CW: Miscarriage – I will discuss a little bit of this, but not in graphic detail. In the book, this is detailed in the last thirty pages or so.

This year, I have read a lot of books that were simply okay. They weren’t bad, they weren’t great, they were okay. That is, until I read Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. I’m biased when it comes to Abby Jimenez. She lives in Minnesota and owns a local bakery here, so I feel a personal connection to her and her books. I read Part of Your World last year, and I loved it. I bought Yours Truly soon after I read Part of Your World. Yours Truly was amazing and honestly what all five-star romance books should be like.

Dr. Briana Ortiz is going through a lot; her divorce is being finalized, her brother is battling renal failure, and waiting for a donor. When Dr. Jacob Maddox started at her hospital, their first run-in together did not go well. Briana immediately writes Jacob off. Jacob, feeling bad about it, writes her a letter. From their letters, Briana realizes that she immediately misjudged Jacob. Now, Jacob asks Briana for her help, pretending to be his girlfriend, so he can have a date for his ex-girlfriend’s wedding to his brother. Briana and Jacob put on a good show, except when it starts to feel real.

I loved Briana as a character. We get a glimpse of Briana in Part of Your World, but this book feels like her story. She’s been through a lot, and I love the level of petty she stoops to when she finds out her husband cheated on her with her best friend. She doesn’t put up with a lot, and she’s well respected amongst her peers. Jacob feels real. His social anxiety is something he struggles with, and some of the people in his life refused to work with him, which is really sad to me. I love how he writes Briana a letter, as it’s a way he can say what he wants to say without feeling overwhelmed. The letters take on a life of their own, and the exchange between Briana and Jacob through the letters was a highlight of the book.

I like how this book prioritizes Briana and Jacob’s relationship as they fall in love with each other. Having dual perspectives helped show both Briana and Jacob’s insecurities and how they felt about each other. It made the story feel more real to me. The other thing I’d add, Briana and Jacob don’t start hooking up until the last sixty pages, so the rest of the book is focused on them slowly falling in love with each other. If you’re someone who doesn’t like a lot of smut or detailed descriptions of sex in the romance you’re reading, I’d recommend this book.

The last thing I wanted to touch on was miscarriage. I won’t go into detail, but I was crying throughout the end of this book when this is revealed. The book ends happily, so I want to make that clear right away, but if miscarriage is something you want to avoid, feel free to skip the last few pages of the book. Leave it to Abby Jimenez to leave me crying over a book she writes.

Yours Truly is one of those books that will stay with me for a while. It’s a book I would re-read if I needed a reliable book to get me out of a reading slump. I rated Yours Truly five stars on Goodreads.