
Member Reviews

Thank you to Net Galley and Forever/Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read an early copy!
Abby Jimenez is an auto buy author for me. I love her storytelling capabilities, and I love that she is able to talk about sensitive topics in such a thoughtful and respectful manner.
Yours Truly stands up there with her other great hits. I love seeing a strong career woman who works for what she deserved.
I loved the letters between the characters. It’s such a unique perspective to add to the story and I feel it add such a personal element. I also loved catching up with the characters from Part of Your World!
Abby Jimenez does it again and this is a book you’re not going to want to miss!

I fell absolutely in LOVE with A Part of Your World, but Jimenez proved to me that this book did the exact same thing! I adored the characters once again and absolutely binged this book. I even loved the little overlap from A Part of Your World and getting to hear small updates about their love story as well.
The MCs Brianna and Jacob had my heart from the beginning. The little notes they would write back and forth were so adorable and the way their friendship blossomed into more was perfect. I will say that the sexual tension had me soooooo ready for more.
As usual, Jimenez had the ability to have me both laughing out loud and smiling at this book like an idiot with how funny and cute it was. This is what made me easily give this book a 5-star rating and it was one of my favorite books of the year. I cannot wait to read more books by this author.
Big thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest options.

My goodness! Abby Jimenez does not disappoint.
Briana had a lot going on at the beginning of the book. Divorce being finalized soon. Her brother’s health declining. Learning the promotion wasn’t happening just yet. Having to move back to her childhood home following her divorce. Her husband left for for his mistress who was a friend of hers! I mean, come on!! Poor thing couldn’t catch a break.
And then Jacob comes along. Not knowing about his social anxiety, she thinks he’s just a jerk. But then he opens up to her! With. A. Handwritten. Letter! Oh my heart! I absolutely love reading letters/emails/texts in books!
I just love their journey to finding love! It was perfection! ❤️

This might just be my favorite Abby Jimenez book so far. I loved absolutely everything about this one. I loved Daniel and Alexis but I think Briana and Jacob just took the lead. Jacob was swoon worthy. I really appreciated the anxiety rep and how Briana helped him feel comfortable. I’m so glad I have a copy preordered so I’ll have it for my shelves.

Abby Jimenez is easily a favorite author of mine. With each book I've read, I've fallen even more in love with her writing. Her books are everything I want in a romcom: LOL funny, super swoony, and they address much deeper topics than most other contemporary romances I read.
If you want a meaningful, well-written romcom that will hook you from page one and break your soul before putting the pieces back together again, pick up any Abby Jimenez book.
We met Bri in Part of Your World and she was HILARIOUS, so I was anxiously awaiting her story. She had me laughing out loud and I knew this book would be funny with her as the leading lady... She did not disappoint! Similar to all of Jiminez's MCs, Bri has her demons she has to battle and Jiminez does an incredible job getting us invested in her history and cheering for her future. I've read a few reviews that think Bri is immature and unrealistic, but I think the way her trauma unfolded throughout the story was incredibly relatable and spot on. I also think Jacob's mental health representation was done spectacularly and I give SO many kudos to Abby Jimenez for her research in making representation accurate in her books.
This book has a few tropes: mostly fake dating (UGH, a total fave of mine!) with a hefty side of miscommunication (EW, one of my least faves!) but even as a miscommunication HATER I loved this book and I think that truly speaks to Abby Jiminez's talent. I knew that the conflict could be at least partially resolved with a face-to-face conversation, but we know enough about these characters to understand WHY that conversation couldn't happen. It made complete sense for them and it was written in such a way that it was a necessary and important (and enjoyable!!) part of the book. The tension was so well built up that I felt anxious, not frustrated, by the lack of communication. If you also hate miscommunication, STILL READ THIS BOOK!! It's a great example of it done well!!
Overall, a fantastic read and another book I'll continue to recommend. Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first Abby Jimenez book and it will not be my last! Yours Truly grabbed me right from the beginning. Seeing through the eyes of the two main characters, Jacob and Briana got me swooning from page 1. She is a brilliant ER doctor (up for a promotion to Chief of staff) and recently divorced and not looking for love. He is the new ER doctor on the floor and is not fitting in from the get go. Experiencing the story by getting into each of their heads sometimes seemed like an episode of Three's Company turned romance novel.
Jacob. One of the sweetest characters I have read. I loved every bit of his anxiety ridden point of view. He was so genuine and sometimes you just wanted to scream at him for not picking up cues but you just couldn't help but root for him.
And Briana is amoung the funniest characters I've ever read while still having such depth. She had me cracking up in one paragraph and crying in the next. Her wounds are deep but she is brave! I loved watching her story unfold.
I have all other Abby books on my immediate TBR list. I can't say enough good about this book. Don't even wait for the publishing date for this one.... pre-order so it's on your doorstep on April 11th!
There are some trigger warnings so check them out before reading.
Publishing date: April 11.2023

