Vanessa and Adrian are neighbors who become friends and then fall in love with each other. The problem is, they don't want to tell the other. Vanessa, thinks he isn't interested because of her illness and Adrian, because she is a huge YouTuber so he doesn't think she is interested. Once this misunderstanding is solved, problem over, correct? Wrong! With family, illness and more miscommunication mucking things up...these two may never end up together. But, since life is too short, I hope these two figure it out! I love Abby Jimenez and her characters. They are funny, real and vulnerable.

Abby has done it again!!! I instantly fell in love with these characters. Abby does such a great job with her detail, I could literally feel the struggles and fears Vanessa had with her family history. This beautiful story had my smiling, laughing and crying.

Such an amazing story!!

Per usual Abby Jimenez has a way. She can write about something so real and raw and draw you in wholeheartedly. The characters in this story are no different than in her other books - you will laugh with them, cry with them, shake your head at them, and feel like they are part of your family. I adore the way Ms. Jimenez weaves sarcasm and sass into her stories! I loved the character growth BOTH Vanessa and Adrian go through in this story.

I will say - I kind of wish this had a different ending. Nothing against Ms. Jimenez, and I know most people like HEAs, but I was so invested and expected the realness to continue. I'm sure when I re-read my physical copy I have pre-ordered I'll be glad for the HEA, lol. I guess it just goes to prove how well Ms. Jimenez writes that I felt so drawn into Vanessa's story and life.

Jimenez hits it out of the park again. She is the Jodi Picoult of romance: able to combine real-world issues with the get-the-girl, lose-the-girl dynamics of a romance. Of course, in this case, Adrian has a good chance of losing Vanessa to ALS. Both Adrian and Vanessa have multiple family issues including a hoarding father, a abandoning father, a sister with addiction issues and a baby niece that needs attention. Not to mention the dog that appears in all of Jimenez's books. This is a very fast read because "life's too short" to stop from finding out what will happen to Vanessa.

Another great book by Abby Jimenez. She is such a great writer.
I enjoyed Life's too short. Vanessa was a great character. She was fun, and energetic and j could sympathize with how she always put on a brave face.
Adrian was a more difficult character for me to enjoy i don't feel like we got to know him as much as we could have.
Overall though I really enjoyed the story. Abby did another amazing job at writing about a tough subject with a little lightness it's what I love about her books.

I thought I already loved Abby Jimenez's work as much as I could, but apparently she had more to give.

Wow. A year ago, I wasn't even reading romances because I didn't think they'd contain enough heart to do justice to heavier topics. I couldn't be happier to be proven wrong, and for this book to say, "See? THIS is why romances are valid and redeeming and full of heart!"

Abby, you have done it again, and even better than before.

This friends to lovers romance is a slow burn (and mostly closed door with a bit of perfectly-placed and giggly vulgarity) between Vanessa, a vlogging influencer, and her yummy by-the-rules neighbor Adrian. Through some difficult occurrences, which are still well-laced with humor and wit, the two grow to count on each other and wonder if their friendship could become more.

I can't say more about plot because spoilers would abound, but the amount of laughing and crying that happened to my face during this book was astounding. I'm talking ugly crying and then a bark of uncharacteristic laugher - in the same chapter. Fantastic. The heavy and heartbreaking emotions are carried so delicately, while balanced with sass and joy and the constant pulse of hope. Even an ending with a grounded silver lining!

Read it. I guarantee you will be delighted.

CWs: drug abuse, hoarding, illness, death of loved ones

Thanks to Forever Publishing for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Could not get enough of this book. Abby Jimenez is my new favorite author & I will continue to read everything she writes. This was book #3 in The Friend Zone series & they’ve all been fabulous & full of every emotion. This was my favorite though! Laughed and cried and cried some more. Love! Definitely worth the purchase when it comes out on April 6! Thanks for the ARC @netgalley!

My wish was granted with receiving this book to review on Netgalley.

I absolutely loved this book. Abby Jimenez did not disappoint. I'm already looking forward to another book in 2022.

Vanessa is an internet know person. She is a blogger. She has tons of followers. Aidan is a lawyer. It is a building friendship.

The book covers many different topics including mental health, addiction and ALS just to name a few.

I really wanted to reread the others once I started this one. Some of the characters appear in this book. This can be read as a standalone. I will read this one again for sure and will also get the audio version.

