Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez
Read sample
Customer reviews

Life's Too Short

by

Abby Jimenez

(Author)

4.4

-

21,217 ratings


THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A hilarious, tender, and altogether life-affirming gem of a book." --Emily Henry, bestselling author of Beach Read

A brilliant and touching romantic comedy about two polar opposites, one adorable dog, and living every day to its fullest.

When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted.

But after her half sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her baby daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua.

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.

  • Minnesota Book Awards winner
  • BookRiot, Top Books of 2021
  • Goodreads, Best of 2021 Romance Finalist
  • She Reads, Best of 2021 Romance Winner

Kindle

$11.99

Available instantly

Audiobook

$0.00

with membership trial

Hardcover

$20.99

Paperback

$12.81

Audio CD from $22.00
Buy Now

Ships from

Amazon.com

Payment

Secure transaction

ISBN-10

153871566X

ISBN-13

978-1538715666

Print length

384 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Forever

Publication date

April 05, 2021

Dimensions

6.15 x 1.4 x 8.35 inches

Item weight

12.2 ounces


Popular Highlights in this book

  • You should always have an adventure lined up. Having something to look forward to is tantamount to happiness.

    Highlighted by 2,434 Kindle readers

  • Hate is exhausting. Life is too short to hate. Let it go. And while you’re at it, it might help you to try to see him as a whole person who isn’t all black or white.

    Highlighted by 2,189 Kindle readers


Product details

ASIN :

B08F4ZSTH2

File size :

748 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial Reviews

“Abby Jimenez’s Life’s Too Short is a hilarious, tender, and altogether life-affirming gem of a book. This is the kind of novel that leaves you a little better than when it found you. Jimenez is a true talent.”―Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read

“Heartfelt and swoony… Jimenez masterfully blends heavy issues and humor, lacing the tear-jerking heartache with sass and sarcasm. Series fans and newcomers alike will be moved by this emotional rom-com.”―Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Abby Jimenez’s knack for tackling heavy subjects with humor and care shines through in this exquisitely written story about love, difficult family relationships, and living life to its fullest.”―Farrah Rochon, USA Today bestselling author of The Boyfriend Project

“Jimenez continues to burnish her well-deserved reputation for delivering truly unforgettable love stories by gifting lucky readers with another sneaky-sweet yet surprisingly sexy romance. Jimenez achieves stunning emotional depth as her realistically imperfect characters power a story line that is in equal measures heartbreaking and gloriously hopeful.”―Booklist

"A heartwarming romantic page-turner about embracing and living life to its fullest no matter the obstacles, Life's Too Short will make your heart flutter. With refreshingly real characters and compulsively readable prose, Abby Jimenez captures the thrill of falling in love without shying away from deeper themes. Clear your schedule because you won't be able to put this delicious book down!"―Katherine St. John, author of The Siren

“Sweet and funny!”―PopSugar

"Further showcases Jimenez’s masterful blend of genres and tone. ...These are irresistible characters, and Life’s Too Short will win readers over with its charm."―BookPage

“This story was nearly flawless… Life-affirming and generously upbeat despite the daunting theme, Life’s Too Short is a swoonworthy romance with dashing characters and a reminder to live each day to its fullest!” ―The Nerd Daily

“An effervescent romantic comedy about taking chances, living life to the fullest, and how love can overcome anything, Life’s Too Short finds author Abby Jimenez at her most heartfelt and hilarious yet.”―Harlequin Junkie

Read more


Sample

CHAPTER 1

HEARD CRYING FROM NEXT

DOOR, WHAT I FOUND WAS SHOCKING!

ADRIAN

Wailing.

Banshee, demon-baby wailing from the apartment next to mine for the millionth hour straight. I lay in bed, looking at the ceiling in the dark.

Rachel groaned from beside me. “You have to do something. Go over there.”

I scoffed. “I’m not going over there. I don’t know her.”

I think I’d seen my neighbor in the lobby getting her mail once, but she was on the phone and she didn’t make eye contact with me, so I didn’t say hi. Now I wished I’d at least gotten to know her well enough to be able to text her and ask her to please move to a room that didn’t share a wall with my bedroom.

Rachel let out a frustrated breath, and I rolled over and hugged her back to my chest.

She tensed up. She’d been tensing up since she got here three days ago, actually.

“What’s wrong?”

