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Abby Jimenez Deep Dive | S3Ep9
554 Plays2 years ago
Next in our Author Spotlight Series: #1 New York Times Bestselling author Abby Jimenez! We rank her characters and couples, have a spoiler-filled chat about her four recent novels, and end off with some trivia questions!
Time Stamps:
- 9:00 -- non spoiler chat
- SPOILERS:
- 30:54 -- Life's Too Short
- 41:30 -- Part of Your World
- 53:04 -- Yours Truly
- 1:05:11 -- Just For The Summer
Follow us on instagram @BringYourOwnPod
- Follow Brandi @Brandos.Books
- Follow Kendra @Kendra.Readz
- Follow Kayla @Kaylas.Bookshelf
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Transcript
Introduction and Abby Jimenez Deep Dive
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey guys! Welcome to Bring Your Own and Catch All Focus shows the time podcast. I'm Brandi. I'm Kendra. I'm Kayla. And today we are doing an Abby Jimenez deep dive. We are so excited. We're going to talk.
00:00:20
Speaker
books and characters and moments and all that good stuff. But before we jump in, and before we even talk about our drinks and what we're reading, if you would take a moment to review this podcast, we'd be so grateful. That would help us out a lot. If you like listening to us, let us know. Anyways, what are we reading? What are we drinking? Shameless.
00:00:44
Speaker
No, I love it. I love it. I can go. Let's see.
Current Reads and Drinks
00:00:49
Speaker
I do just have water today, but earlier I did have a delicious brown sugar chai latte. So good. And what am I reading right now? I just finished Another Love Song by Julie Soto, which I really enjoyed. Not sure. Like I also really like Forget Me Not. So I'm not positive how it ranks there. I think it's a little bit higher for me.
00:01:15
Speaker
Um, because of a certain thing that happens at the end of forget me, not that I always think about what I think about that book, but that's okay. And I'm listening to like barely 10 minutes in how to end a love story by Yulin Kwang. Uh, Kendra is, she has multiple copies, so she is going to send me a physical copy, but I, you are, are you? I told you that I was going to put it in the mail this week and then I didn't. That's crazy. I had a busy week. I'm so sorry. It's okay.
00:01:44
Speaker
But it's okay because I got it on Libby like I had already placed a hold for it like weeks before the book came out and I got first in line. So I got the Libby hold through and it does have Teddy Hamilton as a narrator. Yeah, that doesn't he doesn't bother me as much like I don't get excited when I see him like as a narrator, but it doesn't turn me off completely to a book. The female narrator is great, though.
Audiobook Narration Discussion
00:02:10
Speaker
I think she's like doing really great so far.
00:02:13
Speaker
But T. Hamilton doesn't kill me. Is the MMC in this a cowboy? Is he living in the country? No, right? He's like a guy from the city, works in the movie industry or TV industry. Why would anyone cast Teddy Hamilton as that? Don't look at me. I didn't make this decision. Take it up with whoever the publisher is. No, I love Atria. Who is it? Atria. Sorry. I love Atria. But anyway, that is what I'm currently reading.
00:02:41
Speaker
I am gonna finish Not Another Love Song today by Ms. Julie Soto. I'm really enjoying it. And I am listening to Can't Help Falling by Cara Bastone, which is book two in her first romance trilogy. Oh my god, the narrator is so bad with the story. Yeah, I mean, she was like, yeah, I don't know how that happened to her.
00:03:04
Speaker
um and it's a guy like narrating the whole thing and it's told in third person so like it's third person and i'm just like but i mean like i like the story i like the character so like i'm just like getting through it um and then my hold today came through for city of glass book three and the mortal instruments and i'm literally filming at the mouth to start with start it i'm so excited i'm like locked in now like after those first two books i'm like oh my god i'm here like there's so many things i want to see and i found out that i knew like next to nothing like i thought i knew a lot but i actually know
00:03:34
Speaker
nothing. So yeah. Did you say what you're drinking? Or did I miss it? Oh, I'm not really drinking anything. I had an ollie pop this morning. Okay. So yeah.
Listener Engagement and Future Teasers
00:03:44
Speaker
Nice. I am drinking an iced vanilla latte. So that's delicious. Enjoying that. And then I am currently physically reading Before We Came by Sloan St. James, which is like the lake something hockey series. Our friend Jasmine, who's the owner of Stella Candle Co. loved the series. She just read it and she was like obsessed.
00:04:10
Speaker
and I told her I was like oh my god I'm gonna start it like I need a new physical read and she's like if you get through book one and hate it promise me you'll at least try book two because she's like book one is the worst um she's like I still love it personally but I can see why people might not like it I'm having a good time it's not like the most amazing thing ever but it's on KU and I'm you know I need that
00:04:32
Speaker
kind of headspace read right now. So that, and then I listened to Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey. You guys, I saw that on your story graph the other day. And I was like, what? I went into like a fugue state last night. Cause I was working on my book journal and I was listening to this and I like looked up and I was at 60%. I was like, what the fuck? It's like pretty good. It's definitely like not topping. It happened one summer, but I'm like having fun. So.
00:05:01
Speaker
I'm curious about that hockey series. I've seen it a lot recently. Yeah, Tanya is reading it right now too. Yeah, I'll let you know. I have been more drawn to my audiobooks recently, but I'm hoping to finish it either today or tomorrow because I'm, you know, halfway through or
Abby Jimenez's Book Universe
00:05:17
Speaker
so.
00:05:17
Speaker
so you jump in yeah let's do it okay so given the title of this this episode we are doing an abby hymnas deep dive but i want to give the disclaimer of we are only going to be focusing on four books of hers that's so true i didn't even think abby
00:05:32
Speaker
Has in total six books out two series, but they're all in the same universe So you have her friend zone series which consists consists of the friend zone The happily ever after playlist and life's too short and then you have the part of your world series Which contains part of your world yours truly and just for the summer Kayla and Brandy have not read her first two books ID enough the friend zone. Yeah, I didn't think it was good at all. I got like 70 pages in and
00:06:01
Speaker
And then I did the happily ever after playlist on audio. Zachary Weber also does the audio for her and I forget who the female narrator is. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. And I think- You didn't DNF it. I didn't DNF it, I got through it. And I think it also just like sets up the rest of the humanist universe really well because you meet some characters in there that end up having like Easter eggs in all of her books.
00:06:29
Speaker
But I think Abby's true talent starts at life's too short. Which to me though, I kind of like that. She's not someone who had lightning in a bottle straight out the gate. She's someone who you can tell just worked really hard.
00:06:43
Speaker
to hone her craft and become a better writer and like kind of figure out what she wanted to say and like the type of characters that she wanted to write about because we don't really get the cinnamon roll guy effect until life's too short like I think the first two books they were just like men but moving forward you just you get her signature style of a man which I think hopefully she continues with um but Abby Jimenez if you don't know already is a number one this is new a number one New York
00:07:14
Speaker
Just for the Summer went number one, which is crazy. Two categories. Yeah, in two categories. I think her first book on the New York Times Best Selling Show was part of your world. It was Life's Too Short, actually. It was Life's Too Short? Yeah, I saw that when doing research for this episode, when I was on Goodreads, Life's Too Short is a New York Times Best Selling Show. And what did I just say? I feel like that's when she started, so it makes sense.
00:07:38
Speaker
So she is the number one New York Times bestselling author and food network champion living in Minnesota.
Hosts' Initial Experiences with Abby's Books
00:07:44
Speaker
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 has amassed an international following. Abby loves a good romance, coffee, doglets, and not leaving the house. That is the bio on her website. And if there is one thing about Miss Abby, she's always going to plug her cupcake business.
