Started: June 11th
Finished: June 18th
TSM Rating: 5/5
Abby Jimenez is such a beautiful writer. She weaves hope and humor so seamlessly with dark topics that it’s sometimes easy to forget the serious nature of her characters’ issues.
Yours Truly exists in the same universe as Part of Your World, focusing on Ali’s best friend, Briana Ortiz, as she navigates finalizing her divorce, caring for her chronically ill brother, and competing for a promotion at work. Her competition? Jacob Maddox, a newly hired doctor in the emergency department.
After making a terrible first impression, shy, anxiety-prone Jacob writes Briana a letter. Nothing romantic, but an apology and a do-over. She finds it so endearing that she writes back, and they continue this back and forth, building a connection and a foundation of friendship.
I knew for her they were probably just notes…But for me it was a lifeline. An outstretched hand while I was falling, an umbrella in a downpour. Friendship in a hostile place.
Jacob, page 96
Then start fake dating, and miscommunication and misread feelings ensue. Even when they both show each other how much they love and consider and are “harmless” to each other, they both doubt that the other could have real feelings for them.
While Jacob deals with very real social anxiety, Briana is plagued by abandonment issues that threaten their fragile relationship.
“…I gave Nick the part of me I don’t give anyone. I gave him the kind of stupid, innocent love that you can only give before you better. He got the best of me. And I’ll never find that me again”
Briana, page 119
Even with all they have going on, I loved the way these two characters curled up into each other and found comfort. They both saw how fragile the other was and approached the relationship with kindness and vulnerability. They built a support system for each other in the most beautiful way.
And being liked by Jacob meant something because he was so shy. It’s like when someone else’s pet comes to sit with you instead of their person, and you feel like the chosen one. It made me feel a little special, like he saw something in me. Though I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what that was.
Briana, page 165
It was weird to say, but she made me feel alone — the way I felt when I was by myself. Calm and unaffected… I liked being alone. With her.
Jacob, page 205
I love how Jimenez allows her characters to be utterly flawed and to work their way through those flaws instead of miraculously being cured at the end. She acknowledges that we are all a work in progress and that only time and patience can make anything better.
The Saucy Mama 