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3.5 stars:
It’s summer and it’s time for an Abby Jimenez summer romcom! I love her novels on audio, so I listened to narrators Christine Lakin and Matt Lanter tell her story to me. I appreciate the upgrades that Publisher Forever has done with its audios. The chapters are character driven, yet the narrators always voice their character’s voice, even in the other character’s chapters. Thusly, Mr. Lanter, the voice of character Xavier, speaks in Samantha’s chapters and vise versa. I appreciate that detail.

This is a “meet-cute�� romance of a curmudgeon Veterinarian, Xavier Rush, meeting forever optimistic Samantha when she brings in her rescue kitty to his clinic. Unfortunately, the kitty has a congenital deformity (no anus). He suggests that she put the kitty down because the repair would cost her around $10K. Eternally optimistic Samantha decides to go through the crowd funding platform “GoFundMe�� to get the money. Xavier has no such faith in humanity.

In Jimenez style, both Samantha and Xavier were instantly attracted to each other. They have a first date that goes on forever, mostly because they get “stuck�� in an Escape Room. They even solved the puzzles to get out! They fall head over heels in love(infatuation?). And then Samantha is called home to LA to help care for her mother who is suffering from dementia. Xavier has just begun his Vet practice, and he is the sole doctor in his practice. He’s got loans and bills. Samantha works for a company that pushes mustard. Jimenez had great fun with Samantha and her online posts regarding mustard. Need a special gift for a loved one? Give them a Mustard Basket! She supplies the snarky brother, Tristan, to balance the scales of justice in Xavier’s life in the most beautiful ways. Jimenez knows how to keep her readers happy.

Jimenez does a brilliant job showing the emotional exhaustion of caring for a parent with dementia. She shows the family dynamics involved in keeping a beloved family member out of a facility.

How can Samantha and Xavier, whose relationship the reader is rooting for, get together? Financial hardships grow which makes the situation worse. Jimenez uses themes of love, family, resilience, and friendships in her tale. Yes, everything ends in an unrealistically happy way, as all her novels do. But isn’t that why we read her?

I wasn’t sure how she was going to end this story, as she kept adding hardships and problems. In her magical (fiction) way, she wrapped the story up in a nice feel-good summer way, beach-read way.