This book makes you think what would you do with your life if you found out there was something wrong? Would you be treated? Would you just enjoy your life? How does it affect others around you?

I have already pre-ordered this book from an indie bookstore. We need to keep the local businesses moving forward.

The third book by Abby Jimenez's The Friend Zone series, Life's Too Short, is another fun read that also doesn't shy away from more topics of depth. In this book we meet Vanessa, who is a social media phenom. Vanessa lives her life by the tenets of carpe diem because her future is unknown - based on her potential to have inherited a deadly genetic condition. When her half-sister leaves Vanessa in charge of her infant niece, Vanessa's globetrotting days are put to a halt. Enter hot neighbor/landlord Adrian Copeland. Whenever she's in need Adrian just happens to be there. The only issue is that Vanessa is determined not to make commitments.

Minor spoiler alert...



The genetic condition brought up in this book is ALS. Having seen this disease first hand with a young member of my family, I wish Jimenez had spent more time explaining the various prognoses of the disease. Individuals with ALS do not all die within a year. There's a genetic variant and a non-genetic variant. Some individuals respond better than others to the treatment protocols. It felt a bit at times like the disease was just to propel the plot versus diving in to actually raise awareness.


Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

What a lovely romantic comedy. I really enjoy Abby Jimenez's writing, and this was a just as fun as The Friend Zone. The premise drew me in, and I couldn't put it down once I started. I didn't feel like a light, fluffy no frills romantic comedy, but an actually relatable and dealt with hard issues in a remarkable way!

I loved Abby Jimenez's first two books so I wondered if LIFE'S TOO SHORT could live up to my expectations. Don't worry. It DID.

The thing that Jimenez truly excels at is shedding light on very serious and life-altering events and/or physical limitations while still delivering laughs, swoony sighs, steam, and happily ever after. LIFE'S TOO SHORT is filled with everything great that comes when Jimenez puts words to paper.

Vanessa is a YouTuber, famous for documenting her adventures as she lives life to the fullest while anticipating an genetic illness that runs in her family. She is sunshine and sweetness and hilarious! Her character is so relatable, despite being in very unrelatable circumstances (again, thanks to Jimenez and her great writing). Adrian is such a great and complex male lead. His character goes so far beyond being "grumpy" or a "workaholic". He is sweet and vulnerable and, for a lot of the book, hurt and angry. These are the kinds of characters we need. Flawed and making mistakes and trying to navigate life.

While this book was amazing, it had a few minor flaws that removed a star from my rating, the main flaw being an impossibly well-behaved baby that has only one moment of actual babyhood. This baby is pretty much Rachel's baby from "Friends". Around when she needs to add a sweet moment to the story and curiously absent or unrealistically well-behaved for 90% of it.

This book will have you laughing and crying, swooning and cheering, and thinking about your OWN life. And even though this is the third book in a series it can be read as a standalone AND it does not feel bogged down with updates on characters from previous books. You can read just this one, but SERIOUSLY....just read them all, in order. You will thank me later.

Ohh this book stuck with me.

A full two weeks after reading it, I'm still struck by parts of Life's Too Short. Vivid and heartbreaking and heart-mending, this third book in the series is masterful. and you better believe I'll be in line at the bookstore to get my own hard copy on April 6th.

Perfect.

Every time Jimenez releases a book, it's better than the last.

This book was absolutely lovely! It had me hooked right from the first page and all the way to the end. I laughed, I cried and I fell in love with the Characters. Adrian we met briefly (haha he's a lawyer so this is a pun) in the last book. He didn't make much of an impression then but OH boy does he now.

He's a down to earth but slightly uptight hot shot attorney with a heart of gold. Vanessa is where this book shines though. She's this incredibly vivacious, live every moment kind of person. I have to say though, her character is even more loveable because everything she does is genuine instead of the recklessness that we sometimes see in characters like this. Manic pixie dream girl she is NOT.

This book is all about enjoying the little things and living life at 100%. Drink the expensive wine, take the trip, be spontaneous because we never truly know how much time we have left and you don't want to waste a minute of it.

Disclaimer: I got this in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first Abby Jimenez book that I've read and I can't wait to read more. Fair Warning: This book talks about mental health issues and ALS. This also has a lot of humourous bits in it. Adrian's a lawyer and Vanessa is a YouTube star. It's so different from anything I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you're into modern love stories, then this is for you!!

Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez is an excellent contemporary romance/women’s fiction that is the third book in the amazing series: The Friend Zone.

I loved the first two books in this series and this one did not disappoint. I loved the balance between humor and heaviness, laughter and banter, and emotion. The dialogue and pacing are spot on, and I flew through this book in no time.

I loved Vanessa and Adrian. The opposites attract and hate/love concepts worked wonderfully. I loved the progression of their relationship, the way they complimented each other and brought out the best in one another through their relationship. There were some heavy concepts added in with this one, but the author was able to weave them into a narrative in a way that kept things entertaining, light, and engaging. I really enjoyed this book, and I loved the ending.

I can’t wait for the next book!

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR, Bookbub, and Instagram accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 4/6/21.

Let's set the scene here for review sake.
I went to bed last night and flipped through my kindle books to simply see what grabbed my attention.
I came upon this book and knew that even though it wasn't out until April, this was the one for me.
I started reading it, and lost a little sleep. I got about 40% in when I fell asleep even though I wanted to keep on.

I woke up mentally demanding to finish it but knew I had other things that had to be done. I calculated that if I did my run on the treadmill instead of going outside that I could read the book while I ran. (I love reading and running, together it just makes for bliss).

I got to about 70% and needed to carry on with my daily duties. I despareltey needed to shower from my run. Instead, I saw upon the lid of my toilet in my bathroom, stark naked, and bawled my eyes out as I read for another hour. True story.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I just couldn't put it down. However, I can't really tell you much about it either. I feel like if I start talking about it I will let all the spoilers out. I will let all the secrets of why this book is so special just pour out.

What I will tell you is that the romance is epic, the drama is high, there is triggering content, and you DONT want to miss it.

Abby is such a story teller. She always makes me laugh hysterically. She also has a way of connecting people in her books in such a beautiful way. They have real and raw problems. They look like you and I. I love that!

Thank you so much to Forever Pub and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this beautiful book. It was a pleasure reading this.

🦋Life’s too Short🦋
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Abby Jimenez just came for me with a one, two punch to the heart and knocked me out.
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This book is INCREDIBLE. Once again, she beautifully blends romance, tragedy, wit and comedy into an incredible novel that pulls on every heart string. Her character development is like none other. You know who her characters are down to their core. I think that’s what makes her such a great writer. The reader can truly connect with the characters.
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For me, this novel hits really close to home, having known someone with ALS, a father with incurable cancer and working in the medical field. Abby has managed to take taboo topics (terminal illness, drugs use, mental illness) and tell and incredibly beautiful story. I definitely ugly cried. She is an incredible author and I will buy anything she writes.
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Rating: 10/10⭐️

Don't mind me over here experiences a wide range of emotions from hysterically laughing to angrily throwing the tissue and candy wrappers at passersby on the ferry. This author does something magical that no author can even come close to duplicating 1/10 of her extraordinary talent. The dialogue is the perfect combination of zingy comebacks and underline desire between two outspoken characters who’s chemistry is undeniable from the very first page.

It’s like the author went in the depths of my subconscious and picked all the qualities I love in a man and gave me Adrian. He’s beyond thoughtful and gentle, saying and doing all the right things at the right time. I fell in love with the first page of meeting him. Adrian gets tossed into the chaos that is Vanessa and he doesn’t flinch, he takes in stride. He’s calm and caring though he is over his head, but he never falters with any situation they encounter.

Vanessa is vivacious and vibrant. Though she has a lot stacked against her, her tenacious spirit remains to be positive. Where others would have crumbled and succumbed to darkness, she has taken this as an opportunity to live life the way she chose.

Adrian is living for the possibility and Vanessa is living in the moment. Life is fleeting and if anything this book brings light to that. Take the selfish moments, live outside of your Instagram post, breath the fresh air. Take life by the rains because moments will pass you by without you realizing it has. This story digs deeper than a typical romance book by bringing to light situations and emotions that are difficult to talk about. The author told a poignant story about life and its meaning under different context and the ever powerful healing power of love.