00:08:06
Speaker
You cannot get through a single book of hers without the mention of Nadia cakes. I love that for her. Yeah. I, when we were still living in Los Angeles, I drove an hour both ways to go get some Nadia cupcakes for the yours truly release. I will do the same. Cupcakes were fucking good. Good. Yeah. Yeah. I would do the exact same thing if there was one near me, honestly. So like, yeah, I would have done it again for those just for the summer cupcakes.
00:08:32
Speaker
And I do it again. Yeah, we are only going to be talking about the four books that all three of us have read. But if there's a certain book that you want to skip to or that you haven't read yet, there will be timestamps in the description of this episode. So you can skip to wherever you want to go. The first section of this episode is going to be spoiler free, though. So feel free to stay and listen, even if you haven't read all four of the books that we will be discussing. So
00:08:59
Speaker
First thing, ladies, what was the first Abbey book that you have read and when did you read it? I'll start. Sorry, I don't know what happened there.
00:09:17
Speaker
Well, if we're going to go chronologically, I guess I can start because I read Part of Your World in spring of 2022. It was a book of the month pick. And back when I still had the month, it was the only romance pick. And so I was like, cool, let me try this.
00:09:37
Speaker
I read that in the spring and when I was reading it I was texting Kendra, I'm not kidding you guys, the entire the entire plot of this book. I was spoiling the whole thing for her because I was like so interested in it. Like within like the first two chapters I was like wait
00:09:53
Speaker
wait, this is kind of good. Like, it's really good so far. I literally told her everything that happened in this book. And then she somehow ended up forgetting most of it or all of it when she ended up reading it. But I read it in spring of 2022, Party or World was my first book and I fell head over heels. It was amazing.
00:10:12
Speaker
I remember getting texts in our group chat where you're like, I'm kind of liking this book. They were like, no, wait, you guys, this book is really good. And then you're like, wait, you guys, please read this. I need you to read this, which was like a fun, always so fun when that happens to one of us.
Qualities of Abby's Writing
00:10:27
Speaker
Well, I think because I had never read anything by hair, I really didn't have any expectations. And, you know, I don't really read also a lot of age gaps where the woman is older. So, you know, you're always a little bit nervous that it's going to be like a big thing.
00:10:40
Speaker
in a book and it just like wasn't to me so loved it yeah my first abbey book was um the friend zone then i dnf'd it and then kayla read party your world and this was back when kayla and i were just like so in love and it came to books and so she was like read party world and i was like oh my god of course kayla and and so then i
00:11:01
Speaker
It was our honeymoon phase, truly that was our honeymoon phase. I don't know if it was right away, but it was definitely soon after she had. I think it was a few months after. It was maybe a month. It was maybe a month. Yeah, I think it had to have been a month because I have very specific memories with that book in the summer and if you're reading it in the spring, then I definitely read it in the summer.
00:11:24
Speaker
and yeah I did it hybrid so I listened to the audiobook while reading it on my kindle and I remember I was like in the hair salon getting my hair braided and like just listening to like I was just like obsessed and I got home and I finished it and it was it was amazing so I'll I will count part of your world as like my first Abihameda's book as well.
00:11:46
Speaker
The first Abby bookie finished. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking I read it in June, but now I'm looking, I read it in July of 2022. So shortly after these two, I listened to it. Um, and then I really enjoyed it. I definitely wasn't on like the same level as Kendra and Kayla were with like the obsession with it, but I was like, Oh my God, yes, that was really good. Uh, and then I got the arc for yours truly. And that's when I.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, head first into the Abby obsession as well. Yeah, when I remember when we got the arcs for yours truly. I think especially Kendra was like, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait. Yeah, you both were like not really interested. No, I was interested. I just didn't want to like I didn't want it to be over. I didn't want. Yeah, I was. I was waiting for the audio because you loved the audio so much. That's what I thought was happening.
00:12:37
Speaker
no it really wasn't even that it was just like we were not that we were like nervous we just we thought that it was going to be really good and so we just were like i don't know i don't want to do it yet we were like holding on to part of your world yeah yeah yeah you guys are like that was like all year long that you guys i mean i know you still are in love with that book but like that was like the number one book you guys talked about it's like you're ready or not this year
00:12:58
Speaker
Our very, very first episode of Bring Your Own Comfort Book, I brought Partier World. So it's truly a comfort book for me. But then you read yours truly, Brandy. And so then I was like, OK, I'll read it. So yeah, it was so good, so good.
00:13:14
Speaker
For you guys, what do you think makes Abby and her books like so special to you? What sets her apart from other authors or series? For me, like she just has the art of like rom com down to like a T like it is so romantic and emotional and like devastating in a lot of ways. But I also find myself laughing out loud with every single one of her books like
00:13:40
Speaker
that like Kendra mentioned at the beginning like she has like such a craft like it doesn't feel like she like sits down and is like oh like what should I write it feels like very like organic and the dialogue feels so realistic and the characters feel so flawed but also like their flaws are what endears them to me and I think that's such a human thing to be able to write so
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me, I've, I've talked about this before a lot with you guys a lot in different group chats that we have together. But I think Abby, as a writer, like her writing itself is very simplistic. Like there's not a lot of flowery words, you know, it's very easy to read. But just because it's simplistic in the way that it's written doesn't mean that it doesn't pack an emotional punch the way that it does. Because there are
00:14:34
Speaker
I think anybody can attest, if you've read an Abbey book, there's like an 80% chance that you have cried to at least one of her books. And for me, it's like pretty much every book. But yeah, I just think that with the ability, sometimes if something is super simply written, usually it equals bad. But that is 100% not the case with Abbey. And I don't think that that's the case in general all the time either. But I just think that the way that she's able to write things
00:15:03
Speaker
and pack that emotional punch while like you said Brandy still also being so funny and making me swoon and giggle it's just like I don't know she just does it I think differently than other people and I love it
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me, it's always going to be her characters. Like her characters feel so real and human, but they also just have the most interesting backgrounds that are so relatable. Even if she gives them like, we'll talk about life's history in a little bit, but like Vanessa as a character, like she's a YouTuber who's like stupid rich, but she doesn't come off as like,
00:15:45
Speaker
unrelatable like I felt like that was like my best friend and like I got to live with her and I think she's just so good at I think backstories is she's just so good at crafting them and I when we read just for the summer I was like Abby gives her characters like backstories and families that like you would only hear about on the news yeah like and
00:16:05
Speaker
I really like that because I think she's really good at de-stigmatizing a lot of things within her books that I don't think a lot of trad authors in her stance would do. Just the biggest risk. I think her and probably Kennedy Ryan, being both huge trad published people right now, Kennedy Newley trad, they're taking the biggest risk. And she cares about making her books.
00:16:34
Speaker
I love that she keeps so many things the same too. Always going to have some time in Minnesota and there's always going to be a dog. Yeah, but that goes back to the relatability words like.