She spoke over her shoulder at me. “Nothing. I’m just tired. I’m two seconds from getting a hotel room so I can sleep. Without you,” she teased.

I chuckled tiredly. She knew how to poke me, that was for damn sure.

I only got one weekend a month with my girlfriend. Losing the last night with her to a hotel before she went back to Seattle was a price I was not willing to pay for my neighbor or her baby.

Fuck.

I begrudgingly climbed out of bed, put on a T-shirt and slippers, and let myself out into the hallway of my apartment building.

No idea if she’d answer the door. It was 4:00 in the morning, and I was a stranger. Rachel probably would have called the police if she’d seen a man she didn’t know knocking on her apartment in the middle of the night.

“Who is it?” a woman’s voice called over the wailing.

“Your neighbor.”

The chain raked from the other side and the door opened.

Yup, the woman from the mailbox. She looked like hell. Baggy faded black T-shirt with a hole at a seam on the shoulder and some drawstring sweatpants with stains on them. Dark circles under her eyes, wild frizzy hair.

“What?” she said, looking at me over the tiny, loud bundle she had pressed to her chest.

I’d never seen a baby that small. I had bricks of cheese in my fridge bigger than this kid. It didn’t even look real.

It sounded real though.

She eyeballed me impatiently. “Yeah?”

“I have a deposition in four hours. Is there any way you can—”

“Any way I can what?” She glared at me.

“Any way you could maybe move to another side of the apartment? So I might be able to sleep?”

“There is no other side of this apartment. It’s a studio.”

Right. I knew that. “Okay…Well, can you—”

“Can I what? Make it stop?” She cocked her head. “Maybe put her in a closet? Because I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it.”

“I—”

“This isn’t a trumpet I’m playing in here. It’s not a TV I have turned up too loud. It’s a tiny human being. It can’t be reasoned with, and it’s not responding to negotiation attempts so I don’t know what to tell you.” She bounced the shrieking infant, and it cried on. “She’s fed, and clean, and dry. She doesn’t have a fever. She’s too young for teething. I’ve given her Tylenol and gas drops for colic. I’ve bounced her and rocked her and I’m coming to the conclusion that she’s simply playing out some cosmic karma-based retribution for crimes I committed in a past life because I cannot for the life of me understand what I’m doing wrong.” Her chin started to quiver. “So no, I can’t make it stop. I can’t help you, or me or her, and I am truly sorry if my own personal hell is inconvenient for you. Get earplugs.”

She slammed the door in my face.

I stood there, blinking at her peephole.

Great. Now I was the asshole.

I dragged a hand down my beard and let out a long, tired breath and knocked again. I knew she was peeking through the peephole because the wailing was pressed right to the door. She opened it. “What?” She had tears running down her face.

I made a give-it-here motion with my hand. “Give me the baby.”

She stared at me.

“Go take a shower. I’ll hold her.”

She blinked at me. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m not. You obviously need a break. Maybe it will help.”

Continuing to do the same thing was going to yield the same results. What she was doing wasn’t working, and it was clear that this situation wasn’t going to resolve itself without outside intervention.

She looked at me like I’d gone mad. “I’m not giving you my baby.”

“Why? Are you afraid I might piss her off?” As if she intended to illustrate my point, the wails went up an octave. “I’m going to hold her until you’re done. If neither of us are sleeping, it makes no sense for both of us to suffer. And you have vomit in your hair.”

She looked down on the hair gathered over her shoulder and saw the white goop. She rolled her eyes like it didn’t surprise her and came back up to me. “Look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but this isn’t your problem.”

I rubbed my forehead tiredly. “Well, I beg to differ. As long as we’re sharing a wall, we’re in this together. Sometimes a change of circumstances can change behavior. Someone new to hold her while you go and lower your anxiety might make the difference.”

She bounced the baby uselessly and it kept crying. I could see the frustration around the woman’s eyes. She looked exhausted. “I don’t know you,” she said.

“My name is Adrian Copeland. I live in apartment 307, next door to you, and I own this building. I’m thirty-two years old, no criminal history, I’m a partner at Beaker and Copeland in St. Paul. I’m harmless and I’m standing here in the hallway at”—I looked at my watch—“4:07 in the morning, trying to help you. Let me in and let me hold her.”

I watched the deliberation on her face. She was going to crack. I could read people. She was that deadlocked juror who was going to fold—and she did.

