Life's Too Short

By: Abby Jimenez

Narrated by: Christine Lakin, Zachary Webber

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A hilarious, tender, and altogether life-affirming gem of a book."—Emily Henry, bestselling author of Beach Read

A brilliant and touching romantic comedy about two polar opposites, one adorable dog, and living every day to its fullest.

When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted.

But after her half sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her baby daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua.

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.

• Minnesota Book Awards winner
• BookRiot, Top Books of 2021
• Goodreads, Best of 2021 Romance Finalist
• She Reads, Best of 2021 Romance Winner

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Abby Jimenez (P)2021 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

“Abby Jimenez’s Life’s Too Short is a hilarious, tender, and altogether life-affirming gem of a book. This is the kind of novel that leaves you a little better than when it found you. Jimenez is a true talent.”—Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read

“Abby Jimenez’s knack for tackling heavy subjects with humor and care shines through in this exquisitely written story about love, difficult family relationships, and living life to its fullest.”—Farrah Rochon, USA Today bestselling author of The Boyfriend Project

"Jimenez's dazzling debut is a brilliantly written romantic comedy that seamlessly toggles back and forth between scenes of laugh-out-loud, snarky wit and serious emotional issues without missing a beat, all the while delivering maximum reading satisfaction."—Booklist, Starred Review

4 to 4.5 Stars

Life’s Too Short is book 3 in the Friend Zone series. It is a friends to lovers, pining, single parent, contemporary, romance set in Minnesota. This book is about Adrian and Vanessa. Adrian is Josh’s (mc from book 1) cousin and we saw him briefly in book 2. I don’t think book 2 should be read without first reading book 1, but I think it would be easy to read this book without reading books 1 or 2 first.

Adrian is 32 and a lawyer. He owns the apartment building that he and Vanessa live in and they are next door neighbors. Vanessa is 28, a famous youtuber, and now a single parent to a new baby that her drug addicted sister had and left with her.

I really liked most of this book. In fact, I was pretty certain for the majority of the book that this would be a 5 star book. Unfortunately, it didn’t end as strong for me. First of all, I have noticed a theme with this author and it might just be this particular series, but the author really really likes a martyr. Unfortunately for me, that is my least favorite plot device. I hate lack of communication or when one character thinks they know what will be best for the other and they decide to make unilateral decisions based on that. Thankfully, the martyrdom wasn’t as strong or prevalent in this book, but it was still there.

The love story between Adrian and Vanessa was sweet. They started as friends and spent a lot of the book pining for each other without saying anything to the other, but it allowed for a lot of relationship foundation to be built and made me really root for them. Obviously, they got there eventually. The book isn’t spicy though, it is pretty much fade to black.

I found Vanessa’s whole assumption of having a terminal disease a bit dramatic at times. I can understand her fear of it since it was so prevalent in her family, but she went full on next level without ever receiving any confirmation. She made arrangements with the funeral home and prepared all of the end of life stuff, assuming it would be necessary within a year or so. Then she even posted a “goodbye forever” video to her channel saying she has possible early onset symptoms of ALS and assumes she is going to die and doesn’t want it to all play out in front of millions of viewers. It was quite dramatic. It started to get over the top since she really didn’t know if she was going to get ALS or not.

Slight spoiler ahead in this paragraph only– read at your own risk.
Though the book is a happy ending book so I don’t know how much of a spoiler it really is, so…
Okay, here we go, skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want the mild spoiler. I have to say, I struggled at times with the authors decision to use ALS as the foundation for the book because it is such a serious disease and it kind of feels a bit shitty to go from the reality of what could be to the tah-da, that’s not what it is, because let’s face it, that is not really how real life works. But it is a work of fiction so it can be excused.

I really liked how Adrian stepped in to help Vanessa with the baby and that they were able to make a little family together. It was sweet. I really liked the characters. I think they both grew in the book and had good arcs. I also liked the little dog that they fostered.

The narration was really good. Both narrators did a great job.

I recommend this book and this series. I binged all three over the last week. It was enjoyable. Overall, I am giving this book between 4 and 4.5 stars. Most of the book was 5 stars, for sure, but I just can’t get over the dramatics from Vanessa assuming ALS was a foregone conclusion for herself and basically telling the world she has it without actually knowing for sure.

An Inspiring Breath of Life

This book was such a fun adventure to read. Imaginative and impactful it leaves you feeling inspired to go and live your best life. This is about finding ways to live your most fulfilling life even if it is scary, like falling in love despite adversity or unknown circumstances. Vanessa like a lot of the author’s characters is likable and funny. Adrian is structured and crushable. While I still love Happily Ever After Playlist a bit more this was a great quick story with a fantastic premise. I loved that even though not everyone goes through these types of situations that the story is still relatable. We are all looking to live our best life and “life is too short” to sit around waiting for it to appear. A good read and I recommend.

Best audio book yet!

The narrators were AMAZING! They didn’t just read the story they acted it out. I am constantly driving in the car to various skating rinks for my daughter with hours of time waiting. This book had a great story line. I was invested in Adrian and Vanessa’s relationship like they were good friends of mine. Can’t wait to read more from this author!

I absolutely loved

New to me and have devoured all 3 books of her published books, let me start by the the performance, I do belive the female narrator is new to my ears and I enjoyed her outstanding narration she did so beautiful to express the emotions of the characters I felt it so real I cried extra hard and for Mr Webber, I am just his fan he never disappoints.

as far as the story itself, if you are still reading this review beware tissues will be needed but there is a HEA guarantee when the inspiration got explained it hit me in a personal level so maybe that's why I cried during that also.

The story follows a YouTube blogger and a lawyer neighbor we meet on book 2 the happily ever after Playlist as any book from this author i would highly recommend also but they are all standalone books with cameos on each other's books, this for me is more than just another romance book this autjor Jimenez did an awareness with such passion you will feel as if you are hearing someone's real life.

Heartwarming

Can someone tell me where I can find a guy like Adrian?

Such a nice story, the performance was really good, I really enjoyed it.

Amazing book

This is my first book by this author and I enjoyed every page. The narrators were the absolute best. I love Zachary Webber. He can bring anything he reads to life. One of the best narrators.

A top 2021 read already

Every book Abby Jimenez releases becomes my favorite. I've been reading her since The Friend Zone and I loved that book. I loved the Happily Ever After Playlist and it was a top read for me in 2020.

Life's Too Short? Amazing. It made me laugh. It made me emotional, almost cry (I'm not much of a crier when it comes to books). It made me swoon. This book has every single thing in it that I look for in a book.

I wish so much that she had more books out so I could read them. I'd like to forget all of these so I could read them all over again for the first time.

Now the countdown to the next Abby Jimenez book begins.

The narration of this book was also completely on point. completely. Zachary Webber and Christine Lakin delivered nuanced, perfect performances.

All the things!

Such a beautifully written book. I rarely say that about most books lately, but this one is so well written. The story is great and the performances are excellent. (yay for two narrators!)

gaaah

this story ripped me apart! I loved every part of it amazing!!! what a pleasant surprise of excellent characters an original story and beautiful execution!

Great read with a lesson snuck in

I truly enjoyed this book it was an a great little love story as well as a life lesson, heartfelt, fun-loving and a joyful book.