Abby Jimenez: Questions From the Author to the Reader

Abby Jimenez is an American romance novelist and the, Part Of Your World, series is her second series of interconnected romance standalones and the first series of hers that I read. Although, after reading this series I intend to read her other works. One thing I noticed Jimenez does at the end of her books that intrigued me is her: questions for readers, Q&A segment and recipes from the book, which pay homage to the fact she’s also a baker. Today I thought it would be interesting to focus on the questions for the reader and answer some of them from my perspective after reading all three novels. Some spoilers will be included as these questions reflect on the entire story.

The first novel, Part Of Your World, was published in 2022 and focuses on Alexis and Daniel. It is an age-gap romance with Alexis, 37, being an ER doctor facing pressure from her wealthy family to continue the legacy of taking a high role in the hospital her family had worked in for almost centuries. Daniel, 28, is a carpenter, runs his family home as a B&B and does anything else the small town of Wakan requires of him. The two’s lives seem entirely incompatible but they may be just what each other needs. I initially wasn’t sure about this novel perhaps because of the age gap element but I ended up giving it 4 stars and loved the setting of Wakan and the development of both of the characters, especially with the involvement of the abuse storyline.

Time for the first question…

What are the pros and cons of Alexis’ lifestyle vs Daniel’s? Which would you choose? What is your definition of success? 

Alexis and Daniel’s lifestyles are vastly different. Alexis is an ER doctor from an extremely wealthy family. Some pros of her lifestyle would definitely be wealth, stability, prestige, privilege and respect. These come from her family affecting her social standing and the fact that she is very good and passionate about her job. Some cons would be the pressure, stress, proximity to Neil and loneliness. Her family puts a lot of pressure on her ,especially after her brother moves away, to represent her family's legacy even though she’s never wanted to be the type to speak at events and represent entire corporations. Additionally, while she does love her job the promotion means a sharp and intense increase of hours which would be stressful for anyone. The fact she is forced to still live with Neil, her emotionally abusive ex, is definitely a major con to her lifestyle although it does in a way allow her to become more confident in herself and set firm boundaries. And although she does have friends, I’d argue her only true friend is really Brianna. When she goes to the B&B with her other friends she realises how different from them she really is and how privileged she had acted in the past. Her family's love is also conditional on whether she is doing what they want from her. This alongside her forced friendships and living with her ex make for a lonely lifestyle. 

Meanwhile, Daniel is a carpenter, runs the B&B, is the town’s unpaid mayor and does anything he can to help the people of Wakan. Some pros of this lifestyle would be the community he’s created, friendships and variety with everyday being different. An ongoing joke, from the character Popeye, throughout the novel is that Wakan is ‘magic’ and this definitely impacts the familial and comforting feel of Daniel’s lifestyle. However, not all is magic in Wakan and there are still definitely some cons including financial struggle, stress, pressure and a need to be independent. Wakan is not a wealthy town, especially during off-season where most of the novel takes place, so Daniel has to constantly think about finances. This comes to a head when his estranged mother Amber decides she wants to sell the B&B and Daniel has just a few months to majorly increase its profits. Daniel also feels stress and pressure like Alexis, but in a different way as he feels deeply responsible for his town and feels a need to help everyone. And though his friends in Wakan have become his family, Daniel has no real family of his own.

I feel like I put a lot more focus on the cons of both lifestyles there but I think I would personally choose Daniel’s way of life. The magic of the small town and everyone’s reliance on each other with the sense of community is something to aspire to. However, I do think the ultimate best lifestyle is when Daniel and Alexis’ lives come together. Daniel’s lifestyle becomes better as they successfully buy back his family home so he no longer has to run it as a B&B and is finally able to focus his time on being a carpenter which is what he’s really passionate about. Alexis opens a satellite clinic in Wakan which allows her to leave her high-pressure job at her family hospital and really focus on helping the people in the small town of Wakan.

I think the above is truly my definition of success. Both Alexis and Daniel end the novel with careers that truly fulfil them. They live somewhere that makes them happy and has a great community. But most importantly, they also have each other and go on to build a family in this place surrounded by love and ultimately peace for them both.

The second novel in this series ,Yours Truly, was published in 2023 and focuses on Briana and Jacob. Briana was previously introduced in Part of Your World as Alexis’ best friend and fellow ER doctor. When she’s going for a promotion at work, Jacob shows up, initially seeming to be her competition but quickly flips the game by writing her a letter explaining he has no ill intentions. Even better, he’s the perfect donor for her brother, whose kidneys are failing. Briana has a chance to help out Jacob as his ex-girlfriend and brother are getting married and he needs to make his family think he’s moved on, so what better than a fake new girlfriend? I gave this book 4.5 stars and absolutely loved both of the characters and their quirks and how they grew closer through both the letters and fake dating.

For the second question…

How has Briana’s view of men been shaped by her mother and her own life experiences? Could you understand why Briana was afraid to love Jacob?

Briana’s view of men was certainly shaped and influenced by her mother. With her father leaving while her mother was pregnant with her younger brother Benny she saw men as abandoning women in a time of need. This then also led her mother to have to work even harder to make ends meet and support her children.

