I had to read the first two books in this series before reading this one. Even though they are slightly interconnected, you could read this as a stand alone novel.

Meet Vanessa, who is dealing with her addict sister who just left her newborn daughter with her. Who has a hoarder father and the possibility of ALS also. Enter Adrian, the hot lawyer who hears the baby crying and decides to help. Hijinks ensues and that's all I can say without spoilers. Loved the story!

Another month means another #unitedbyromcomsfeature! 💕 I was so so SO excited that we got approved to read Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez, one of my favorite authors I discovered during quarantine. 😍

BLURB: Vanessa Price is living life on her own terms, not letting anything slow her down because she’s afraid to find out if she has the same genetic condition that took her mother’s life. But then when her addict sister abandons her child and leaves Vanessa to take her in, all her plans go out the window. She meets her sexy neighbor, lawyer Adrian Copeland and is determined to only be just friends with him. But the more time they spend together, the more Vanessa realizes that “life’s too short” to not take a risk resulting in romance.

Things I loved:
❤️ the trademark sass and light-hearted humor that Abby is known for
❤️ the perfect blend of romance and real-life issues that affect so many people
❤️the cameos from Josh, Kristen, Sloane, and Jason!

Things I didn’t love:
❤️ the ending was a bit cheesy to me, but still cute!

Thank you @readforeverpub , Abby Jimenez, and @netgalley for giving our group an arc of this sweet book. Life’s Too Short is out April 6th!

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

TW ⚠️: ALS, addiction, grief

#bookreview #lifestooshort #abbyjimenezbooks #unitedbyromcoms #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #bookfeature #bookish #bookworm #bibliophile #igreads #readersofinstagram

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for gifting me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was terrific! I have not reviewed the other 2 books in the series but this book did not fall short.
Abby Jimenez has the ability to make you smile with absolutely everything in you.

This book deals with mental health in a way that is relatable. No 2 people suffer the same way, but reading this, you can relate. The ALS aspect too, it's not something that I have never read about in a book before, and it's a heavy subject (In all aspects) but it balanced well.

Vanessa and Adrian were great characters, with a relationship I could only dream of.

The story was captivating and gripping of the heart.
I could barely put the book down, it was hard to remember sometimes that the story was not, in fact, my reality. (LOL!!)

I am beyond grateful to have received an early copy of this book on @NetGalley from @ReadForeverPub. This was the second book I read in 2021, and I devoured it cover to cover in a single day. It has since then taken me almost six weeks to put these words on paper because I keep revisiting this novel. To a degree, I think I just don’t want to admit that I finished reading it. I have loved Jimenez’s writing since the day I randomly picked up HEAP at the library. Discovering TFZ was like seeing a part of myself memorialized on the page. Life’s Too Short is a continuation of her five-star (I don’t give books stars, but if I did, this one would be a five for sure) series!
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Vanessa has her life planned out in the way that any travel vlogger can really create a plan until everything is turned upside down. I love that it isn’t Adrian that knocks everything askew, but he finds himself along for the ride as he tries to care for a geriatric dog and she cares for her newborn niece. Between learning how to help these new dependents thrive, the pair need to learn how to help themselves grow as individuals and perhaps how to let someone else into their lives. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this book takes you on a true roller coaster that never once feels contrived or false. These are people that your work with or live down the hall from you or maybe are you. These are characters you want to hang out with, and I can only hope that this isn’t the last time we get to meet them.

Abby has a way of grabbing your heart in the very beginning of her books and not letting go! Vanessa and Adrian are a great if accidental, couple! I love how neither expected the other to pop into their lives. ⁣
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So many feels in this one! I didn’t think it was possible, but I thought it was even more emotional than her first two books, which I also loved. She has a way of bringing her characters to life so much so that you can imagine them as real people in your friend group. ⁣
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I feel like there was a theme of family throughout this book, both the one you’re born into and the one you make for yourself and I loved it. 💕⁣
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There are a few content warnings: loss of family members, addiction, terminal illness. ⁣
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Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. ⁣

Oh my heart. ♥️ This book was perfection for me. My favorite thing about Abby’s writing is her ability to weave humor and light into heavy and uncomfortable topics. She has the ability to make me laugh and cry in the span of a single sentence, and this book was no different.