The author's writing flows effortlessly to where you don’t realize how much time has gone by, it’s dinner time, and you have ignored your kids multiple “I’m hungry” after just having lunch. She’s able to pull you into a world that you never want to leave. The imagery of each scene pulls the reader in and immerses them and makes them feel as if you are standing next to these characters, feeling their emotions rather than an observer reading a tale. There’s a lot of thoughtfulness throughout the story where she brings the wit with laugh-out-loud moments, while subtly interweaving heartwarming and serious moments of depth and complexity.

Congrats Abby… You made me laugh until I had tears coming down my cheeks, you made me cry until I had snot run out of my nose, and made me take an extra dose of my blood pressure medication in anticipation of how this story would end. This book took me through a rollercoaster of emotions and it was one hell of a ride with characters that have a convivial spirit, but have intracicities that take this story above and beyond a whimsical story about love. Thank you NetGalley and Forever Pub for this ARC and thank you Abby for giving romance novels purpose and meaning.

"If you spend your life dwelling on the worst possible thing, when it finally happens, you've lived it twice. I don't want to live the worst things twice."

Vanessa is a travel vlogger with a family history of ALS who is steadfastly committed to living her life on her terms. Adrian is a type-A attorney who lives next door with a love of structure and a need to fix everything. These two are the least likely match, but after an epic meet-cute (second only maybe to the meet-cute in Abby's second book, Happy Ever After Playlist) they find themselves forming an unlikely friendship.

I love how Abby Jimenez manages to write rom coms that do such a wonderful job depicting life's highs and lows. Vanessa and Adrian are flawed humans - and we see their flaws on display in this book! - but they spur each other to work through their issues together and we see them grow in this book. We also get to peek in Josh and Kristen and Sloan and Jason from the previous books in a fun scene, but it's just one scene so don't worry if you haven't read those books yet (although go read them while you wait for LTS to release!) In signature Abby style, this book is laugh out loud funny but make sure you have your tissues handy because you'll need them.

CW: serious illness, anxiety disorder, substance use disorder, hoarding

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an early copy in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own!

Life's Too Short is difficult to fully review because all I want to do is talk about what happens, but I do not want to give away any spoilers. Every reader should read this and enjoy all that this book offers. This book discusses many important heavy topics including: living with a chronic fatal disease, drug addiction, OCD and hoarding disorder. Some themes in this book include living life to the fullest, forgiveness, accepting grief, the importance of therapy, and asking others for help.

Tip for readers: Always read Abby's author notes at the end. This gives a great insight into why each topic matter is chosen for each book and you get a connection to real life women.

I fell in love with Adrian as soon as he knocked on Vanessa's door and offered to help watch her baby while she showered. One of my favorite quotes from this book was "I'd never seen a baby that small. I had bricks of cheese in my fridge bigger than this kid." Abby is so descriptive while also being hilarious! I can picture the brick of cheese currently in my fridge and being held up in comparison to a small baby! Her description of Harry is also AMAZING!! I won't say too much, but this dog might be my favorite in this series (sorry Stuntman Mike)!! Seriously though this is truly equally rom and com!

Abby has this superpower of writing a fun, comedic, heartfelt and gut wrenching book all in one. She is able to transform difficult subject matters into eloquently written stories. She gives the perfect amount of detail and sadness to pierce through your heart and has the reader understanding the women in these books. I think she touches on these difficult topics so tastefully, and you can tell she has done her research in order to fully represent these issues.

I loved having the opportunity to not only read this ARC, but also reading Abby's edits in her Facebook group for her final copy. As a reader I usually only read a book once, but I will definitely read this one multiple times. I read this the first time for the content and was not paying attention to the small continuity details. From my first read I didn't notice any major glaring issues that I thought needed to be changed. Seeing Abby's thoughts for why certain words or phrases should be changed was something I really enjoyed! I love getting a look into the behind the scenes of books. I get to see how much Abby cares about this book and wants it to be perfect. She thinks of her readers and doesn't want something to be triggering or hurtful. Also I love this title (better than Clickbait), love everything about the cover, I agree with the chapter headers. Sometimes I get sucked into the title header and forget which perspective the chapter is being told from!

Abby is truly an amazing author, and I look forward to reading her next books! She is an auto-buy author, and seeing her posts and memes on social media makes me jealous I am not her IRL friend!!

**Also since there was a Nebraska shoutout I think that means she should come visit an Omaha bookstore when book tours start up again! I will be first in line!!


(I will update this post with links to my Instagram, Goodreads and Amazon once I publish my reviews!)