Abby Jimenez is an auto-buy author for me and has quite literally never disappointed me. Her books are the perfect blend of heavier topics with humor and of course, romance. I've explained them to friends as "emotional romances" but in the absolute best way - similar to Helen Hoang and Mazey Eddings.
Yours Truly follows Briana Ortiz (who you may remember from Part of Your World), ER Doctor and next in line for the Chief position. She is about to be divorced after her husband cheats on her and her younger brother is very ill and in need of a kidney transplant. With all that on her plate, the last thing she wants or needs is a surly new ER doctor in her way and competing for her promotion.
Jacob is instantly hated at the hospital. He may come off as surly and abrupt, but he really suffers from severe social anxiety. He wants to apologize to Briana after a disastrous first impression but he can't bring himself to do it face to face. So he writes her a letter....and she writes back. As they both get to know each other and realize that first impressions aren't all they seem to be, they find themselves fake dating so that Jacob can attend his brother's wedding with Jacob's ex-girlfriend and prove that he has moved on and assure everyone. And sure enough, suddenly the dating doesn't feel so fake.
This has some of my favorite tropes - fake dating, one bed. There was a tiny bit of frustrating miscommunication (just TALK to each other, you idiots!!) which I usually hate but I think makes sense here. And there really wasn't a 3rd act breakup!! The mental health rep was, as always, so well done, as was the chronic illness that Briana's brother experiences.
Overall, another hit by Abby and I can't wait to see what she writes next.
Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Abby Jimenez delights once more in Yours Truly.
Briana is the soon to be chief of ER at the hospital she works at. Soon to be divorced and desperately looking for a kidney donor for her brother, she's definitely not looking for male companionship. But when she starts getting letters from new doctor Jacob, she may be getting more than what she bargained for.
Jacob is the new doctor at the hospital and instantly is hated by the nurses. Socially anxious and nervous to the core, he just wants to do his job and go home to his plant room. Yet when he lies to his parents about a new work girlfriend, all bells ring. Especially when he's caught in the closet with the beautiful Briana.
I soared through Jimenez's latest and adored Jacob, her new male protagonist. With shortened chapters, swoon worthy love letters and a mother that loves to chat sex toys, this is a book that'll delight contemporary romance readers. Yours Truly is a friends to lovers novel and left me wanting these characters to just kiss and tell their feelings already! Jimenez also weaves in the emotional story of Briana's brother Benny and his journey to getting a kidney transplant. I love the time and effort she puts into getting the details just right! Overall, this is another HIT in my book!!
Thank you Forever Publishing for my earc in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Abby does it again! HOW on earth in a genre that often has so many of the same stories does Abby manage to pull at the right strings to make for a perfect and emotionally connected love story? I'm in awe, I feel so lucky to have had an early copy of this upcoming release and cannot wait for others to gush over this blockbuster release.

This is my second book by Abby Jimenez and I LOVED it. Yours Truly was soooo good!!!!
Dr. Briana Ortiz is an ER doctor who is about to be divorced. Her soon to be ex cheated on her with her friend, and Briana’s brother is seriously ill and needs a kidney transplant. She’s not in a good place, to put it mildly.
Dr. Jacob Maddox is the new ER doc on staff; he’s having an absolutely awful first day. His patients are dying and the nurses hate him. Briana literally runs into Jacob. In a rush to get to her brother, she plows right through Jacob. They get off to a terrible start. She’s heard the nurses talk, Jacob follows to confront her, she doesn’t want to deal with him and all of his audacity in confronting her.
Jacob knows things aren’t going well. He can tell the nurses don’t like him. And that Briana isn’t a fan. He decides to write her a letter, something of an apology, a get to know him, it’s funny and has so much heart. She reluctantly admits, it’s a damn good letter. So it starts- they exchange clever letters, each looking forward to the next one every day. Ultimately, Jacob, perhaps the best cinnamon roll ever, does THE NICEST thing for Briana. He’s a match for her brother and decides to donate a kidney. He’s not in it for anyone’s gratitude and tries to donate anonymously. Of course, Briana finds out. How can she resist him? He’s just really THAT NICE.
She decides to do something nice for him. No body parts or large sums of cash. She agrees to be his fake girlfriend so his family doesn’t worry about him. Why would they worry? Well…Jacob’s ex girlfriend is now with his brother, and they’re engaged. Ouch.
As they’re fake dating, they’re spending more and more time together. Fake dates. Fake dinners. Fake sleepovers, Fake hand holding. Fake light touches on Briana’s back. While they both agreed that they weren’t looking for anything real, the fakeness is harder and harder for them to keep so fake.
Jacob is incredibly kind, supportive, caring, self deprecating and suffers from immense social anxiety. More than an introvert, Jacob can’t easily handle loud large parties. He wants to know where to park before he gets there. He wants to know what’s being served and who will be there. Briana realizes this and just effortlessly knows what he needs. She preps him, runs cover, and falls in love with him.
I loved both MCs! They’re the perfect couple, good for each other, sweet, hot chemistry, opposites, enemies to BFFs to lovers. Their love story is beautiful. I enjoyed meeting their quirky family members- spoiler alert- a bit of dysfunction with some great characters! There’s some angst, for sure. Plenty of laughs, terrific dialogue and one of the most genuine, lovely romances I’ve read in a very long time.
*Full review coming to Smexy Books when book is released!