I could go on and on about this book but I’ll just stick to the top five things I loved:
⭐️ Vanessa. An amazingly strong and successful, yet quirky and fun heroine. Her hard life would have brought most people down, but she made it amazing.
⭐️ Adrian. Add him to the best book boyfriend list. Overworked, organized, and slightly alpha he just needed this wild woman in his life to ruffle things up. I loved that Abby shared his anxieties and it really felt so real.
⭐️ A new favorite friends to lovers?? I’m finding that I like when the instant attraction is denied for friendship. It leads to so many fun moments together.
⭐️ The family drama on both sides. They both had it and it Abby did an incredible job of showing how it shaped their adulthood.
⭐️ The Office references, the baby and the dog. Not necessarily in that order.
⭐️ The message of the book and the title really hit home for me. Life is too short. You better love big and have fun while you’re here!

TW: ALS, death of a loved one, mental illness, addiction

An instant five star read for me! A forced proximity friends to lovers romance filled with emotional depth, intentionality, and complex characters I loved hanging out with. This is a refreshing love story about a workaholic lawyer who finds friendship and balance with a fun-loving, down on her luck You-tuber. A truly heart-warming and tender novel I won’t soon forget.

𝙱𝚕𝚞𝚛𝚋: Vanessa’s life is a mess, so when her sexy next door neighbor Adrian swoops in to help Vanessa, she doesn’t turn him away. Quickly the two form a fast friendship and end up hanging out almost every night. The two can’t get enough of each other and, even more importantly, the two end up bringing out the best in each other.

This is the epitome of a friends to lovers romance. Neither Adrian nor Vanessa are looking for a relationship, but end up finding their forever friend in one another. An unforgettable novel filled with deep connections, family dysfunction, including drug use and mental illness, and the difficulties of ALS. A hilarious, heartfelt, and realistic portrayal of life, falling in love, and living every second to the fullest, hopeful and my favorite in this series!

There are not enough words to describe how wonderful this book is! It's not even published yet, but I am recommending it all over the place and encouraging friends patrons to pre-order this one ASAP.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Copy of this book!

Thank you to #netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this #arc copy of #LifesTooShort by Abby Jimenez.
When Vanessa, a YouTuber who lives her life on her own terms, is left to take care of her baby niece she is helped out by the man she least expected...her neighbor Adrian. There is far more to both of them than meets the eye and truly enjoyed finding out more about them.
I tore through this book, wanting to know if there could possibly be a way for a happy ending, but terrified there was not. This one tugged at my heartstrings and some of it even took place in my home state of Nebraska! Check out this book, you won't be disappointed.

Life’s Too Short is Abby Jimenez’s third book, and in my opinion her best! Like her other two books, Life’s Too Short is a romance that isn’t afraid to tackle heavy topics (such as disability, addiction, mental health & illness, grief, and loss). The characters are authentic, relatable, and lovable.

In the book, famous YouTube travel vlogger Vanessa Price has a 50/50 chance of inheriting her family’s ALS gene. Because Vanessa has experienced firsthand what ALS does to a person, having lost her mom and sister at young ages to the disease, Vanessa is determined to life whatever life she has left to the fullest. When Vanessa’s younger sister leaves her newborn in Vanessa’s care and vanishes, Vanessa suddenly finds herself in uncharted single parent territory. She unexpectedly befriends her neighbor, lawyer Adrian Copeland, and he is instantly charmed by Vanessa and the baby.

