Part of Your World

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶/4

I LOVED this. The journey that both of these characters go on to not only come to accept the love they have for each other but also the love they deserve for themselves is heartbreaking and beautiful. (Don’t worry we do get an HEA!)
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This is a story of a woman who has to break free of so many different kinds of molds and expectations and traps in order to be truly happy. Emotional abuse from her family and ex bf. Generational work expectations. Societal / money status expectations. So many things are standing in the way of her happiness and it’s such an emotional yet worthwhile journey to see her learning to leave each one behind as it stops holding power over her. show more Highly recommend.

Quote that stuck with me: "Grace costs you nothing"
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👏👏👏
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Audiobook Bonus: this is written in dual POV and there are 2 narrators. This added so much depth, I loved it 😊
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Tropes & Themes:
💙 opposites attract
💙 age gap (older F / younger M)
💙 small town
💙 toxic family
💙 doctor meets artist / innkeeper
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TW: emotionally abusive ex forcing co-habitation in a shared dwelling - this had some heavy emotional abuse plot lines so be aware throughout for the gaslighting. show less

After landing her car in the ditch, Alexis Montgomery is “rescued” by Daniel Grant and introduced to the small rural town of Wakan. Alexis, 37, is a hot-shot emergency room physician from a dynasty of physicians who have traditionally been closely linked to the hospital at which Alexis herself works.

Daniel, 28, on the other hand is from a founding family of Wakan and his family has always lived there and has risen to very local prominence. He runs a B&B in his ancestral home and lives in and above the mansion’s garage with his dog and the carpentry pieces he works on as a hobby.

Of course, after meeting each other, both Alexis and Daniel fall in love with each other and what follows is a nice ride through a plethora of large and show more small problems before the inevitable happy end. So far, so good…

Sadly, there are a few issues: From the very beginning, Alexis finds issue after issue with actually having a real committed relationship with Daniel - the distance (he’s a two-hour ride from where she lives), the age gap (nine years… Pfft!), the end of her previous relationship three months earlier and, worst of all, the economic difference between them which she turns into a “caste system”...

»Only this time I’d been born too soon and into a different level of a caste system that he couldn’t scale. It made me a little sad.«

A caste system? That Daniel couldn’t scale? That’s the mindset of someone I’d really strongly dislike. This is reinforced by two of Alexis’ girlfriends who are even worse than that.

I do get Jimenez does this to be able to show a changed and rehabilitated Alexis in the great finale but I found myself strongly annoyed and put off by Alexis constantly making excuses why her relationship with Daniel is doomed anyway.

My second major gripe is Alexis behaving like she’s in her early twenties at best instead of being 37:

»I’d get invited to holidays and celebrations with parents who wouldn’t have him, so he couldn’t come.«

So because her retired parents from whom she’s economically completely independent disapprove of having a relationship with someone “below” their “social sphere” Alexis actually wants to break things off with Daniel?

Right now, I’m 46. I’ve been married for pretty much exactly half my life to the woman I love. Of whom my parents didn’t approve for a decade or so. Who happened to live in another country.
I married her regardless, we have three adult children now.

I was infuriated by what my parents thought but, ultimately, I didn’t care. I was prepared to cut them out of my life if I had to. Maybe you feel like Alexis does…

»Or if my dad thinks I’m a complete waste of his DNA? I’m already the weakest link in Montgomery history. I have to give a fuck. I have no choice.”«

You do not have to give a fuck. You do have a choice. You can decide to lead a happy life with whomever you love - regardless of age, gender, social “standing”, etc.. Yes, you can.

»They made me feel like crap, actually.«

If someone makes you feel like that, cut them out. Regardless of who they are. Even if they are your parents. It’s not worth it and toxic people rarely change enough…

These issues somewhat impaired my enjoyment of “Part of Your World” but all in all it was still a good, entertaining romance.

Rounded-up four out of five stars.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam show less

I'm side-eyeing every reviewer I've ever seen praise Abby Jimenez for writing emotionally complex/believable romance novels. For a while at the beginning I thought maybe this would be something like a Mhairi Macfarlane book, which is more women's fiction grappling with some serious issues—in this case, domestic violence and how it's something that can manifest itself both physically and emotionally—with a side of a blossoming new relationship.

