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ALC provided by LibroFM

Author: Abby Jimenez

Narrators: Christine Lakin and Matt Lanter

Thanks, LibroFM, for the gifted copy. 

Dr. Xavier Rush, veterinarian, meets Samantha when she comes to the office with a kitten with a very rare condition. Xavier is in a bad mood as he has just dealt with a horrible situation and he believes Sam is not willing to do what is right for her animal. Weeks later, when she comes back with the kitten (she ran a successful GoFund Me campaign to pay for the extremely complicated surgery), he gives in to his initial attraction and asks her out. She says yes, but the date has to be on that day as she leaving Minnesota in the morning. They do go out and have the perfect date. But she’s moving. She tells him to forget her. He can’t. 

I need to start by saying that Abby has written some of my favorite books of all time and that shoots my expectations for any release into the stratosphere. That might be the reason why this one wasn’t what I was expecting. 

The story is beautiful, the book is obviously well written, but there are some things that didn’t work for me. I get that Samantha is a social media manager but the amount of pop culture jokes was almost annoying. ACOTAR references and TikTok-isms were everywhere and I rolled my eyes a few times. Their romance is the epitome of instalove, but I bought it. However, the characters spend so much time apart it was difficult to fall as hard for them as it’s usual for me in an Abby book. 

As someone who was a caretaker for an elderly parent, I completely empathized with the whole family (yes, including the dad and he didn’t do anything wrong in my opinion) but there was so much drama and family trauma involving the families and I needed more of their romance. Xavier’s parents, for example, are basically Disney villains…

Now let’s talk audio. 10/10 – no notes for this production.  Christine Lakin and Matt Lantern do an amazing job. It’s my first time listening to Matt and I really enjoyed his performance. They shine here. Amazing audiobook!

Content notes: detailed descriptions of someone with advanced dementia and the care for that person. Mentions of past child abuse (physical and emotional), animal cruelty and neglect. Sudden death of a a family member on page.