Loving Literatures

I am not usually one to read Goodreads ratings before making my own, but reading some of the reviews, my exact thoughts felt validated.

I was feeling good about the beginning. The grumpy x sunshine trope had me hooked. Being called an a**hole by one of your patient’s owners is a funny “meet-cute” for a vet MMC. I loved Xavier’s character — charming veterinarian with a deep dark past (childhood trauma and abuse), who would do anything for the ones he loved most in this world, but he carried the ENTIRE relationship. Samantha’s character, however, I could not like. Yes, I understand having a close family member lose themselves to dementia takes a toll on all those around them — I understand completely, having had my grandparents go through the same thing, but she was too much for me. Her dialogue, pop references, and entire personality based on her mustard marketing job was so cringey. Xavier left all that he had behind for her. She told him to forget about her, but he still came back to her. I didn’t feel like she felt the same, even when it was clearly stated on the page. I didn’t feel the romance, the yearning. I saw it, felt it, from Xavier’s POV, but altogether, it felt very one-sided.

While the way Xavier and Samantha had their first night together, it was one to remember, but it felt too unrealistic to yearn for someone so badly that you would drop your private practice (that you worked so hard to have) to move cross-country for a woman you just met. Abby Jimenez wanted to write a male character who truly yearned for his love interest, and while I love yearning, it was A LOT. After meeting her one time, he thought he couldn’t live without her. Almost everything you could want from a man was put into Xavier’s character and it just distracted readers from truly understanding the couple’s dynamic. He was so perfect, and she was just so not. It made me want her to step up her game.

My final note about the book was the family drama. There was so much of it that I felt like I couldn’t focus on the romance. Everyone was MISERABLE. Everyone. And there were just too many family conflicts that Jimenez shoved into a book storyline, it felt unfinished and cut short.

I was feeling great about this read, and then it didn’t sit well with me when I finished it, I’m bummed because I really liked one of her other books, Part of Your World.