And while I do have to acknowledge that Jimenez clearly works hard to do right by the issues to do with DV and emotional abuse, her characters are mostly just unbelievable as people. It's like they've wandered out of a Hallmark cartoon movie. Daniel is perfectly nice, but he's also required show more for plot reasons to be absolutely static, and seems not just unaffected but unshaped by his background (no clue who his father is, absentee addict mother).

Alexis is a woman in her late 30s with multiple graduate degrees from elite institutions, who is considered by people around her to be a viable candidate to run the Emergency Department of a Level One Trauma Centre, but she doesn't know what a circuit breaker is. I get that insanely rich people—and here, for some reason, she and her doctor parents appear to be not just upper-middle-class well-off, but Dr John Carter MD "nine-figure trust fund" rich—often don't know or care about how to do some very simple things. But am I truly expected to believe that not only has Alexis never peeled a potato before in her life, but that when presented with a potato and a peeler that someone with a doctorate couldn't figure it out? Am I expected to buy that a woman who had been shallow enough never to think about the workload she was creating for her maids (!) was also fundamentally good-hearted and aware enough to have long tried to find billing loopholes for poorer patients in her ED—and that this same person didn't know what a sweeping brush was? That she could look at his driver's license to figure out his age but not his surname? And that two weekends of good dick is enough to make her start to change her personality after a lifetime of not figuring out that her cartoon villain father was an emotional abuser? This woman is a board-certified physician?

And then also the town is magical and wants Alexis and Daniel to end up together? And also half the town listens in to him planning out how to take a better dick pic for her and cheers him on? Christ.

Why do het romance novels written by straight women so frequently end up reading like they're about space aliens cosplaying as humans? show less

Alexis Montgomery's car gets stuck in a ditch just outside Wakan, Minnesota. Her savior is Daniel Grant, who not only pulls out her car, but also gives her a place to stay, leading to a one night stand. Neither of them can stop thinking about the other, but their lifestyles don't fit, and as a doctor and heir to the Montgomery legacy at Royaume Hospital in Minneapolis, Alexis understands this only too well. However Alexis continues to see Daniel despite his attachment to the town where he is not only mayor, but also has a family legacy of his own. Alexis knows that their romance is doomed, but just doesn't want to give up what they have.

Part of Your World is a very enjoyable small town romance with quirky characters and laugh out loud show more funny situations. Mental and physical abuse add another layer to an already emotion filled story. Daniel is almost too perfect, but is a good foil for Alexis, who seems at bit spoiled at the beginning. However, she grows so much as the story progresses that it is easy to like her. Even though the ending is predictable, the book is an extremely fun read. Overall, Part of Your World is a delightful romance that is amusing, while tackling some tough themes. show less

I'm not crying you are 😭😭, This is so hard to even begin to unload the emotions this book made me feel. But let me try...

Alexis- female main character and Daniel male main character, both worlds apart. Alexis, from the rich world, a doctor rising in her ranks and 10 years older. Daniel, a carpenter and from a small town, tattooed and sweet all around.
I can't even begin to express how this man crushed my soul 🤫please don't tell my husband, but I would've wrapped this man in my arms and never let him go.😂😂

I had such a good time reading this book that I legit could not put it down, I am unfortunately not that fast of a reader so I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it today.
I found myself reading lines to my show more husband that had me in freaking in tears from laughing so hard.

“I refuse to have sex with someone who doesn’t have a headboard. I’m not that desperate—yet. My vagina has officially been closed for so long I’m afraid a Spirit Halloween is going to move in.”

“Just keep her laughing,” Doug said. “When a woman laughs, her eyes are closed more. She won’t notice how ugly you are.”