However, evidently this alone does not completely damage Briana’s view of men as she goes on to marry Nick who she does really believe at the time is her true love. However, he leaves her for one of her friends that he’s been having an affair with. After this, Briana winds up back at her mother’s old house feeling very much like she’s back to square one and has completely lost the life she’d imagined for herself. I think her own more recent experience with her ex definitely impacts her view of men more because she thought she found someone who would be different from her father and then proceeded to do just the same thing, leave her. This can be seen as altering her mindset.

I can completely understand why Briana was afraid to love Jacob. With her past experiences, her being afraid is already completely understandable. The fact that she and Jacob begin their ‘relationship’ by fake dating also leads to a lot of miscommunication and lines of what is fake and what is real being blurred. While I think Jacob is a very honest character, he also struggles with anxiety. This means he does initially struggle to confess how he’s feeling and when he does feel like he’s being rejected, he shuts down. Briana is already afraid and questioning everything so a lack of clarity only makes it harder.

Just when feelings become clear between Briana and Jacob, they are thrown yet another curveball - she’s pregnant. This directly brings her back to her relationship with both her dad, who left her mother when she was pregnant with Benny. As well as with her ex who it’s revealed also left her when she was pregnant and she ended up losing the baby. Once this is revealed to Jacob despite all of his reassurance she is still afraid to love him and let him in. This is where Jacob’s journal he consistently uses to help manage his anxiety comes in. This has entries from every single day since he met Briana showing just how genuine his feelings are and finally making her not afraid.

Other ways he continues to make her feel secure are by giving her constant reassurance in several ways. He lets her name be on the house, so she won’t be in a situation like she was with Nick. When they get married, he takes her last name. And when the baby comes he knows how much she loves her work so he becomes a stay-at-home dad. Though there was a lot of miscommunication along the way they end up reaching a point they both make each other feel safe and fully content.

The third and final novel in this series ,Just For The Summer, was published in 2024 and has received the most hype online, which is where I first saw Jimenez’s name mentioned. After reading the first two books, I was almost expecting it to be about the unlikeable character Jessica who appears as a friend in both previous books. However instead both of these characters are almost entirely new with Justin ,being a friend of Benny’s briefly appearing in Yours Truly, and Emma ,who initially appears to have no links to prior characters though this has changed by the end. The two meet after Justin posts on a Reddit thread about every girl he’s dated going on to find ‘the one’ right after they break up. Emma feels she’s experiencing a similar phenomenon so to break the curse the two agree to four dates, a kiss and a breakup to conclude. But things don’t remain so simple when Emma’s toxic mother appears and Justin has to take guardianship of his three younger siblings when his mother has to go to jail. This book was my absolute favourite of the series and I gave it 5 stars and loved the exploration of trauma and how everything came together in the end.

For the final question…

Do you think Emma leaving to work on herself was brave or selfish?

I think Emma leaving to work on herself can be seen as both brave and selfish. Emma decides to leave after some big revelations about her mother. She discovered that Daniel (yes the same Daniel from Part Of Your World) is her older half brother and was comfortably raised in the stable home of his grandparents until they passed away. Meanwhile, her mother Amber intentionally chose to keep her from this stable family environment, even leaving her at home alone for weeks while she went to visit them.

Emma can be seen as being brave when she decides to confront her mother and leave the place that she followed her to. Some major discoveries are made including the fact her mother had recently gotten $500,000 for selling a B&B yet this money had seemingly disappeared. This is just the beginning of her mother’s lies as Emma’s worst discovery is despite being told she had no other family she had grandparents and a brother who would have wanted her had they known she existed. Emma leaving her mother in that house and not listening to her excuses signifies a big step for her, as her best friend Maddy claims she’d always defend her despite how much hurt she caused. Her leaving and going to Wakan is her putting herself first for the first time and not travelling to run away like she has before with her job as a travelling nurse. Instead she’s travelling to find out more about herself, her family and settle.

However, Emma can also be seen as selfish. She doesn’t initially make the decision to go to Wakan but just to run to the nearest airport in plans of getting whichever flight is next. She doesn’t tell Maddy and Justin because she doesn’t want them to have to ‘fix something they didn’t break’ but what she doesn’t consider is how much they do want to be there for her. This is shown by the fact Maddy put an AirTag on her suitcase for fear that she might run away. She could also be considered selfish for the fact she never accepted Maddy’s parents (Emma’s foster parents) as her own in childhood despite them wanting to adopt her and similarly in the novel she is cautious to get close with Justin’s family. This stems from trust issues with her own mother but can still appear as selfish for not allowing others in when they so desperately want to be. She did become a part of Justin’s life and family despite having those barriers up, so leaving so suddenly does feel selfish because of the impact it will have on them.

Ultimately, I think what makes Emma truly brave is the fact she came back. Her whole life she’d been running, so the fact she took the time to heal and then came back was a big deal. It was also brave of her to take time away from Justin’s family so that she didn’t hurt them in this process. When she is healed enough to come back, the first thing she prioritises is Justin’s younger siblings, showing that she is still there for them and trying to repair that relationship. Her coming back for Justin also shows her commitment to him and their desire to grow together. In the epilogue, we see both characters get to be fully selfish in a way that feels deserved when Justin’s mother returns and the two can focus on each other with a sense of simplicity they didn’t have before.

Written by, Freya Woodcock