This is a nice story about Josh and Kristen who seem to belong together, but in Kristen's head can never actually end up together. Josh wants lots of children, whereas Kristen is planning to have an operation to alleviate her struggles with a medical condition that will unfortunately leave her unable to have children.

Upon reading the synopsis I was expecting quite an emotional romance/chic lit story which this was, but for me, only in the latter half of the story. I found that at first the story was a little crude with Josh being obsessed with Kristen's 'ass', and I found some comments about females a little generic and stereotypical. Don't get me wrong it wasn't that offensive, I just found it a little out of place and it just didn't work for me!

BUT...

From maybe a little less than halfway in, the crudeness seemed to disappear and I really started to connect with Kristen and Josh, as well as Sloan and Brandon (two of their friends), and I began to feel their emotions and struggles quite strongly. From this point onward I couldn't put it down and I just had to know how the relationships were going to develop and turn out. Events towards the end of the book made the story incredibly poignant which is what I was hoping for from this book. I thought that Jimenez dealt really well with the challenging issues being addressed and the events that took place; she conveyed the feelings and emotions of the characters very effectively. In fact, throughout she had a great ability to convey the personalities of the characters and their feelings through their actions even in the more generic setting of their every day lives.

I therefore ended up really enjoying this book and I felt very involved in the characters' stories by the end of the novel. Overall, I would say this is a strong debut novel and I'm definitely looking forward to her next novel about Sloan!

Thanks to Little Brown and NetGalley for a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is beautiful, it’s warm, funny, emotional, heartbreaking, uplifting. It may sound an exaggeration but Abby really runs you through the mill with this book. I couldn’t put it down, I needed a happy end, I needed Josh and Kristen together. That’s how wonderful the characters were written , you care so much, your heart breaks, you feel their elation and pain. The characters are raw and real. You need to read this it’s funny, it’s so lovely but oh my god bring tissues. But you won’t regret it.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher and Abby for a free copy for an honest opinion

This debut novel by Abbie Jimenez is easy to write off as fluffy chick lit. To be honest, I started this book hoping it would be a nice light and easy read.
Instead this New Adult fiction reminded be of Colleen Hoover and the slightly darker and more moving aspects of her books.

Kristen and Josh have a cheeky meet cute, they have their best friend sidekicks and they have their issues to overcome in order to find themselves and their love for each other.

But in the novel we have some fantastic character development, brilliantly written storylines and some incredibly moving parts which stopped me in my tracks and had me reaching for the tissues. I didn’t see some of these events coming and as each chapter went by I found myself rooting more and more for a happy ending for everyone which was looking less and less likely with each passing page.

I think reading the Author’s Note at the end of the book was important in understanding why some things happened and why it was important for the characters to end up where they did.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A lovely chick lit that had swoon worthy characters and heartbreaking stories. I raced through this book as it was an easy read and was full of emotion.
If you like. Rom com you’ll love this!

4.5 star
Such a great debut novel.
A Tom com that will make you laugh out loud so much that you’ll disturb the neighbours for sure (especially if you read it at night like I did 🙄)
There are always different sides of a story to be told, but I honestly liked Kristen and how she finally let go and lived a bit of her life especially after her away boyfriend broke up with her ( in a message nevertheless) I was rooting for Josh and Kristen , for their acceptance to their feelings towards each other and as nothing is easy in this life, they have to get through a few twists and turns but their happiness will make your heart full.

Kristen Peterson is living a good life, she has her own business, she is going to be maid of honour to her BFF Sloan, she's in a serious long-distance relationship with a Marine called Tyler and her dog Stuntman Mike, her only problem is one so very rarely talked about, infertility.

Josh Copeland is a firefighter who has just moved to San Francisco from South Dakota, he's best man to his best friend Brandon who just happens to be engaged to Sloan. He comes from a large family and split up with his last girlfriend because she didn't want children. This is a man who wants his own baseball team of kids one day.

Kristen and Josh bump into each other, literally, when Kristen borrows Brandon's truck to buy some emergencies toiletries from the Aisle of Red and brakes suddenly, Josh hits the back of the truck and they exchange witty barbs, only to be introduced to each other minutes later at Brandon's Family Day at the Fire Station. They both ignore the immediate attraction but then their lives entwine as Josh agrees to help Kristen with some rudimentary carpentry work for her business.

This is a typical chick-lit comedy romance, until it isn't. Amongst the sass and humour and romance there is also the heartbreak of infertility and the mental scars it can leave on young women. This is something I find difficult to write about because I too suffered from the same problem as Kristen. Sometimes I think Abby Jimenez doesn't go far enough in describing what it's like to live with this problem, she glosses over the less savoury aspects and doesn't touch upon the side-effects like anaemia which led to me needing blood transfusions twice and left me too weak to climb the stairs in my home. I think the blurb has got it right, this is a book that will make you laugh and cry - although as already stated I can't be unbiased about some of the issues.

I thought the characters were very relatable and believable, their emotions felt genuine and I loved the sparkling dialogue between Josh and Kristen. Maybe my only criticism is that Kristen's self-sacrifice went on a little too long, Kristen feels she knows better than Josh about his long-term desires and won't listen to him, but otherwise this was a charming, thought-provoking, well-written romance.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Romance books have to hit a certain criteria for me to really enjoy them and unfortunately, this didn't hit it. I felt as though there was no build up throughout and it just jumped from situation to situation. I really disliked how the guy was so objectifying towards the lead female and how the reader was dumped right into the middle of a story with very little guidance. Not a romance choice for me.

Liked this Netgalley romance, hoping it might be the set up for a series. The main character deals with horrendous periods, fibroids and infertility. The reality of that experience made for a really involving read.

This book was not what I expected to be at all. I thought it was going to be a typical rom-com or chick-lit story but it wasn't! It started off like that and definitely has elements but it turns into a much more serious and heartfelt story. I enjoyed the character of Kristen and could relate to her a lot. The chemistry between Kristen and Josh and felt their relationship was really believable. A great summer read!

It’s so good to read a book that doesn’t shy away from the subject of female bodily functions and although Kristen is at the extreme end it’s brutally honest, realistic and above all damn funny. Josh is a gem, having grown up with 6 sisters he’s totally at ease with all aspects of women and just accepts it. It’s good to read a story from two perspectives and the other thing I noticed about this was it started with Josh, how many books start with the male yet his view is equally important. Kristen was a frustrating character is a way but I loved her blunt brashness and sharp humour and I guess her selflessness for not wanting to foil Josh’s dreams. Josh’s side was equally well told with his bemusement and frustration coming across well. Love and heartbreak feature strongly in this book and although I guessed most of how this was going to play out I still enjoyed it tremendously. I’ll definitely be looking out for her next book.