I can't relate to Alexis in the rich department but what she goes through with her ex and her father, I can relate 10 folds. It pulled at my heart strings and pissed me off that I found myself yelling, I mean straight up cursing at these asshats characters. I might need to reach out to my therapist again but hey it's okay, I'm okay 😂. I can't dive in too much without full on spoiling the book for anyone but please read the book. I didn't find it triggering around it's trauma areas but the book does have some scenes of ⚠️ mental abuse and a couple of physical abuse⚠️. Personally I was not triggered because I don't easily do however I understand some people do and it's okay just do the research on the book but I promise this book is so worth reading.

I laughed, I cried and I mean straight up sobbed 😢😢, my heart broke and healed but oh man it was just so worth it.

“I'd give up my life here to be where she was if she'd have me. I'd give up my house and this town and all the people in it. If she was at the hospital eighty hours a week, I could be there when she left and be there when she came home. Make her breakfast, take her lunch, take her dinner. I could pick up the slack. She wouldn't have to do anything, it could be all me this time -I'd go to her. It didn't have to end.”- Daniel, like who doesn't want someone to love them this deep, he legit broke my heart.

If you can get anything from my ramblings above it's read it. It was just freaking amazing. show less

Alexis Montgomery is an ER doctor, but that's not enough to satisfy her father: the Montgomerys have been part of Royaume Northwestern hospital for 125 years, and now that Alexis' brother Derek has defected (his volunteer work in Cambodia turned permanent when he married rockstar/philanthropist Lola Simone a.k.a. Nikki), the pressure is on her to carry on the legacy. Coincidentally, 125 years is exactly how long the Grant family has been the "groundskeepers"/mayors of the small town of Wakan, and capable 28-year-old Daniel Grant and Alexis Montgomery's lives collide when he tows her car out of a ditch. The improbable pair have immediate chemistry, but their worlds are too far apart - they simply don't fit into each other's lives. Slowly show more (of course there's a HEA!), Alexis realizes her own priorities may be separate from that of her family's, especially her controlling father (and enabling mother), and that she can still honor the family legacy by expanding Royaume in a new direction. With therapy, 37-year-old Alexis has come to recognize the mentally and emotionally abusive patterns she's lived with all her life, first from her father and then from her boyfriend of seven years, Neil - but with therapy and Daniel's help, she extricates herself from a bad situation. (Her best friend and colleague Bri is helpful too - and she's the main character of the next book.)

Quotes

"I'd follow a clown into a storm drain if he had a baby goat in pajamas." (Bri to Ali, 42)

"Grace costs you nothing." (Daniel, 114, repeated)

He was in the worst position to be generous, yet he was. And she was in the best position to show grace, and she didn't. (Ali re: Daniel and Gabby, 169)

Something in me had shifted in the last few weeks. It was like the more distance I got from this relationship, the stronger I became, and standing up to [Neil] was getting easier and easier. (183)

...right now the only way everyone could have what they want was for me to decide to be miserable. (188)

"You're just spending all your time trying to please everyone else, and it's making you miserable." (Bri to Ali, 243)

"Nobody likes assholes," I said quietly. "Sometimes that's just what you think you deserve." (Ali re: Liz, 255)

It was amazing that one season could paint over a lifetime. (Daniel, 328)

"You can decide to put yourself first - you do have a choice. It's not an easy choice. It's not without consequences. But you do have a choice." (Bri to Ali, 343) show less

This book completely stole my heart. Part of Your World is one of those stories that makes you laugh out loud, tear up a little, and then sit in silence when it’s over because you’re not ready to let go.
The romance? Swoon. It’s sweet and spicy in all the right ways, but what really got me was the emotional depth. It’s not just about falling in love, it’s about healing, growing, and choosing joy even when life gets complicated. I loved how the story balanced humor with heartache. One minute I was giggling, the next I was clutching my chest like, “Ma’am, how dare you.”

Also, the small-town vibes? Immaculate. It made me want to pack up and move somewhere with cozy diners, quirky locals, and a ridiculously charming love show more interest. The chemistry between the main characters was chef’s kiss, so natural and full of tension that had me flipping pages like my life depended on it.
I gave it 5 stars because it truly deserves it. It’s the kind of book that makes you feel seen, makes you believe in love again, and makes you want to recommend it to literally everyone. show less