00:16:46
Speaker
that can be anyone that can literally be anyone and she does such a good job like I don't know I just I really love her and I just love so much that she's gotten so so so much better as a writer over time like yeah yeah yeah she handles all these things with such care and you can tell how much she cares and she has talked about her process of getting like
00:17:07
Speaker
For example, just for the summer, she had an expert in the field of childhood trauma and PTSD read this book. You can just tell that she cares so much about her characters and about the story that she's telling. It made me think about how when we were at an event with her in Los Angeles a couple of years ago,
00:17:29
Speaker
in between part of your world and yours truly. She said that she doesn't start writing until she knows what her characters would order at a cafe for breakfast. What are they ordering? Why are they ever going to differentiate? Blah, blah, blah. Like all this stuff. Like, what are they going to look at at a menu? And I was just like, she just, yeah, she just cares so much. So.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah. I love that she was on Good Morning America being like, yeah, I'm a tried author and I use beta readers because like I would reckon that most tried authors do not. It's like you send your work to your writer's friends and then you send your work to your editor and then the book ends up in stores and maybe we should change that more. Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:14
Speaker
We just also love her as a person. I think everybody here can attest to that. Abby, if you don't know a lot about Abby's story, she's pretty open about a lot of the things that she's been through, especially on her Instagram, but she's just one of those people that I think we all agree deserves the world and all of the success that's come to her.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah, and I know it probably sounds like we're fucking dick writing right now, but like I don't know like I like seeing good people win like writing good books win and like someone who constantly tries and I remember being in her like we're all in her Facebook group, which
00:18:49
Speaker
I've been a few authors, Facebook groups, and a lot of them aren't anything special, but hers feels like a true community, but she's also not, we've talked a lot about this, probably not on the pod, but an author's not crossing boundaries, and I'm an author, you are a reader, and I think she handles that really, really well, and she also takes criticism really well and feedback, because people will ask her or point out things in books, especially in earlier copies, and she'll be like,
00:19:17
Speaker
okay like let me like let me address that or like I I like that because she could have been like no fuck you I'm I wrote this yeah like it's done yeah but yeah
00:19:27
Speaker
All right, so with all of that, now we're getting into our rankings, which I'm really nervous for. Before we started recording, Kayla was like, Kayla, can we not rank the characters? And Kendra and I were like, no. No. We're ranking. Okay. Mind you, Kayla came up with everything that we were going to rank. So she told us, yeah, rank the characters, rank the couples, like, and then now she's like, no,
Ranking Abby's Books and Characters
00:19:48
Speaker
I don't want to. Okay. Well, anyway, whatever.
00:19:51
Speaker
Whatever. I have to deal with my own consequences, I guess. But let's start with ranking the books themselves. Okay. So again, we're just doing the four that we've all read. So why are you laughing? I don't see it's scary. I also just, I think we can all make this disclaimer that all of us love each of the books that we're about to rank. We all do. Like nothing is below like a four and a half, I think.
00:20:18
Speaker
Correct. 0.25. Okay, okay. I'm just checking with Brandy on one thing real quick. Whoa. I did bump it up because I re-listened to the part of your world. Initially, I gave it 4.25 or more. Yeah. It's now sitting out. It's sitting out of focus. I'm sorry. Whoa. Okay. Okay. I'll take that.
00:20:36
Speaker
Okay, so we all love each of these books so ranking them like ranking at one last same thing with like how we did with the Magnolia Parks universe the addicted universe like Ranking anybody last feels like really gross. So just want to clarify that although ranking Daisy and right class wasn't that hard. Yeah We stay like they stay catching strays on this podcast. I'm so sorry to all the raising girls. It's just too sorry
00:21:03
Speaker
Anyway, who wants to go first? Rank your books. I'll go. Okay. Okay. So I was shook because I was such a yours-trueless-nance. Still am. Still am. But after reading Just for the Summer, I was like, ah, fuck. This is my new favorite Abby book. So Just for the Summer is number one. Yours truly number two. Part of your world number three. Life's too short. Number four. Okay. Me? Yeah. Okay. So my favorite is part of your world. Like, yeah, it's just like,
00:21:33
Speaker
The magic of that book makes me so happy, guys. When I took a solo trip to Seattle shortly after I read Partier World, and I had that audiobook on loop that entire trip. So like, I just get so happy thinking of that trip before Kayla gave me food poisoning. Oh my god. And then to like, Daniel and Alex just fall in love over and over and over again. And like, yeah, I love it. Okay, so Partier World is my favorite. And then I have a tie.
00:21:58
Speaker
the tie is between life's too short and just for the summer that's crazy you guys understand life's too life's too short a because i went in
00:22:09
Speaker
expectations. Like expectations were on the ground. So I was like, Okay, this is from her first series. Like I didn't really enjoy the first two. And I was just completely swept away. And a lot of that does have to do with just Vanessa as a character. But I just I love that book. I love the families in that book. Like it just makes me smile and so happy and like, just for the summer is just like,
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah. It's amazing, like, and I like that Life's Too Short, Just For The Summer have like the same narration group or duo and it just like, I can live in those audiobooks forever. And then in third place.
00:22:43
Speaker
would be Yours Truly. I love, love, love Yours Truly, but it is in third place for me. I don't really like it. I just think, I still think it's a great book. Do you think that the narration was better? You'd like it more? No, because I physically write it first. I know, but you don't really, you didn't like the narration. Yeah, I didn't like her. I don't like the girl who voiced Vanessa that much. She's not bad by any means. You mean Brie. Brie.
00:23:09
Speaker
oh yeah that voice Brie um no my thing with yours truly is that um i think and we've had this talk lots of times Randy and you always get mad at me i think story why she was just doing a little bit too much and it all didn't get wrapped up and like that's the only reason why like it gets knocked down for me it's still an amazing book but like you kind of get to then i was like oh wait but what about this is this and then i also thought it was gonna have more
00:23:35
Speaker
of the like magical element that like part of your world and just for the summer ended up having but it like
00:23:42
Speaker
didn't but that's fine like that that's an expression of me but i still love the book why are you looking because what did just for the summer have outside of like when they were there we will get into that well everything like with her mom and the roses and like this the sun fading like i thought all goes back to walk on yeah and i feel like that was like such a good tie and i like i'm just saying i feel like she could have made it more like you know it didn't have to be like everything we'd walk on i just like the magic could have
00:24:08
Speaker
been like a little more because it helps tie the series like as a whole, like all these people falling in love in one place. OK, go to walk on. No, they did. But like you get them talking about more like with the symbolism. Yeah, please. I'm working. We'll get more into that part when we get in depth with the books with the symbolism, not just I'm going there. OK.
00:24:32
Speaker
It's okay. Thank you. My book ranking is a mix of both of those two. Obviously part of your world is first for me, I guys, I thought about for about two seconds. I thought about putting just for the summer first, but I think I'm just writing that high right now. But again, when I think about, yeah, Daniel and Alexis, like just the magicness of that bug, I have to put it first. And then I also have a tie for second. Okay, I'm tying just for the summer and yours truly for first.
00:25:01
Speaker
Fine, but that's not what you said to us. You already know. We already know. Shut up, shut up, shut up. If you follow Brandi on Instagram, you saw her stories where she was like, guys. Anyway, yeah, yours truly and just for the summer are tied for a second for me and then Life's Too Short is at three. So now is couples. Do the couples rankings differ from your book rankings? I'll be curious to see. Yeah.
00:25:31
Speaker
Yes, Kendra, but no for Brandi, Kendra, what is the difference? So my favorite couple obviously is Daniel and Alexis. Like I would put Daniel and Alexis up there with like how I feel about like Jonah and Kylie. Like they're just, I can live in their love all day long. I love them so much.
