Rating: ★★★★.25
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Abby Jimenez
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: March 24th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A beautiful, compelling novel that revels in laughter, friendship, and the messy choices life can throw our way.

In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything…

For Larissa, it came when choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great together, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy.

But Chris isn’t the one who drove Larissa home all those months ago—Chris is her boyfriend’s best friend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. And he’s just not that guy.

HARD TO RATE.

I kind of waffled back and forth on what I would finally rate this for a few different reasons.

The yearning? TOP TIER. I love a man who years and years hard. Chris was the definition of a sweetheart and took care of Larissa in all of these beautiful little ways. I generally love the little moments most in romances and this is exactly what I got here.

I struggled with Larissa a bit. She’s dating *Mike* for a large majority of the book and while I didn’t expect to get much of them together I guess I was expecting maybe a little more? Only because they both talked (especially Mike) about how much they liked/loved each other and I didn’t believe it for one second so I was frustrated that they dated for a year. I loved when Larissa finally put her foot down and the book gained some momentum for the last few chapters.

It’s heartfelt and romantic as I find all of Abby Jimenez’s books. Up against my favorite (Part of Your World) this one didn’t beat it out. But still very enjoyable and incredibly easy to fly through. I did not want to put it down. I liked the mental health conversations, working hard and choosing a new [better] path for yourself and other nuanced things too. The ending was just what I was hoping for and gave a beautiful sense of hope.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Romance
• Language: mild+
• Romance: fade to black
• Violence: low
• Content warnings: alcoholism (on page), mental illness, toxic relationships, loss of a parent (recounted)

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