// ✨
Yours Truly
By Abby Jimenez
I absolutely loved this novel! I devoured it in a few days, when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it and I couldn’t wait to get back to the story! Abby’s writing is so easy to read, your hooked within a few paragraphs. The faking dating trope has been a little over used in my opinion, but I felt that with how amazing the characters are in this story that I didn’t even care.
Jacob is the most amazing description of a person living with anxiety and panic attacks, I felt seen as a person that has both. The amount of work and overthinking that goes into everything, how it takes over your life and you feel like your sinking with the simplest of tasks some days. Jacob is also the sweetest cinnamon roll character, just so thoughtful, sweet, loving, and caring. He truly in the perfect match for Brianna, who has been left by every man in her life… this couple is so perfect for each other. Brianna is a strong independent woman, that has been burned before and has set herself up to survive on her own. I love that both of the main characters had struggles and past traumas to work through, it really added to the complex plot and character development.
There was one moment where I felt that a main character did something that was out of their character… but other than that this was a truly wonderful and amazing story that I would highly recommend!
I would like to thank Forever and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: February 7 2023
Romance Level: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Steam level: 🌶🌶
Plot Points: 💥💥💥💥💥
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

YOURS TRULY picks up the storyline from Jimenez's previous book, PART OF YOUR WORLD (which was fantastic; read that one first). This is Briana's book (the best friend of Alexis' in Part of Your World). The trope starts out as enemies-to-lovers, then switches to fake dating. Briana Ortiz is an ER physician and Jacob is the new doctor who starts things out on the wrong foot. The enemies-to-lovers conflict is resulted pretty quickly and the majority of the book is spent on the fake dating of two people who are obviously in love with each other. While it's not the strongest (or most believable) storyline, the hero character of Jacob is incredibly well written, with deep insight into what someone with anxiety disorder goes through navigating even the smallest of social interactions. Readers with anxiety issues will feel seen.

As Brianna's life is flatlining, her divorce almost final and her brother struggling to deal with his renal failure and losing hope, and to top it off, the new doctor at her hospital, Jacob (aka Dr. Death), is ruining her plans to get a promotion. But the he goes and writes her a letter proving her wrong about his intentions...
This is book 5 in the Friend Zone series, and I have to admit that I love every book a little bit more than the last! It can be read as a stand alone, but I highly recommend you to read the other books, they are so good! When I was reading the previous book, I was so hoping to see more of Bri's character, and this did not disappoint! I also loved the introvert representation. It was fun to see characters from the previous books. I loved all the characters, especially the two main characters, and grandpa. This is an enemies to friends to fake dating to lovers workplace romance with a sprinkle of forced proximity/one bed.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

thank you forever pub for sending over this ARC!
this book has the best anxiety representation i’ve ever read. on top of that, it had so many of my favorite things/tropes (like hand written letters!). bri and jacob have my whole heart. truly, a god-tier romance and maybe a new favorite of all time.

I’m a sucker for a transplant romance. I blame my preteen addiction to Lurlene McDaniel and repeated viewings of Return to Me. In contrast to McDaniel’s books, this one is well-written, not preachy, and, perhaps most importantly, ends happily. Is Jacob maybe a little bit too perfect? Yes, but it’s not like the genre peddles in realism. And his experience of anxiety was so much like my own experience of anxiety, I’m willing to give it a pass. Also, who doesn’t love a modern day epistolary romance with actual letters? Bri is a delight, as are the cast of family and friends who appear.
Minor spoiler: there were way too many pregnancies in this book for me, ymmv.