00:25:47
Speaker
um and then i have another tie the tie is the tie is between girl you still have time the time is between um Justin and Emma and Brie and Jacob they would be in like second like i just they're just so cute and then in third would be Vanessa and Adrienne okay like i still love them as a couple i just don't think like i think the other two just have more like romantic moments between them
00:26:09
Speaker
Mine is sort of different in that I don't have a tie. But yeah, Daniel and Alexis first, Jacob and Brie are second for me. I also think that they just have like, there's just more romance a little bit in yours truly. And then Emma, Justin and Vanessa and Adrienne. Mine goes in the same order, but because we're going to talk about individual characters just in a second, but I just like love Emma and Justin so much as individual characters that
00:26:39
Speaker
my favorite character of all of her characters that were written as Jacob, but like Emma and Justin as a unit, they're my number one. So yeah, mine's the same order. Emma, Justin, Jacob, Bri, Daniel, Alexis, Vanessa, Adrian.
00:26:52
Speaker
Okay, love that. All right, let's now do female main characters. This one, sad, but it's okay. Cause Kendra and I know what certain people think about one of our girls. You guys, I set off a fucking bomb in our group chat last week because we were talking, we were talking in our group chat of our friends that we went to book Bonanza with.
00:27:13
Speaker
I just like thought I very innocently shared my ranking. You did that deliberately. You knew what you were doing there, Randy. I was drunk. I was drunk. All right. So, Randy, what did you share in our group chat? Share your ranking for us. Okay. Yeah. My ranking is
00:27:31
Speaker
Emma is my favorite, FMC, then Bri, then Vanessa, then Alexis. In the group chat, the thing that causes huge issue is I hit enter an extra time between Vanessa and Alexis.
00:27:48
Speaker
because it was once it was once it was once it was once and these two took such offense and like i just like i don't think it's that egregious because you guys barely ever talk about alexis unless you're defending her you guys always just talk about daniel but no we don't oh it's kayla and i don't i feel like we talk about alexis a fair amount with each other
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I don't know. I just don't see like the same amount of gushing over her as a character. We live in a community of haters for Alexis. And so we just, we got to defend our girl. Cause every time we start to talk about her, well, she doesn't know how to sweep. And we're just like, that's not me. That's not me.
00:28:30
Speaker
Selena. We're calling you out at bookish sell. Yeah. Um, but that caused like this huge issue. And like, I still like Alexis. I don't dislike Alexis. Like when I started getting beat up in the group chat, I called in cell and then she started saying crazy shit. And I was like, whoa, I don't co-sign that. But I just like, it is a gap. It is a quite a gap for me between how much I love Vanessa versus how I thought it was just one interspace. Now you're saying it's quite a gap.
00:28:56
Speaker
And I don't think the amount of love can translate into written like, like that is how it would translate to me. Okay. I like Alexis. I would never say I love her. Okay. I will have to tag team later in this episode.
00:29:17
Speaker
My ranking is Vanessa is my favorite Abby Jimenez girl. I just love Vanessa so much. She's like such a breath. A fresh year or two as an FMC to me like, I love her. And then Alexis and then Emma and then Bri even though I feel like relatability wise, Emma and I have a lot in common out of all the other FMCs. But yeah, that is the ranking no gap in my list.
00:29:42
Speaker
Okay, mine is Emma. Emma is actually my favorite Abby FMC. She kind of overtook the other girls after just for the summer, and then Alexis and then Vanessa and then Bri. Okay, last ranking. I just like the boys. This is hard. This is easy for me.
00:30:03
Speaker
I okay, well, obviously for me, I mean, like, like, obviously, Daniel is number one, like, he will never be top. I'm sorry, that's just not going to happen. And then I think I'd go, Jacob.
00:30:16
Speaker
Justin Adrian. I think that's how I would do it. Oh my God. Daniel, Jacob, Justin Adrian. Okay.
Deep Dive into 'Life's Too Short'
00:30:25
Speaker
Got it. Mine is Jacob, Justin, Daniel, Adrian. Okay. So our Daniel and Jacobs were switched. Okay. I will accept. I will accept. All right. No gap in that one. Good. Thank you for clarifying. You just hate women.
00:30:41
Speaker
I don't hate women. I, you guys, I like, I maybe just need to reread part of your world. So with all of our rankings, now we're going to talk spoilers. So if you haven't read any books or if you've only read certain books, then you can skip to wherever you want to go or stick around. I don't care if you like spoilers, go for it. First, let's start off with Life's Too Short. Kendra, do you want to give us like a little bit about what Life's Too Short is about?
00:31:09
Speaker
Yes, so Life's Too Short is this achingly sweet like slow burn strangers to friends to lovers romance. It follows a woman named Vanessa Price who is a travel blogger and she shares her vlogs are about her living her life to the fullest trying new things all while trying to raise money for ALS because everyone in her family specifically the women in her family
00:31:37
Speaker
They all died of ALS before the age of 30. She is approaching, I believe 29. So she realizes that this could be the last year of her life. However, her baby sister has a baby and Vanessa is tasked with taking care of that baby. So she's stagnant for the first time in a long time. And she just happens to live in the same apartment complex of this like very uptight, uptight lawyer named Adrian.
00:32:06
Speaker
who ends up helping her with like childcare and the two become friends but he is unaware that she could possibly have ALS and if she does have it would die in a year so you see that all play out and I just smile thinking of them like I
00:32:25
Speaker
I love them so much. I love this book so much because I feel like for this to be a friends to lovers story with none of most friends to lovers work best when it's like oh they were childhood friends and then like they had like they didn't need so much time to become friends and I love that we just get to spend so much time
00:32:43
Speaker
with them in this book as friends hanging out like really getting to know each other and it didn't feel like wasted space at all like there's a whole scene of them just like opening up her fan mail and like hanging with the baby yeah and then like they talk about like watching the office together and it was just um i love them yeah
00:33:02
Speaker
One of my favorite things about Abby books is like the timelines always feel really realistic to me like she doesn't make it all happen within like a week so like she left room for them to grow that friendship like you were saying and I love that. When I was doing this outline for this episode this made me really want to reread Life's Too Short because I've only read it once all the other books that I've read by Abby I've read at least twice I've read Party of the World like
00:33:28
Speaker
five times maybe yours truly I've read three times just for the summer I've read twice now. So I really want to reread this book because it is especially the audio book like it is top tier audio book because it introduced it introduced us to Christine Lakin who is like
00:33:45
Speaker
amazing. She does Emma's audiobook and she does this one. And this was the first time she did an Abbey book, right? Yeah. She, this is the first Abbey book that she did, right? She didn't do any of the other two. Yeah. She doesn't do a lot of romance books. She does like, um, litfic and like, I think she has like the royal series. Yeah. I'm so curious how she landed here. Right. I knew that she's like from the nineties, but like I like famous more famous in the nineties, but I'm just so curious how she like, like landed doing an Abbey book.
00:34:13
Speaker
But yeah, who knows? Yeah, good agent. Yeah, maybe. But my like absolute favorite part of life too short is Vanessa like I think having Vanessa is just so outgoing and optimistic, but not in a way that is. Yeah, it's not in a way that's ever like corny or like it felt just so natural to her character. And I think hearing Christine Lakin bring her to life like just did wonders for her. And I really love Vanessa's family as well. Like
00:34:40
Speaker
She has a mixed family, so she has, not mixed race, mixed in terms of parentage, so they have like, she has half siblings. Blended family. Blended family, that's what I was trying to think of. And anytime characters have blended families, I just love, because I have a blended family, and she takes such good care of them when she doesn't have to, because they don't treat her the best, but she's always showing up for them. But another thing that I think Abby's so good at is that she crafts such good people, but they always have shit that they can work on.
00:35:08
Speaker
So in this book, Vanessa has to learn, OK, yes, I take care of my family, but maybe I'm taking care of them a little too much. Like maybe they need to like stand on their own. And that's the lesson that she has to learn. We could argue that she was already such a good person. Like, what does she have to overcome? But I love that that was thrown in there. Question for the group. What did we think about the ending with the very public like declaration of love via viral videos?