What I loved most about this book was how Vanessa and Adrian’s relationship grew in such an organic way. It was messy and raw and honest and real. They are both amazing characters and I didn’t ever want to leave their world. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Friend Zone, The Hating Game, or really any rom com ever.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Forever/Grand Central Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This may be my favorite Abby Jimenez book!! I finished it in a day, I felt so many emotions and I could not, and would not put this book down, sorry family your on your own!
Meet Vanessa she’s a famous YouTuber with a massive following, she documents her travels and lives by the motto Life is too short. She helps raise funds for ALS. Growing up she didn’t have the easiest life, her mother died in a car accident and her sister died of ALS. Her younger sister sister suffers from drug addiction, and one day she leaves her baby girl Grace with Vanessa and never comes back. Trying to look on the bright side she begins to care for Grace. She constantly worries that she has ALS she has 50/50 chance she will get it. She deals with a ton of family drama daily.
Adrian is a lawyer he lives across the hallway of Vanessa he owns the apartment complex. He works constantly and relies on facts. When his girlfriend suddenly breaks up with him, he’s a bit shocked he didn’t see it coming. When he meets Vanessa by asking if he can help calm Grace at 4am, who won’t stop crying, he has no idea how his life is about to change , which includes caring for an elderly foster dog!
Neither one of them are looking for love but they begin to spend all their time together, making dinner, watching non stop The Office episodes, grocery shopping and picking out Christmas trees, also Vanessa helping him babysit his foster dog and he helps with Grace. The more they spend time together the more they cannot deny the feelings and sparks that are happening if only it was that easy! Abby does an amazing job writing about sensitive subjects with such dignity! Also I loved Vanessa and Adrians love story it had so many levels and their love was so intimate and genuine it brought me to tears. Adrian was everything he was honest and when he loves he loves with everything he has, plus who doesn’t love a man with a beard!! I’m giving this five stars I loved the entire book!

Each book Abby Jimenez writes has a unique ability to make me simultaneously laugh and cry, and also feel every other emotion there is. Abby's debut, The Friend Zone, is one of my favorite books of all time and I was unsure how she could ever write something as good - enter, The Happy Ever After Playlist. But, could she do it a third time? Oh Jamie, don't ever doubt Abby - Life's Too Short certainly seals a three-peat for Abby.

Vanessa & Adrian were such loveable characters and Abby's exploration of broken families due to drug abuse in this one had my heart wrenching, but of course, always rooting for that HEA! One of my favorite things about Abby's books is the opportunity to check in on characters from the past, so I absolutely loved the chance to see how Kristen, Josh, Sloane & Jason were doing.

Now, just how long do I have to wait for book 4?!

Thank you to Forever for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Abby Jimenez is one of my new favorite authors and every book gets better and better! I live how she can combine character development with love and life and have it come out a beautiful and connected rom com that you won’t soon forget!

Travel vlogger Vanessa Price has a family history of ALS and her outlook on life is an inspiration to many. She sponsors her struggling family, donates to ALS research, living her life to the fullest so to speak knowing she has a ticking time bomb. When she meets attorney Adrian Copeland, her vow to not date is broken, and she falls head over heels. How do you cope when you can only spend a limited time with the love of your life?

Jimenez does it again! If you loved and cherished THE FRIEND ZONE, then this will definitely win your heart. Yet again, I ugly cried, I laughed, and I swooned. Jimenez not only brought on her signature wit, she gave love and life to what you’d think would be a tragic love story—an incurable disease, deadbeat father, a sister who’s an addict. But, the theme of LIFE’S TOO SHORT resonated with eve

I fell in love with The Friend Zone and the Happy Ever After Playlist last year. Now, I just finished Life’s Too Short and it was Soooooo good!! 😍 I loved Vanessa’s character. Abby doesn’t just write rom coms, her characters actually have depth. They have real problems and real situations. Yes, they are funny, sarcastic, and lovable too, but I find myself always invested in how their lives turn out 💛

Thank you for my advanced copy for an honest review! All opinions are my own

Ya’ll. My day was made when I saw my wish had been granted for this book, and my afternoon got even better as I could not put it down. I lost myself in the story of Adrian and Vanessa and I’m just now coming up for air.

