Review: Life’s Too Short

I so appreciate Forever Romance for giving me the chance to read Life’s Too Short early! I adored the first two books from Abby Jimenez. Each one I devoured in less than a day, they made me laugh, cry, and all the things you want to love with a contemporary romance. Unfortunately Life’s Too Short did not work for me as well as I had hoped. I think this was very much a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”, I went in with a little trepidation (due to the heroine having a family history of ALS) and also very high expectations after loving the first two books. I should also mention due to pandemic fatigue I’m really struggling with many contemporary romances right now. My first inkling should have been that I was able to put the book down at 50% read, for almost a week, without feeling like picking it up again. 

I enjoyed the premise and banter, per usual with Abby’s work, but I really struggled with some aspects of the story. I’m having a hard time with any heavier topics in romance, and I did not love the plot points with Vanessa’s addict sister and hoarder father. I felt like both aspects were a little too heavy for my taste, considering that ALS fears were also the main part of the book. I really think both the addiction and hoarding storylines could have been removed. It just felt like a lot of heavy, unnecessary tragedy at times. 

I enjoyed Adrian, Vanessa, and Grace together. I would have loved more scenes with all three of them. But at times a lot of the book felt like it was in Vanessa’s POV. Her chapters were so emotional, and I found her to be frustrating a lot of the time. As someone also living with a disease that will likely kill me at a young age, I felt frustrated with her through a lot of the last half of the book. I did see how Abby found some inspiration for Vanessa’s zest for life from real life YouTuber (and woman living with CF) Claire Wineland. 

I did really love how much discussion and reflection there was on the characters mental health, both Vanessa and Adrian. I wish there had been a little more into Adrian’s anxiety, but I thought his reactions were well written and felt true to life. 

I enjoyed the side characters, Becky was a riot, and seeing characters from the first books. But I do feel like the ending moved a bit too fast? It wrapped up very quickly. 

Out of the three books, I think this one has the least amount of steam (or at least I remembered the others having more steam). Adrian and Vanessa have almost an insta-lust attraction (my least favorite). Even though they develop a great friendship before becoming romantic, I really wouldn’t consider this to be steamy at all. 

I do think my opinions might have been different if I read this pre-pandemic. I was not expecting to find the plot points with Vanessa’s family to be so heavy. Life’s Too Short was a 3.5 star read for me. I still greatly enjoyed the first two books and would read Abby’s books in the future.