She pulled open the door and let me in. I stepped inside.

Fuck, her apartment was a disaster.

It looked like the place used to be nice. It had that Pottery Barn thing going on. But the studio was small and completely cluttered with baby paraphernalia. A car seat, a crib by the king-size bed at the back of the apartment, a swing. Bottles were piled on the kitchen countertops and the place smelled faintly like shit. Actual shit. Dirty-diaper shit.

She eyed me. “Just so you know, I have my little stabby thingy so don’t try anything stupid.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Your stabby thingy?”

She jutted her chin up. “Yeah. You know, the keychain thingy? I’ve got cameras too. Tons of them. And a gun,” she added. “I also have a gun.”

I crossed my arms. “Okay. And do you know how to use this gun you have?”

“No,” she said matter-of-factly. “Which makes me more dangerous.”

I snorted.

She stood there, still holding the baby like she’d decided to let me in but hadn’t yet committed to actually letting me help her. I put my hands out, but she shook her head. “You need to wash your hands first.”

Right. I’d heard that before. Babies had weaker immune systems. I went to her kitchen and washed my hands over the stack of dirty dishes. “You weren’t pregnant,” I said, over my shoulder, raising my voice so she could hear me above the screaming. “Where’d you get her?”

“Target,” she deadpanned. “She was on sale and you know how you can never leave with just one thing,” she mumbled.

The corners of my lips quirked.

The paper towel roll was empty and based on the state of the rest of the place, I didn’t trust the towel hanging off the stove. There was a rogue Chipotle napkin by an empty fruit bowl, so I dried my hands with that. It disintegrated into spitballs, and I dropped them into the overflowing trash can.

“I’m fostering her,” she said over the crying, answering my question. She eyeballed me as I cleared the space between us and put my hands out again to take the baby. She turned her body sideways away from me. “Have you ever held a baby before?”

“No. But I can’t imagine there’s much to it.”

“You have to support her neck. Like this.” She showed me her hand on the back of the little kiwi-looking head.

“Okay. Got it.”

“And you need to bounce her. She likes that.”

“As evidenced by the earth-shattering wailing,” I said dryly.

She narrowed her brown eyes at me.

“I’m kidding. I’m very capable of this, I promise you.”

She still didn’t move. I waited patiently.

She finally nodded. “Okay.” She got closer to hand the baby over. Close enough that I could smell her hair as she leaned in to put the baby in my arms. Vanilla—and a touch of spoiled milk.

I cradled the tiny angry bundle. She was red faced and furious. She couldn’t be more than ten, eleven pounds, tops.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked, eyeing me.

“Go. I got this. And take your time.”

She paused for another moment. “I’ll be right on the other side of that door if you need anything.”

“Okay.”

“That’s Grace. My name is Vanessa.”

“Nice to meet you, Vanessa. Now go. Take. A shower.”

She stood another few beats, then finally turned and rummaged clothes from the dresser and headed to the bathroom. She closed the door slowly, looking at me through the crack until it shut.

A higher-pitched cry came from the wiggling pink blanket in my arms. I peered down again at the baby.

Not much made me nervous. Actually, outside of flying, nothing made me nervous. I was a criminal defense attorney. I looked pure evil in the eye daily. But it surprised me when a sudden sense of—I don’t know what it was. Anxiety?—overcame me looking down at that little person. She was so fragile. Thinner than the forearm she nestled in.

It felt safer to sit than stand, so I moved to the couch.

The screaming continued as the water turned on in the shower. It was amazing how long something so small could cry.

“What’s wrong with you?” I mumbled.

I tried to think of what might be causing this distress. There was a finite number of issues that could be bothering someone who didn’t yet know about things like taxes and existential dread.

Vanessa had said she’d fed her, so she wasn’t hungry. She was dry. No gas, no pain. She had to be tired, but something was keeping her from sleeping.

What kept me from sleeping?

And then I had a thought.

I laid her down on the couch cushion, opened the blanket, and started to feel around her little footie pajamas. I ran my fingers along the seams and about mid-belly I found it. A clear T-shaped plastic tag fastener, still stuck to the outfit. Totally invisible.

“No wonder you’re pissed. I’d be pissed too,” I said. I looked around for scissors. Didn’t see any. So I leaned down and pulled the thing off with my teeth. Then I unzipped her little pj’s and took out the rest of the offending object and rubbed the red spot on her belly with a knuckle. “Shhhhhhh…”

She stopped crying almost immediately.