00:35:33
Speaker
Because I know a lot of people took issue with that. I personally did it. I mean, it can depend. It can be cringy in books sometimes. And like, yeah, maybe like, it was a little bit, but I don't know. I really liked it. Or I didn't mind it. I guess I should say.
00:35:47
Speaker
I thought it made sense for the book because Vanessa lives so much of her life online and like is very authentic. That's part of like her channel is like very authentically sharing like the things she's struggling with, the things that are going well in her life. So it did make sense to me like way more sense than like into the weeds or in the weeds. Yeah. That one felt super out of character to me. But I again with the timeline too, like it wasn't like
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah. Like it was something we worked on and like built up to. Because the whole book, Adrian is terrified of flying. He has really bad anxiety. And one of my favorite scenes is when she planned this trip for them to like go eat at this super expensive restaurant because they're both big foodies. Like they always talk about food.
00:36:30
Speaker
And she's like, oh, there's this restaurant out in LA. I got his reservations. She planned the whole thing out for them. They get to the airport. He can't get out of the car. He's paralyzed. And instead of her getting angry or anything, she's like, OK. And then they go back home, and they enjoy the rest of their day. She just knew exactly what he needed. And she was just even proud of him for even trying or considering going. And I love that. So then at the end of the book, when he does get on a plane,
00:36:58
Speaker
And like in search of her, it just like, wow, he loved her so much. Like he conquered his fear. And like, it wasn't something he did alone either. Like you learn that he like went to therapy to like talk about it and how to work shit out with like his family because he had some stuff going on with his mom and his dad coming back into his life and
00:37:17
Speaker
It was good. Wait, I want to find my, my favorite quote. This is my favorite Abby Jimenez quote. I think I know exactly which one you're going to say. It's my favorite quote from the book too. It's the one I wrote in my book journal page. I think that that quote is also just very encompassing of Abby books in general. You know, like you can like say that about so many of her characters and I just, I don't know. I thought I had it in my notes that, but I guess I don't. The quote is just because you don't recognize the fight they choose doesn't mean they're not fighting.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah and that was said by Vanessa's dad to Adrienne after Vanessa because the conflict in this book is that Vanessa if she does have ALS she won't seek treatment and once Adrienne does find out that she has ALS he's like oh my god like he's a fixer like he just tries to fix everything so he's like no like you need to go get treatment and then she's like no like I don't want to live my life that way and he just kind of like spirals into his own anxiety and like
00:38:10
Speaker
wasn't being the best partner towards her at the end. So she just decides to pack up herself and leave because she's, she's having these symptoms that she thinks could very much be ALS. But then at the end of the book, you find out it was just like a mass on her arm or something that she just needed to get removed. And what I love too, is that you never really know if she does or if she won't get ALS at this book. Like there's never a definitive answer. Like it's very clear that like she could wake up tomorrow
00:38:35
Speaker
inhabit and he's like still choosing to like love her and like respect her wishes and he starts the book as a defense attorney like defending all these criminals and he ends it as a disability lawyer because he realizes slaking by being with her like yeah like how like shitty it is for like disabled people to travel like this the woman who like travels for her job because he's like okay well like how is she gonna take planes how is she gonna um
00:39:00
Speaker
get down like she if she went to New York like how she's taking the subway like I love him even though Adrian is like my quote unquote least favorite abby man like that's again that feels gross to say you know he like he's would you classify him as a cinnamon roll guy though like I think he's a I think he's the least cinnamon of her cinnamon rolls but he's still a cinnamon roll yeah yeah yeah so achingly sweet exactly like I really did love him yeah I should reread this book it's so good I reread it this year after finishing just for the summer
00:39:30
Speaker
And I was like, wow, like it's a good time. And you hear Zach, whoever do like, I like when he gets to play like a lot of different characters and like seeing him play her dad is like, I just like the old man voice that he gives her that he's a cracker. Yeah. I also say that Kendra, like she said, first tried the front zone by Abby DNF that book and then read part of your world.
00:39:56
Speaker
at Kendra's recommendation, neither Brandy or I read the first two books of Abby's, but we read Life's Too Short because Kendra had read it first and was like, wait, this one's like really good. You guys should read it. And this will like kind of go into part of your world, but Abby Jimenez is just really good at like connecting all of her characters to where like, but not in a way where like, oh my God, you have to go read their book. Like they're like little Easter eggs to where like, I know she calls her books interconnected standalones, but like, I think they can stand as just standalones.
Exploring 'Part of Your World'
00:40:26
Speaker
But yeah, it's fun knowing that Vanessa and Adrienne appear up and down, all of her books. And then, yeah. It's just rewarding, really, when you get that. The second book of hers, you meet Lola Simone, who's mentioned throughout. And Lola Simone, I think, is the best part of that book, because she goes on this crazy arc. And you kind of see where her life fell apart. And Abby makes mention of that in Partier World, and how she's doing so much better. But I love Lola Simone. Honestly, if I had to, like,
00:40:57
Speaker
I would rank her too. Like she's one of my favorite FNCs and we don't even have a book for her. We just have like a short story. Yeah. Yeah. If you didn't know about Lola Simone and her short story, you can sign up for Abby's newsletter and get her short story with Alexis's brother.
00:41:13
Speaker
which segue into ken and i's favorite part of your world now i know i'm the yet police but like you guys might have to police me on this one so because i could talk forever about this one it's like me and fuel the fire when you do direct actually the episode like i won't shut up so party world follows alexis who's a very wealthy er doctor and daniel who is a much younger but he's poor
00:41:40
Speaker
Not love, who is like poor. Oh, leave Daniel alone. Okay. He's a much younger, but really hot carpenter from this small town in Minnesota. Their chemistry is undeniable after Alexis gets stranded in this town and the two have an unforgettable tonight together, AKA a one night stand where he makes her tomato soup and grilled cheese. And he fucks her brains out. Yup. Yup.
00:42:09
Speaker
Um, but as the two grow closer, their differences kind of become a lot more apparent. Uh, Daniel and Lexus have to overcome a lot of things like societal expectations, family legacies, distance, all kinds of just shit, abusive exes, all kinds, uh, to like overcome all that to be together and like figure out what one has to give up if anything. So I, I love this book so, so, so much. Like I just can't even explain like.
00:42:39
Speaker
just one of those books where you look back on the reading experience that you had and it was just such like a magical thing along with the book itself being super magical and that's one of like the huge chilling points I think for me about this book is the magical elements especially like if you reread it back like the first time I reread it you catch so much more of the quote like magic things that happen like the unexplainable things that happen in the town like
00:43:02
Speaker
like the dragonflies or the acorns falling from the sky or the stained glass window at Daniel's house that's constantly changing in a different picture every time you look at it, you know? So I just I just love those things that Abby sneaks into this book. And I mean, yeah, Daniel and Alexis, like, I don't know, like, what can I say about them? They're just my favorites. Another reason why I love
00:43:25
Speaker
this book too and i think what made it stand out so much is that it's to me so much more than a romance as well because and i just like wasn't expecting this but there's this really i think amazingly explorable i don't know if amazing is the right word to use but like it's so deeply explored on this um topic of abuse and it wasn't like so cut and dry like i i just love how she layered it too to where you have alexis who's getting out of like an emotionally abusive relationship and then you have a side character daniel's cousin who
00:43:56
Speaker
Is currently in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship and like seeing that play out over the course of the book and then also it kind of goes back to She always gives her characters like something to learn and Daniel yes this great guy like so amazing but his thing to learn in this book I think a lot how to do with his cousin because those moment that always sticks out to me is when I
00:44:18
Speaker
Daniel and Alexis are talking after Liz, who's the cousin. They witnessed her being abused by her husband and they very quickly
00:44:27
Speaker
help her out. And Daniel's just like, I don't get why she like puts up with it. Like, why won't you just leave that guy and Alexis is like, Hey, bro, I'm like, it's a lot harder than that. And I just thought that was like, so it kind of reminds me of what care about stone did and ready or not of like showing multiple sides of the same thing. And I think I'd be him and I did that really well. And this one like, I just I love that storyline so much.
