“If you have a baby goat, you always lead with ‘I have a baby goat.’”
Brimming with Disney references and its own kind of magic, Abby Jimenez’s Part of Your World (Grand Central Publishing 2022) is the sweetest kind of romance. If you’ve been here for a bit, you know I don’t typically do romance. But when I do, I want romance that is cleverly written and pulls you into a warm hug; Jimenez does that and then some. Her writing mirrors her own personality, if her social media presence is any indication, and I devoured this novel like spaghetti at the VFW with my closest friends.
The novel is told from alternating first person POVs, with both Alexis’s and Daniel’s sections never ringing hollow or underdeveloped. You will fall in love with both, even without the goat in pajamas and the hard of hearing hunting dog.
A raccoon results in Alexis running into a ditch in the middle of nowhere while she’s returning home following a funeral. The mayor, who most decidedly does not look like a mayor, offers to tow her out. They both think they’ll never see each other again, but Alexis is starving and needs a restroom. She finds herself at the VFW where Daniel is drinking with his friends. The connection between the two is magnetic, animalistic, and freaking adorable. They fall head over heels in lust tinged with the promise of oh so much more – so much more that Alexis doesn’t think she can allow herself to have.
Alexis is a Montgomery, a legacy in the medical and philanthropic worlds. She’s brilliant, and her family is the type of rich Daniel and the other residents of Wakan couldn’t even imagine. Freshly out of an emotionally and verbally relationship, Alexis is struggling with the expectations put on her by her family, particularly her father, and the fact everyone wants her to get back with her ex because he is picture perfect, despite the cheating and abusive tendencies. She becomes a halved person, finding herself in Wakan, and buttoning up that self each time she returns to Minneapolis. She won’t let Daniel in – not all the way; he doesn’t fit in her world – at least the world she’s been raised to inhabit.
The novel hits on common romance tropes, but it’s fresh and fun (while still hitting at some rather serious matters, including domestic violence and disparity in healthcare). A magical Disney love story for adults (because SEX!), Part of Your World was the hug my heart needed. And it’s absolutely hilarious. We all need a candy book every now and again.
Read this book – it has a baby goat wearing pajamas.
A Girl Named Tommi 