there 😉 (anything longer than 4 minutes is a long time, okay?)

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until next time xoxo