00:44:51
Speaker
my favorite part of this book is just how achingly in love Daniel is like he's just like 10 toes down from the beginning so in love with her and like the scene of him begging her to come back is
00:45:09
Speaker
a scene that will never leave my brain like oh my god it's so good on audio too like I can like barely listen to it because it like cracks my chest open
00:45:22
Speaker
I know, and okay, I know we've like talked about Alexis and like some of the hate that she gets and everybody always points to the scene in the hospital where Daniel shows up and like, I know like everybody has different feelings about the scene, but yeah, that scene and the scene that you're talking about Brandy with the Zachary River voice crack, but the scene where he shows up in the hospital, I literally can't listen to that with like,
00:45:49
Speaker
full body like i just oh like it it's so painful it's so painful to listen to that scene i just feel like alexis was put in an impossible like yeah circumstance i know people like well why didn't she tell him why didn't she do this i was like she told him not to come like and exactly what she said was gonna what she thought was gonna happen happened so then she just like fuck like
00:46:13
Speaker
I don't know. I wonder if you feel the same way. Like every decision that Alexis made, I was like, damn, I think I probably would have made the same one. Yeah. Yeah, I think she was just in so many lose lose situations with with that and.
00:46:27
Speaker
No matter I think what she did, I think some people say that like she should have maybe warned him or like told him earlier. And I understand that. But again, she was also just trying to protect him from that. And I don't necessarily think that either one would have been the bad decision or the better decision. I just think she was just in a situation where either way you went, you were going to have right where they were. Yeah. Some type of consequence was going to happen. And, you know,
00:46:54
Speaker
they would have broken up still. Like something would have happened and it would have just caused either a breakup sooner or later.
00:47:00
Speaker
Because I love that even when he's like, well, I'll move here. I'll move to the city for you. And she's like, you can't even do that because you were tied to a town that needs you. And that's what I liked is that I think Abby said this. They were both, she's a princess and he's a prince. But they rule over different kingdoms, essentially, like that. Because this is essentially just a Disney movie come the life of this book. And I just, ultimately, Alexis does sacrifice.
00:47:29
Speaker
her crown but in a way that is really beneficial to her in the end yeah i'll also say like you mentioned the town and then like actually physically needing daniel i also love that abby
00:47:44
Speaker
The town that Abby created was also like a character in its own in this book. You know, sometimes when you're like, oh, this is a small town romance, the town really has like nothing to do with it. You know, this town has a personality, you know, all the people in it, you know, all the places in it, you know, like everybody in this
00:48:02
Speaker
And like the scene where Alexis goes to help deliver a baby, like the entire town is literally there helping, you know, clean up afterwards. Yeah, they showed up. Yeah, they showed up because Liv shows up. So I just love that the town itself, like the town of Wokon is its own character and like pops the the older guy that Daniel and Alexis help. Like he's he knows like about the magical qualities of this town and he's always like the town, you know, we'll take care of herself. The town will bring her back. Yeah.
00:48:30
Speaker
He's like, not your mama, knew she was bad news. Yeah. Oh my god. Kayla, what's your favorite moment? My favorite moment?
00:48:46
Speaker
I love the scene where Alexis realizes that Daniel gives her butterflies, like actual butterflies. When they're cooking. When they're cooking together. Yeah, and Alexis doesn't know how to peel potatoes. Okay. No, but I love that scene too before they start cooking and they go on that little grocery store.
00:49:05
Speaker
Well, what I what I also love too is that when in that same scene when Alexis doesn't know how to peel potatoes, he just like he's like, oh, and he just like shows her how to do it. And then you kind of get the realization and the comparison of Daniel and Neil, where Neil would always put Alexis down for things that she either she didn't know how to do or that she couldn't do whatever Daniel is not that way at all. He just shows her grace and he just cost him nothing because it costs him nothing.
00:49:31
Speaker
And he just, sorry, I'm talking too much, but yeah, he just shows her how to do things he never, like Casey Musgrave said, steal in my heart instead of stealing my crown. Bro, truly. I love it. I think mine, or like, I love all the moments in the book, like literally all of them, but I love when
00:49:51
Speaker
she opens up about Neil and she's like yeah I had an abusive ex and yeah oh like how like he would hit you and she's like no he would just be mean to me and he's like I would never be mean to you and he's never mean to I think about that all the time and then like when they go tubing on the river and like when they're tubing like all the dragonflies are like just out hanging with them and then Liz is
00:50:13
Speaker
bitch as husband shows up and all the dragonflies vanish and like the sky turns a different color like it's so dramatic but like in a way that makes sense because like she set up this town already to beat like have all those qualities like when it happens like
00:50:25
Speaker
Like, why did Alexis's car go into a bitch in that town? That's crazy. Look at her there. A little raccoon right now. Brandy, do you have a favorite moment? I do think my favorite moment is just like the sad one. Like, I think that is just so indicative of Daniel's character and like how much he loves her. The fact that he has like, there's zero shame in him just being like, like, my world is ending without you. I love you so much. Like, I need you. Please come back.
00:50:59
Speaker
There's a piece of knowing the one thing you can't live without. Yeah, so that's probably like but my favorite like happy scene is probably just like
00:51:11
Speaker
her coming to the realization that her friends fucking suck and that's not the type of person she wants to be and like how much daniel has made her a better person and even just that short amount of time that she's known him like because that i think is like charges them yeah oh this table um i forget the price but 3000 whatever yeah like yeah get him some money those bitches had no idea
00:51:35
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. I love them so, so much. And I love the dog in this one. So like, there's a dog in every Abby Jimenez book. In life too short, they're fostering a dog. And what I love is that they're like, Oh, wait, we don't have lives that are like
00:51:48
Speaker
That coincides with us having a dog, so you give the dog away to his grandma, which I thought was so
Journey Through 'Yours Truly'
00:51:53
Speaker
cute. And in this one, the dog is named Hunter, and he's deaf. But you don't find that out until half of people's book on Alexis finally figures it out after he runs a muck in the house and fucks with her friends. It's so funny.
00:52:05
Speaker
Aw, and then when she leaves, the dog is sad too. He's depressed. He's waiting for her. Yeah. If you didn't know, Hunter is also based off of one of Abby's dog's tests. Like, if you've watched any of her videos and you've seen tests or heard tests like Howl.
00:52:23
Speaker
The howl in the audiobook is like based on that. I remember Ivy saying that she had to have Zachary Weber and Julia Whalen like redo Hunter's howls to make it sound to make it sound like Tess. So I love that. I love all the personal touches she adds. So cute. Yeah. I could read this, reread this book forever and never, never be tired of it. Like every time I'll just be like, I'll just swoon and giggle and then cry. And yeah.
00:52:49
Speaker
I love it so much. I reread it like a week or two before Just for the Summer came out for reasons that we'll discuss later. And yeah, it was just amazing. I love it so much.