Adrian- Stuffy lawyer, going through the motions until his life is rocked by one infant’s late night cries.

Vanessa- Successful YouTuber whose world is turned upside down when she becomes temporary guardian of a newborn.

Abby Jimenez continues to rock out these 5 star reads with complex characters, real issues, and problem solving. I cannot get enough of her writing. While the book does touch on some tough topics, she does this will both style and grace.

If you’ve read Jimenez’s other writing, this book falls right in line. Witty banter, romance, and a good storyline make this one of my favorite reads of 2021. I can’t wait to hear what you think about it!

I am obsessed with Abby Jimenez’s books. Each one seems even better than the one before. Reading Life’s Too Short, her third book was such a treat. I fell hard and fast for this book and basically inhaled it. Readers who need a guaranteed outpouring of feelings and great characters and a can’t stop won’t stop reading type of book HAVE to pick up Life’s Too Short. I know that I personally will be shouty and pushy about this book for a long time. I can also tell that it will end up being one of my favorites of the year.

Life’s Too Short opens with Adrian trying to sleep with his girlfriend, Rachel. Only, there is a baby loudly crying in the apartment next door. So, Adrian walks over to talk to his neighbor and see why the baby is crying so much. It is then that he meets Vanessa. Vanessa has recently, unexpectedly obtained custody of her niece, Grace. She’s nearly at the end of her rope for the night when Adrian knocks on her door. But, he’s not a dick, he actually offers to hold Gracie while Vanessa takes a shower. And that, my friends, is only the beginning. You see, Vanessa and Adrian become wonderful friends and it turns out, Adrian is awesome with Grace.

Adrian ends up single the same night that he knocks on Vanessa’s door. And okay we all root for the two to get together, but that doesn’t happen just yet. Instead, Adrian and Vanessa develop this wonderful, deep friendship. Adrian is a lawyer who has devoted so much of his life to work and just hasn’t stopped to smell the roses. Meanwhile, Vanessa is a travel vlogger. She’s actually quite famous. Vanessa is spontaneous and adventurous and hardly says no. That’s because she unfortunately has a 50/50 chance of carrying the gene for ALS which means she may die before she’s thirty, like her mother, sister, aunt, and grandmother did. She won’t enter into a relationship because of this chance, she doesn’t want to put that on anyone. But, life is short, and Adrian just might change Vanessa’s mind.

I really loved Life’s Too Short. Like if I didn’t have to work for a living, I would have just read it all in one sitting. As it was, I would reward myself for completing tasks and data analysis with a chapter from this book. And you know, after reading this book, I ended up adding it and The Friend Zone to my birthday/Christmas/just because wishlist. After all, I am reading all my own unread books to clear space on my shelf for books that I LOVED – books like this. I loved Adrian, I loved Vanessa, I loved Grace and omg even Harry Puppins won me over. There were so many emotions while reading this book but it was SO WORTH IT. This is my favorite of Abby Jimenez’s works and if you check it out, you will see why.

Life's too Short by Abby Jimenez
Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Forever Publisher
Pub Date 06 Apr 2021

SYNOPSIS: "Vanessa lives life on her own terms -- one day at a time, every day to its fullest. She isn't willing to waste a moment or miss out on an experience when she has no idea whether she shares the same fatal genetic condition as her mother. Besides, she has way too much to do, traveling the globe and showing her millions of YouTube followers the joy in seizing every moment.

But after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her infant daughter, she is housebound, on mommy duty for the foreseeable future, and feeling totally out of her element.

The last person she expects to show up offering help is the unbelievably hot lawyer who lives next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. But as they get closer, Vanessa realizes that her carefree ways and his need for a structured plan could never be compatible for the long term. Then again, she should know better than anyone that life's too short to fear taking the biggest risk of all. . ."

