While I did enjoy this book, I felt that these two characters did not have as much chemistry as most of Jimenez's characters do. That might have seemed to be only because the circumstances of this book are more serious than her others, so there is less room for wit and banter, but to be honest, I think her books always tackle intense situations and traumatic events, so I don't see why this one should have been any different in portraying the main relationship. But then again, these characters felt different than the others, which makes me appreciate the diversity. Adrian isn't necessarily your joking type.

I will also say, this created and beautiful yet seemingly unattainable picture of a man. He babysits her kid, helps her family, etc. without having any sort of real responsibility to Vanessa. While it sounds nice to have someone who cares so much about you, this did seem a bit unfair and odd because no realationship boundaries were actually established. And lastly, more than anything else, the conflict portion of this book (because we all know Jimenez ALWAYS has one!) is a nightmare. Both of them have unrealistic expectations of the other and have not communicated their boundaries or concerns, and when they finally do, it's mean and terrible.

This is why I didn't really connect with either of them as characters - they don't make very good decisions. For example, Adrian allows his boss to use and abuse him as a worker. And then we don't get comeuppance on-page, plus we lose one of the only sidecharacters, Becky. And Vanessa is 100% enabling her family. She doesn't have good boundaries and financially allows them to flounder because she's always there to save the day. As someone with eight siblings, I completely understand her compassion. But as a human being with general needs, a grasp of basic cause-and-effect, and a limited supply of money, I don't understand how Jimenez didn't more blatantly condemn Vanessa and her family's behavior. Also, Adrian having that issue with his dad and Vanessa just chalking it up to petty grievances was such an overstep, and just having the tension evaporate afterward felt underwhelming and unrealolistic.

The book was enjoyable, but it had a couple flaws that could have made it even moreso.

I give Zachary Webber 5/5⭐'s.

I give Christine Lakin 4.5/5⭐'s. While her narration is typically great, she struggles a bit with secondary character accents (tends to want to make them southern for some reason, and her Australian one is not good).