Review: Part of Your World
Author: Abby Jimenez
Book: Part of Your World
Themes: age gap, class gap, hidden relationship
CW: emotional abuse, family dysfunction
POYW follows Alexis, our FMC, a sophisticated ER doctor who starts a relationship with Daniel, our small-town MMC. I know, I know—cue every Hallmark, MarVista Entertainment, and Lifetime romance movie EVER. It is not that simple though haha…and thank God. The stakes were really high here; at least that is my conclusion based off how quickly I got emotionally invested in the characters and their story.
As previously mentioned, the theme of the romance is the age gap between the couple as well as a class gap. It’s literally in the book title that they come from vastly different worlds. Not only is she a well established ER doctor, she also comes from an uber wealthy (and snobby) family that is basically a dynasty in the medical philanthropic community.
The story does a great job exploring the angsty nature of deciding to potentially trade in a life that you have spent years building and have been taught to believe is amazing, for the life that you actually want. In Alexis’ case, I don’t think she even knew she wanted her new life until it presented itself to her. But I guess sometimes you don’t know that you really want something until you get a taste of it and then you realize that you can’t live without it, or you can’t go back to the life you had before. The “perfectly good” life is now soiled by the possibility of something uncertain but different.
I found it to be very unsurprising. Everything that I thought would happen, happened in the book, and happened exactly as I thought it was going to. I think if you’re a consumer of contemporary romance and familiar with the different tropes, you kind of get used to going on the journey with the author—like the how is the important part. Because, once you know you’re guaranteed a HEA, reading the story becomes more about how the author will take you to the destination that you already know is waiting. That said, I thought Jimenez did a lovely job of telling the story between Alexis and Daniel. I love her work a lot and if you are romance reader, I can’t imagine that you won’t enjoy this.
Another major theme in the book is that Alexis, the FMC, has a really hard time merging her worlds together because she essentially starts living two lives after she meets Daniel—the life she has in the city that her parents know about, and the life in Daniel’s town that she escapes to and is only known to her and her best friend.
I must be more impatient than I realize because I caught myself getting increasingly impatient with Alexis (the FMC) halfway through the book. I kept thinking (and saying out loud) “…babe you’re a grown woman, like just let your parents BE disappointed”. On the other hand, I have a lot of empathy for her character because I imagine it must be difficult to let go of a relationship—even a bad one—if it’s the only relationship you’ve known for years. In this case, these are her parents so it is even harder to let go. Our relationships with our parents form the very foundation upon which most of our adult relationships are built and in most cases, they inform the basis of our love map as we mature into adulthood. So it was a little (just a bit) annoying but I understand and unfortunately get it!
Overall, I loved it quickly moved on to the sequel, Yours Truly, which I also talk about here.
Happy reading my loves!
xo