Review: Yours Truly

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dr Briana Ortiz and Dr Jacob Maddox get off on the wrong foot. She thinks he's come to her hospital to get the promotion she's been working for, instead he's come to avoid his ex-girlfriend and brother who have got together and both work at his previous hospital. Briana's younger brother is in kidney failure and has slumped into depression, which means he's not looking after himself and is a frequent visitor to the ER where she works.

Jacob is an introvert and an over-thinker, very much like Briana's brother. On his first day at the hospital he had a series of patients die (none of them his fault) and now the nurses call him Dr Death and hate him. His large, loud family are constantly hovering over him, taking his side and throwing shade on his brother. It's all too much. Then a woman runs past him so fast she knocks his phone out of his hand and cracks the screen. Could anyone get off to a worse start? Well yes, they could follow the woman into a patient's room and then (see introvert and overthinker above) make some stupid comments when she is clearly distressed by the patient (Briana's brother).

Anyway, long story short, Jacob writes Briana a letter to apologise for his behaviour and explain why he acted the way he did. A proper letter on real paper with a pen. The letter means a lot to Briana and she understands his behaviour better because of her brother. So strikes up a pen-pal relationship as they leave each other letters around the hospital.

Jacob's mother received a kidney donation many years ago and the entire family were grateful because none of them were a match. In an attempt to pay it forward Jacob volunteers to be tested for Briana's brother and turns out to be a near-perfect match. He agrees to donate a kidney but insists on anonymity and for the operations to take place at another hospital, his introversion could not cope with everyone crowding around him, being grateful and loud.

When Jacob confesses that he is dreading dinner at his parents' house where his brother is going to announce his engagement Briana offers to accompany him as his fake girlfriend. She understands his anxiety and vulnerability and wants to help, just as she would help her brother. Indeed, she teaches Jacob a game she and her brother play at social events.

Things are going swimmingly, Briana and Jacob are getting on fine, they could even have something real, but when Briana finds out that Jacob in her brother's donor he can't tell if she's faking it out of gratitude. On her part, Briana is worried that Jacob is still in love with his ex and just faking it with her to distract his family. Can these two get over themselves?

I thought that this was the second Abby Jimenez book I had read, it's actually the fourth! This loosely follows from Part of Your World, which was a bit heavy on the woo-woo with a sentient Inn. The Inn features in this book, but only a cameo appearance.

What can I say, I loved it. Okay I felt both of them maybe harped on a bit too much about what they thought the other was doing rather than looking and listening to what they were actually doing, but hey that's the nature of the beast, there has to be some kind of conflict.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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