Read more


About the authors

Abby Jimenez

Abby Jimenez

Abby Jimenez is a Food Network winner, New York Times best selling author, and recipient of the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for her novel Life's Too Short. Abby founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen back in 2007. The bakery has since gone on to win numerous Food Network competitions and, like her books, has amassed an international following.


Reviews

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

21,217 global ratings

Lily Cortez

Lily Cortez

5

Emotionally Amazing!!!

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2024

Verified Purchase

Abby Jimenez has done it again with another stellar book! This one might just be my all-time favorite. Vanessa and Adrian were absolutely perfect together. Their effortless bond and quick integration into each other's lives, becoming best friends in no time, was simply heartwarming. The way Adrian stepped up to care for Grace made me fall for him just as hard as Vanessa did. Jimenez has a way of making her characters truly understand each other, tugging at the heartstrings with their genuine care and connection. The moments of conflict, like the debate over Vanessa's treatment, had me torn between both perspectives, feeling the weight of Adrian's ultimatum. Vanessa's playful flirting and the focus on emotional intimacy rather than just physical chemistry made their relationship feel authentic and special. Watching their gradual emotional opening and Adrian's support in helping Vanessa reconnect with her family was truly touching. Adrian's willingness to do anything for Vanessa, even the smallest gestures like untangling her hair from the fan, showed his deep love and commitment. And his profession as a lawyer? So hot! The theme of control added depth to Adrian's character development, highlighting the significant impact Vanessa had on him. Overall, this book was incredibly well-crafted and captivating from start to finish.

Read more

LMS

LMS

5

10 Stars - Wonderful character and relationship development

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2024

Verified Purchase

This is the third book in the Friend Zone series and the third book by Abby Jimenez that I've read. The first two were wonderful. They had me laughing, loving the characters, and sometimes wanting to pull my hair with frustration.

Life's Too Short took me on a deeper journey. I've just finished it and have tears in my eyes. The ending has taken a little nip out of my heart, like things in life can. I'm sitting with the story feeling slightly dazed.

This story is beautiful, warm, realistic, funny, and fun. I've read excerpts from it to three friends and two family members so far because the story is so funny and authentic. All of it. Especially if you enjoy people's or dogs' uniqueness, or savor the crazy variety and richness of life. From my 96-year-old aunt to the friend who wants to read this story, each person I read excerpts to loves it. I have more family and friends I will read parts to. It's too wonderful to not be shared with all my loved ones.

My heart still feels nipped.

Thank you, Abby Jimenez.

Read more

em

em

5

Pure Magic

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2024

Verified Purchase

I don’t even know where to begin. Vanessa is like sunshine in human form, even with a prospective ALS diagnosis, a hoarder father, drug addicted sister, and a little brother on a mission for a get rich quick scheme. When her sister ditches her baby on Vanessa’s doorstep, her entire life changes. In comes Adrian, broody criminal defense lawyer, and neighbor. From the naked eye, they are complete opposites. Yet, from the second fate puts them together, it’s magic.

Everything about this book is a masterpiece. A true gift of literature that leaves you laughing, connecting, grieving, crying, and feeling like you just might die when it ends. I haven’t felt this in love with a book since Happy Place by Emily Henry. If I could give this book 7 stars, I would.

Read more

3 people found this helpful

Drea H.

Drea H.

5

AMAZING!

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2024

Verified Purchase

This book is so well written and is such a ride. I've never cried this much reading a book. An epic journey for sure. The characters were fantastic, the story was so engaging, and the emotions were so real! This book really changed my perspective on coping with terminal illnesses. This is the first book of Abby's that I've read and she has a fan for life. Thank you for writing this story. It was the tale I didn't know I needed.

Read more

Jeneva G.

Jeneva G.

4

My heart!

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2024

Verified Purchase

Wow. I didn't know what to expect from this book but I was pleasantly surprised. I can't get over the miscommunication trope though. It gets under my skin when characters don't just come out and say what they need to say. The last chapter redeemed this book for me. It fell flat towards the end and felt a bit rushed but, I loved it. Such a great book bringing awareness to a condition most people don't even think about. And all of the things that Adrian dealt with too. I really connected with his character a lot!

Read more

More reviews