Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

Contemporary Romance. Closed Door. First in a Connected Series.

After reading and absolutely loving Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez, I found out it was actually the third in a series (even though it isn’t listed that way on Amazon). So I reserved Part of Your World, the first audiobook in the series, from my library and hit play as soon as it became available, not paying attention to the narrators. Unfortunately, as soon as I heard Zachary Webber’s voice, I was triggered by his recent online behavior, so I bought the Kindle version instead.

At first, I set a timer to stop at the end of Julia Whelan’s chapters, reading the male POV sections on my Kindle. But I got so engrossed in the story that I ended up reading the entire book on my kindle in one sitting.

Why did it take me so long to read Abby Jimenez? I absolutely loved Part of Your World!

Alexis Montgomery is an ER doctor at a prestigious Minneapolis hospital. Her family has been on the hospital’s board and worked as surgeons for generations. Alexis and her twin brother were expected to continue the family tradition, but when her brother left the country for a woman, the pressure fell entirely on Alexis to uphold the Montgomery legacy. Alexis’s family is as wealthy as it gets, and it’s the only life she’s ever known. Her parents put immense pressure on her, forcing her to live a life for them rather than herself.

On her way home from a funeral a few hours away, 37-year-old Alexis’s car broke down. A handsome local from the closest small town came to her rescue, they hit it off, and Alexis threw caution to the wind for a one-night stand.

Daniel is only 28, an incredibly talented carpenter, runs a B&B for his family, and is mayor of the small town of Wakun. More importantly, he has a baby goat in pajamas! Alexis’s friends and family would look at him like he is dirt on the bottom of their shoe – he would never fit in her life. But Alexis found herself drawn to him, his amazing animals, and the charm of small-town life.

What started as a one-night stand blossomed into a secret affair. Alexis led a double life, becoming part of Daniel’s world in Wakan, while knowing he could never be part of her world in Minneapolis.

“When she left, the only proof I ever had that she’d been here, or that she even existed at all, was the ache I was starting to feel when she was gone.”

Alexis is driven, and works in the ER because she likes helping as many people as she can in a day with a variety of traumas. Can she give up her family and the opportunity to help thousands of people for small-town life? Can he leave the small town and fit in with her society world?

Likes:

I highlighted a crazy amount of quotes that I loved.
I love Abby Jimenez’s writing style.
I was smiling the whole time.
There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments tempered by some sad and serious ones.
Daniel couldn’t have been more perfect.
A BABY GOAT IN PAJAMAS.
I couldn’t hate Alexis’s family more.
An amazing ending.
The setup for the next book in the series, Yours Truly (which I’m in the middle of now and I think I love it even more than this and that’s saying a lot!)

Dislikes:

Closed Door (but honestly, I barely noticed).
The male narrator, and it’s because of racist things he has said on social media, not because of his talent.

Some more of my favorite quotes that I couldn’t work into this review without making it stupidly long:

“Grace costs you nothing”

“Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense. It doesn’t even stop when the person you love dies. It does what it wants.”

“Sometimes family isn’t what you’re born into. Sometimes family is found.”

“Nothing could convince me this woman wasn’t made for me to love. I think my soul recognized hers the second I laid eyes on her.”

“I’d follow a clown into a storm drain if he had a baby goat in pajamas.”

The Down & Dirty:

I’m officially obsessed with Abby Jimenez and will be reading her entire backlist. I loved Part of Your World so much! Even though Alexis and Daniel came from completely different worlds, they complemented each other perfectly. I knew from the first chapter that I’d adore this book, and it never let me down. I can’t wait to dive into every other book Abby Jimenez has written—I just hope she picks different narrators for future audiobooks.