I agree with you! It wasn’t her strongest work. I think there was not enough character development of Samantha especially. What do we really know about her except that she is funny and good at her job? I can tell you all about her family and their dynamic and all about Xavier and his trauma and who he is, but Samantha was not as fleshed out. Abby really thrived in writing the family story and the real heartbreak of dementia, to the point that the romance was secondary.
I did want to know a little more about her before this devastating time in her life! It felt like it kind of swallowed her up--which tragedy like that does tend to do but I think I might have liked a little glimpse at before-Samantha.
I agree that Xavier and his day to day struggles were much better written. I felt definitely more connected to him than to Samantha. Didn’t really get her.
I completely agree with your review! It's not that I want spice, but I want some yearning! I want to see the main characters slowly falling in love with each other, rather than instantly knowing they won't ever break up. The banter and the first date were so cute and if that would've extended throughout the novel I would have liked this so much more. I also found the pop culture references to be a bit too cringe for my taste; I don't remember this being the case in her other novels but I could be misremembering.
Yes, the yearning is *essential* for me! I found the pop culture references a little jarring at first but they seemed to taper off about 30% in? Or at least I stopped noticing them...
I could see her humor and the rhythm of her writing really working on audio! I read a physical copy of this one (like pretty much all of my reading), so that might have had something to do with my reaction to it too.
I immediately read both of the books by these two big authors. I liked both books but didn’t absolutely love them. The historical timeline of Henry’s book was less interesting to me than the current characters. Yours Truly also remains my favorite Jimenez book.
Interestingly, we're flipped on the Henry & Jimenez releases this season! I listened to both on audio, and I wonder how much that affected my experience with both books. I also wonder what my somewhat-more-normal brain would think compared to the wild postpartum ride I'm on right now--as in, I loved the comfort of a couple's inevitability from Jimenez, but I was bored by the dual plots in Henry.
Oh, I love thinking about it as "the comfort of a couple's inevitability"! I did both on the page--like 99.9% of my reading--and I wonder if I I might have gotten a bit more swoon if I'd had the intimacy of audio?
I agree with you! It wasn’t her strongest work. I think there was not enough character development of Samantha especially. What do we really know about her except that she is funny and good at her job? I can tell you all about her family and their dynamic and all about Xavier and his trauma and who he is, but Samantha was not as fleshed out. Abby really thrived in writing the family story and the real heartbreak of dementia, to the point that the romance was secondary.
I did want to know a little more about her before this devastating time in her life! It felt like it kind of swallowed her up--which tragedy like that does tend to do but I think I might have liked a little glimpse at before-Samantha.
I agree that Xavier and his day to day struggles were much better written. I felt definitely more connected to him than to Samantha. Didn’t really get her.
I completely agree with your review! It's not that I want spice, but I want some yearning! I want to see the main characters slowly falling in love with each other, rather than instantly knowing they won't ever break up. The banter and the first date were so cute and if that would've extended throughout the novel I would have liked this so much more. I also found the pop culture references to be a bit too cringe for my taste; I don't remember this being the case in her other novels but I could be misremembering.
Yes, the yearning is *essential* for me! I found the pop culture references a little jarring at first but they seemed to taper off about 30% in? Or at least I stopped noticing them...
I listened to the Abby Jimenez on audio and really enjoyed it.
I could see her humor and the rhythm of her writing really working on audio! I read a physical copy of this one (like pretty much all of my reading), so that might have had something to do with my reaction to it too.
I immediately read both of the books by these two big authors. I liked both books but didn’t absolutely love them. The historical timeline of Henry’s book was less interesting to me than the current characters. Yours Truly also remains my favorite Jimenez book.
Yours Truly was just the perfect reading experience for me! A little bit of book alchemy.
Interestingly, we're flipped on the Henry & Jimenez releases this season! I listened to both on audio, and I wonder how much that affected my experience with both books. I also wonder what my somewhat-more-normal brain would think compared to the wild postpartum ride I'm on right now--as in, I loved the comfort of a couple's inevitability from Jimenez, but I was bored by the dual plots in Henry.
Oh, I love thinking about it as "the comfort of a couple's inevitability"! I did both on the page--like 99.9% of my reading--and I wonder if I I might have gotten a bit more swoon if I'd had the intimacy of audio?
I think the dual narration helped the swoon factor a lot.