Author: Abby Jimenez
# of Pages: 373 (ebook)
Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Chick-lit
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable. While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people. Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?
Review: This is 3 stars with my standards preset to chick-lit standards before reading; otherwise this would be 2 stars. For a chick-lit, Part of Your World was a step or two above Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise (but getting into the same territory with the baby goat mentions as the latter did with chicken marsala - not all women are THAT obsessed with baby goats!).
The immediate turn off was the first person POV switching between Alexis and Daniel. And, yes, Jimenez wrote it so their POVs overlapped on events, meaning the reader gets to hear about the same thing twice sometimes! Because there's nothing I love more than reading a mediocre plot twice in one sitting!
Alexis is the protagonist - a rich girl from family of doctors. To her credit, Alexis only annoyed me in the latter half of the book when starts telling people what's best for them (and of course she ends up being "right"). She also conveniently decides to withhold information purely to make the plot more complicated when communicating in a less suspiciously dodge-y manner would have been more realistic.
Apparently the key to being the lead male in a chick-lit is to be a poor boy who is REALLY good at wood working (I'm looking at you, Happy Place by Emily Henry). In this book, that's Daniel, a naive, lovestruck "boy" (28, young for this chick-lit) from a town so small it's categorized as a village. And unfortunately, he's also a huge simp. Frustratingly, he seems to have no backbone (way too much of a nice guy) to the point where the reader can't even feel sorry for him. Sure, Alexis, tell him nothing! He'll keep coming back for more regardless, but the reader's will hate both of you for it.
One of the key conflicts is Alexis and Daniel struggling with being born into different classes of the "caste system" (author's choice of words).While people from different backgrounds may struggle to reconcile the differences in their lifestyle, the way this conflict was addressed in this book didn't resonate with me and came off superficial. The rich vs poor issue might be something that would be more believable in historical fiction, but in modern times, Alexis's inherent prejudice and Daniel's insecurity were frustratingly conservative perspectives on the situation.
Some good things: Part of Your World is a pretty quick read. Despite being very predictable, I was still interested enough in the book to not put it down, even if I was cringing at some parts.
I had lower expectations because I heard of this book through a negative recommendation; despite its popularity, it was apparently so boring that it was not finish-able. This made it pretty easy for this book to actually exceeded my expectations! That being said, I wouldn't recommend it in a hurry - if you're generally a chick-lit fan maybe, ......otherwise this one is skippable.
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