REVIEW:
I LOVED THIS STORY. I soared through the first two books (The Friend Zone & The Happy ever After Playlist) in 2 days and was so excited to be able to read this one. Abby is a great story teller and has both heaby & emotional issue but has its hilarious moments. There were many times i was laughing while reading and and cried within a couple chapters. Abby does a great job with with her character development, connecting them to the previous books without overpowering the current story. I would rate this book 4.5/5.

Thank you Netgalley, Forever, and Abby for the access to this story in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted on GoodReads (February 11, 2021)
Review linked.

3/5 stars!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for sending me an E-ARC of this book for an honest review.

I was super excited about this book because I have loved Abby Jimenez's last two books so much! However, this book just did not meet my high expectations. I had a lot of trouble connecting with the characters. I felt like the main love interest's character was really flat and I found the plot very predictable. For me, this romance was cute, but not amazing.

Thanks for reading!
Caden

✓ Insta-Lust, ✓ Friends to Lovers, ✓ Close Proximity, ✓ Single Mother, ✓ Opposite Attract

Just like this book’s predecessor, The Happy Ever After Playlist, this book was a hard pass for me.

I can appreciate the message of this book: to live each moment as if it’s your last. Our main character, Vanessa, lives in a family of women who have all died before the age of 30 because of ALS. Fearing that she too will have succumb to the same fate, she starts to make YouTube videos of her journey to make the most of her last years as she travels the world. I really appreciated this point and what the author was trying to accomplish. I know that the author took inspiration from a real-life YouTuber, Claire Wineland, who also had a fatal illness and used her position to inspire others. I got more of an appreciation of that angle of this book after reading about that. I know many people will be inspired and take away a lot from this book from this messaging.

But that is not where my beef is with this book.

This book had many of the same elements as The Happy Ever After Playlist that made me so baffled as to how it was so well-received: instalove, attachment issues, weak chemistry, and quick resolutions.

Sure, in this book, the characters are friends first and build their relationship. But soon you realize that they are friends only in title and that they are both already gone for each other but they firmly agree that they “aren’t hitting on each other” (which makes everything platonic, right??). But then they quickly become attached to each other within just a few days of meeting anyway??

I mean, literally, within a weekend of knowing each other, they already have an open-door policy, have almost daily meals together (they even grocery shop and plan meals together), he bought his own baby swing for baby Grace that he keeps in his own apartment (!!) and have an unspoken agreements for him to watch her baby and her to watch his dog.

Within days??

In the beginning, Vanessa is firm in her stance that she doesn’t want to date on account that she might also have ALS. But then after a few days she’s like hmm you know what maybe I’ll chance this one. Like??

And Vanessa has so many problems arise that he has to come help with that I was just there sitting and reading like, how did she deal with this on her own before him? Because there were so many problems that came up, what with her drug addicted sister and hoarder father. It didn’t make sense. We also learned in the beginning that our love interest, Adrian, is a lawyer who is married to his job and rarely leaves before midnight and never takes time off. But suddenly, within days of knowing Vanessa, changes his tune, and is now fine with taking time off and even actively skips out to attend to her and the baby.

If that isn’t instalove and attachment issues, I don’t know what is.

Also can we talk about how baby Grace was used just as a plot device to bring the two together and makes less and less of an appearance as the book went on? Because…

That leads to the weak chemistry. I quite honestly don’t know what is keeping these two together. The reason they met and become friends is because of baby Grace, who was used to then keep them together in the beginning. Then they bond over The Office. The use of that show in this book was just excessive and even downright corny. Vanessa even had shirts with jokes from the show. That certainly won’t age well. I felt like it was used as a crutch to show that the two are bonding and have at least one thing in common. I really don’t like when books constantly bring up pop culture references to bring in “relatability”. But, really, other than baby Grace, him basically being her white knight, and The Office, I don’t see where they connect? It’s mostly her telling him to “live life to the fullest!!” And him being like “hm you know what, I never thought of it like that.”

And the ending was just wrapped up too well.

But, just like The Happy Ever After Playlist, I know people will love this one too.