I loved this book so much.
I love Abby Jimenez and will devour any books she writes but this one was great! I read it in one night because I couldn't put it down.
I loved that Briana never makes Jacob feel less than for how he needs to process things but rather just goes yup this is how he needs to do things so this is how I am going to do them.
And I love that Jacob is willing to try to do things differently for Briana even though she never asks or expects him to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Abby is one of my absolute favorite authors! Her books always make me feel a wide range of emotions and I love how much the books make me feel. Abby is an auto-buy author for me. This book was incredible and I cannot wait for her next book!

Overall, Yours Truly is an engagingly humorous story, that will have readers swoon over our main characters, who have layers upon layers of complexities. Making them feel like fully formed adults you could find yourself meeting and being friends with in real life. I LOVED the letter writing instead of texts. Don’t get me wrong, text messages are always fun, but this felt so refreshing because who writes letters anymore?
My only struggle with this one was the very long and drawn out internal monologue of ‘does she or does he’ feel the same as I do. I understand when authors use the fake dating/engagement trope that of course there is that uncertainty of if the feelings the characters are having are real and being reciprocated? Because it starts off as a fake relationship. But it became very clear early on that these two were emotionally invested in a long term relationship and I felt like the internal struggle could have been edited a bit.
So readers, like a marathon runner entering the last mile of the race, I encourage you to stick with this one and make it to the end. Because that ending is what makes the whole experience of reading this novel worth it. Where Jacob gets some much needed advice from his mother, and as readers, we begin to understand the depths of Briana’s uncertainty and turmoil when it comes to romantic relationships.
A romance novel that hooks you in with a horrible first impression (Dr. Death 😨), letters worth the second chances (letters in lieu of text messages 💌), and the wonder in the journey of two people finding happiness, all by a new favorite author, go add this one to your cart ASAP.
Happy Reading ~ Cece

Abby Jimenez does it again!! I found her during covid and all her books are just everything and more! She writes her characters with very real world issues where they are so complex and feel real.
Jacob and Bri's story was another example of this. With Jacob she did such an amazing job putting into writing what someone with anxiety goes through. In the beginning Brianna mistakes this for Jacob being rude and grumpy. Where we got to see his true feelings and how anxiety has affected his social skills in social settings
Brianna is freshly divorced and after the two begin to write notes while on shift together we get to see their friendship develop. Jacob asks Bri to be his date ti his brothers wedding and the rest is history. With this, Jacob decides to be a kidney donor for her brother. This story was everything and I highly recommend it!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dr. Briana Ortiz just wants to get through the week, but forces are conspiring against her. Her divorce is being finalized, her brother’s kidney failure is getting worse, and her promotion is being delayed due to the new male doctor in order to give him a chance. She is ready to hate Dr. Jacob Maddox after a disastrous first impression, when he writes her a letter. It’s a letter that explains everything, and makes Briana pause to question her own actions.
Jacob just wants to get through the next couple of months without a panic attack. His brother is marrying his ex-girlfriend, he has started at a new hospital where he can’t seem to do anything right, and his fellow ER doctor is gorgeous and hates him. After his letter, they start sharing lunch dates inside the “sob closet”, and gradually phone conversations. Jacob agrees to donate a kidney to Briana’s brother, and she agrees to assist him with his brother’s wedding. What could possibly go wrong?
I have not read any of Abby Jimenez’s novels prior to this one.
Yours Truly is a slow burn, and that was perfectly fine with me, but just when I thought the main characters were happy, the plot went sideways. All the way up to the last 3 or 4 chapters, I followed, and I enjoyed what I read. I could understand the miscommunication, and I found some of the dialogue funny. I even related to Jacob’s anxiety. He made sense to me, because Jacob’s issues felt consistent. However, it was Briana’s character that I had difficulty with. I couldn’t understand how she was so confident, acting like a boss, or another b word, but then her trauma would randomly appear, and she became someone else.
I found the second half of the book to roam into soap opera territory. I don’t like whining in children, I REALLY don’t like it in adults. I also found the monologues repetitive. There were so many characters that Briana and Jacob could have been “assisted” by them more. They felt like filler characters, and not supporting ones.
Overall, I rate this novel 3.5 out of 5 stars.