00:53:03
Speaker
And in Part of Your World, one of the side characters, Alexis's best friend is Brianna. Yours truly is about Alexis's best friend Bri, who we meet in Part of Your World, like Kayla just said. And she works as an ER doctor still in the hospital that we originally see Alexis in in Part of Your World.
00:53:27
Speaker
she and another doctor named Jacob who he's like brand new to the hospital get off on a really bad foot because Bree's having a hard time she's going through this like midlife crisis almost she's getting divorced and she's having to move back into her mom's house to take care of her brother who is
00:53:46
Speaker
in renal failure and it's a bad time for her and for her brother Benny and she's just having a really hard time keeping her head above water so when she meets Jacob and they get up on the wrong foot she just kind of immediately writes him off as an asshole but he's just like
00:54:02
Speaker
my sweet angel boy. He struggles a lot with anxiety and he knows they got off on the wrong foot and like really desperately wants to make it right. So he like writes her a letter apologizing for them getting off on the wrong foot and then it just kind of spirals. They start writing letters back and forth. Jacob finds out that her brother Benny is Anita Bikini and he wants to anonymously donate his.
00:54:29
Speaker
because that's just something that's been really important to him and his family which you can read more about and Bree finds out that Jacob is the anonymous donor and she's like how could I ever repay you and his ex-girlfriend is getting married to his brother so he's like can you just pretend to be my girlfriend so my family stops like pitying me like I can't handle it anymore thus ensues their fake dating relationship and I love them so much
00:54:55
Speaker
What is there to say about this book? I love this book so much as well. Like, I love I mean, I think everybody loves Jacob and the anxiety representation that Abby gives us because I mean, I don't know about you guys, but the the way that it's portrayed and written for Jacob in terms of the social anxiety. I hadn't really read a character like that before. Like you can there's there's been plenty of characters that I've read about that have anxiety.
00:55:24
Speaker
But Jacob, I don't know. I just think that his was just really felt more genuine. Yeah. And it felt and it because it was such a huge piece of his character and the things that he like how he responded to certain things or the way that he did certain things. And so I don't know about you guys, but that's just kind of how I felt about Jacob. And I think a lot of people can relate to that.
00:55:47
Speaker
Yeah it was nice to see I think a lot of times in books specifically with anxiety and I feel like even depression like you're more so told that a character has that instead of actually seeing them and then to also to know that Jacob has it but is also managing it I thought that was like really nice to see it to show that like you can't be doing everything right and it's just like you still are gonna like struggle with it every single day like
00:56:08
Speaker
I don't know. I love medicated characters. Like, like, Oh my God, like, thank you so much for like taking control and like wanting to be better. Like not only for your loved ones, like.
00:56:20
Speaker
Right. And just like knowing that that's not something that he like, he thought for a long time, it was something he had to fix about himself. And that's why his relationship failed. And like, it was his fault. And he was a bad partner because of it. When in reality, like, people who are dealing with generalized anxiety disorder need somebody who's going to be like patient and loving and understanding. And like, that's just like who he is. It's a part of him. And Bree never wanted that part to like,
00:56:47
Speaker
She didn't need to fix him. She just, they understood each other. That was never a conflict in their relationship, which I thought was really nice. It ends up being like her own shit that they have to get through. Yeah, exactly. Like his, his things that like, she just never viewed that as like a burden. And like, a scene that I always think about, cause Abby writes men where it's like, if he wanted to, he would like, Oh my God. The fact that Jacob sat outside for like three hours,
00:57:14
Speaker
in the rain, like in the rain with the chemo live and mosquitoes. Yeah, like just to talk to her like I was just like wow, like, yeah, I think about the scene all the time where she asked him if she wants if he wants to get lunch with her.
00:57:29
Speaker
And he immediately goes into this like tailspin about like, Oh, it's gonna be so loud. And what do I eat? And she like takes it upon herself to be like, Oh, you probably won't want to eat in the cafeteria, right? Do you want to eat in that closet where we ran into each other earlier? So they go into the closet.
00:57:47
Speaker
and eat lunch together. I'm trying to think of like a favorite scene of mine. I mean, obviously the scene where they go to walk on like, I mean, obviously selfishly, I love seeing Daniel and Alexis, but just that scene in general. My favorite scene in yours truly is the Daniel and Alexis scene. No, no, but the scene that they have like together afterwards where she's got her, I mean, this is also a funny scene. I know, I'm just giving you shit. I'm just giving you shit.
00:58:07
Speaker
where like she has her retainer in and they're like she's a little bit tipsy and I don't know it's just not only is the funny scene yeah the door gets stuck like it's just it's just so I love that scene so much and then also I love the scene where you know they talk about the different kinds of quiets the fact that Bree is able to like recognize a lot of his quiets and she's talking about like I don't I don't know this quiet what is this quiet and so I don't know
00:58:33
Speaker
Yeah, I just also realized that in every book in this series, it's like the woman who has to like, make the final decision on this relationship and she's gonna pursue it. You're so right. Even in this book where I'm just like, if people give Alexis shit, I'm like, Brie literally was pregnant with this man's child. But, um,
00:58:58
Speaker
I know a lot of people are bothered by the pregnancy that didn't bother me, which is so fucking stupid. It didn't bother me at all. And it didn't bother me at all. And it makes sense that it's like, this is like another example of showing how like,
00:59:14
Speaker
Bree is scared of not having controlled everything in her life and like this is another thing that can be taken from her like her house like her marriage like her life and she's terrified of that and It shows how far Jacob has come in our book because this probably at the beginning of the book would have sent him into a fucking tailspin But there was not a second where he wasn't like I want to be with you whatever you do I'm there like I want to be with you and
00:59:36
Speaker
And I just think this is really the perfect thing to happen for them to both show like here's where I'm at and here's how we meet each other where we are. I also think she planted the seeds really well like throughout the book like there's this underlining conversation about pregnancy and then you learn that.
00:59:54
Speaker
uh one of the final nails in the coffin of brie and her ex-husband's relationship because she's like fresh off of divorce in this book is the fact that she she miscarried a baby and he just did not handle that situation well like at all um so to see i get why she was freaking out like it all made sense and jacob was just willing to be there for her
01:00:17
Speaker
and then you get this sweet little moment at the end when he's in surgery like giving his kidney and she like gets to read all his letters and like see things from like his point of view because like Bree's very often so like she has a lot of trust issues that she needs to work through so getting to like read those letters and see it from his point of view and like know like okay like this is something that I can trust and like have faith in I thought that was and he's just so patient for her like he's just like oh I'm crying no
01:00:47
Speaker
I'm looking through my, I'm looking through my highlights and I'm tearing up a little bit. That's crazy. I thought you were crying. All right, Brandi, I was like, Kayla. I just see you with the tissue, like. No, I mean, I have permanent runny nose. I am blowing my nose a lot, but I'm so sorry, Brandi. Keep going. In love with the way that these two love each other so patiently and so quietly and so gently. Yeah. I think having a partner who has like really severe anxiety also made me feel really connected to their relationship.
01:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, as I'm like going through my highlights, I was on, when I opened the book, I was already on chapter, what is this, 46, something like that. And this is when Brie is, you know, she's pregnant at this point and she's talking to Jacob and Jacob is like basically like begging her to like let
01:01:38
Speaker
him take care of her and she's just like I'm so sorry like I'm I'm broken and he's like we're all a little broken Brianna we are a mosaic we're made up of all those things we've met and all the things we've been through there are parts of us that are colorful and dark and jagged and beautiful and I love every piece of you even the ones you wish didn't exist and then she's he's like what can I do to fix it and she says I need you to be able to see into your soul or I need to be able to see into your soul and if he lets her do that
01:02:07
Speaker
with his letters oh also like okay in part of your world both Daniel Lexus have like really shitty families
01:02:15
Speaker
Well, Daniel had a good family and then like, yeah, his grandparents and then his mom was just like a piece of shit. And then in yours truly like Jacob's family. I just love it. Like he was just like such a good guy and like came from such a good meddling family. And reading Jacob or fake dating throughout this entire book and his mom is a gynecologist relationship sex expert. Like she's just so cool as a woman. Like how did you do that? Um,
01:02:42
Speaker
but they're like really trying to fool her because they're like okay like that's like she's gonna know like and then at the end you find out that like she did know the entire time but like also knew that they both like were like falling for each other i was gonna say i would also argue that brie and jacob have the hottest sex scene that takes place at jacob
01:03:01
Speaker
Family's home. With her fully fucking clothed. Somebody walks in while she's pregnant. Yeah. Oh my god. No, but like the quote from his mom, that was like what a privilege it was to watch two strangers fall in love in front of me. And oh, his grandpa, the cigarette. I'm gonna tell everybody who came on to me. He's like, what the fuck? And that goes back to what you were saying, Brandy, of like, rom and com, like, Abi Jimenez. Yes.
01:03:30
Speaker
I think she might be terminally online. But like, oh, yeah, that woman is addicted to her phone.
Adventure in 'Just for the Summer'
01:03:37
Speaker
She dropped like people always hate like, Oh, I hate when pop culture references are in book like, or in books, like, it just never works. Abby knows how to make them work. Because she's, she's so good at like, organic dialogue and conversations. Like you can just tell that this is a very social woman. So she knows how to like,
01:03:53
Speaker
put that into her work. And so like hearing her characters just like talk about like normal shit, you're like, yeah, that's shit that me and my friends would talk about. She has, uh, I think it's one of Jacob's sisters or like sister-in-laws when, in yours truly, when one of them is like, damn, double homicide. Like somebody says that in the book. But there, I was going to say that there's like in every, especially if you listen to it, especially if you listen to the audio books by, by Abby.
01:04:18
Speaker
There's at least one or two scenes where you will like laugh out loud. And for me, in Partier World, it's when Doug is helping Daniel take a dick pic. The dick pic? Yeah, with the ring light. And then in Yours Truly, yes, I love that scene. It's so funny. And then in Yours Truly for me, it's the retainer scene. Yes, it's the retainer scene. And then we'll talk about just for the summer later. But yeah, that like, there's always something that will make me like,
01:04:42
Speaker
yeah like and you can tell by her online presence like abby's personal online presence that like she's funny the woman is funny like the woman has this humor she's raising funny kids too yeah even like seeing the videos that she makes with her dogs and when she does the voiceovers for the dogs are so fucking funny we love her wise yeah
01:05:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh you guys we knew this episode was gonna be long because we love these books so much but we are on our last book for the breakdowns and then we're gonna play a little game.
01:05:14
Speaker
okay um so just for the summer is the most recent abbey book that came out and it is the final book in the part of your world series and follows justin and emma justin is a character that we briefly meet so briefly uh yours truly like we were kind of shook that like he was yeah when it was announced it was going to be his book because he's um briana's brother's best friend and like just hangs out at the house and like is all
01:05:41
Speaker
you already see like how natural of a caretaker he is because he's just like wanting to make sure that his like best friend who's going through this like life-changing thing is okay so sorry my dog is eating its ass currently like holding on to the gate and like
01:06:00
Speaker
I wish I had a dog. So Justin and Emma both have this quote unquote curse where they date someone and then after they break up with that person, the person that they broke up with goes on to find their soulmates. And Justin posts about this on Reddit. Emma sees the post, DMs him about it because the same thing has been happening to her.
01:06:25
Speaker
and the two kick off this like instant friendship and like kinship with one another however they quickly learn that he lives in Minnesota and is unable to really leave the state at the moment for reasons we'll get into later and Emma is a travel nurse who was in Colorado actually at the beginning of the book and she convinces her best friend who's also a travel nurse and her foster sister
01:06:48
Speaker
to go get a nursing contract in Minnesota. So that's the way she can spend the summer with Justin. And they think that if they go on four dates, have one kiss in a breakup, then they can break the curse and then go on to find their soulmates. But surprise, surprise, they end up falling for one another. Yeah. This book surprised me not not because I didn't think I was going to like it. But yeah, like you said, kind of like with
01:07:13
Speaker
When we learned it was Justin, I was like, OK, you know, cool, like cool. But we all kind of thought it was going to be Benny. Yeah, we all thought it was going to be Benny, even though like Benny does find love in yours truly with Jacobs. I thought for maybe there was going to be like some kind of overlap timeline or something. We were going to get to see that. Right. So we were just like so curious, because especially because of how
01:07:36
Speaker
interconnected Abby's books are like usually there's like some type of familial or familial person being next or like a best friend being next but no it's it's Brianna's brother's best friend who was an important character. Benny was but like Justin, you see him for about a second, you know, literally. So, I mean, we learn we learn more about why these two people are actually so important, especially Emma to the story. But yeah, I just, this book, we say this a lot, but it's
01:08:07
Speaker
so simple and what these characters are doing like they go to the mall they go have a date downtown you know like it's just very simple stuff but the way that they feel about each other who works at home you know like it's just so simple but like just the way that these two think about each other feel about each other
01:08:27
Speaker
the things that they do for each other, especially Justin. Yeah, it kind of goes back to what Kendra was saying earlier too about how these could just be normal people and especially these ones because they can't go on these big romantic excursions. They can't leave the city. He's a caretaker. He's taking care of his siblings. And he can't just dip for days on end to go dick around. So even more grounded, I would argue, than the other two books.
01:08:57
Speaker
I agree, out of necessity.
01:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, earlier when I was like, oh, she gives her characters backwards. You only hear about on the news. I was thinking of Justin's mom because she sets it up really well where you know that he's like angry at her for something, but you don't know what yet. And then you find out that she's going to prison and you don't know. I'm like prison. That's crazy. Yeah. Like what did this bitch do? And then you find out that she was going to prison for embezzlement, which again is like, bam. Like if I was watching the news, I had to be a mom of three.
01:09:28
Speaker
is sentenced to jail today after, or mama for is sentenced to jail after embezzling money from a nonprofit. You'd be like, damn, that sucks. Can you move on without your dates? But then I think Abby is like, okay, well then like, how would that affect someone who was like directly tied to her? Like, I think that's what she does so well. And
01:09:45
Speaker
I love, love, love when Emma really challenges Justin's beliefs on his mom. How could she do something like that? Going back to where Daniel being like, why won't Liz just leave? Just seeing things as so black and white. And Emma has to just tell Justin, bro,
01:10:04
Speaker
you need you need to work on your empathy like you have to have more empathy for her like yeah when did she do this like why was she coming off of she just had a baby like she just had a baby postpartum depression probably yeah she was just trying to like stay afloat and that's why she that's how she thought she could do it and then there's this moment when i think it's justin like internally talking and he's just like getting mad at the universe and he's like i i'm even mad at
01:10:29
Speaker
Like the nonprofit for not even noticing that this money was even gone until it was like too drastic like I don't know I just put a lot of things into perspective because yeah that's just a situation you could be like yeah that sucks like she did a bad thing but it's like no like why does she do that bad thing like that was just like such a beautiful like plot device too because
01:10:50
Speaker
If that wasn't happening in the book, Justin said, if I did not have to take care of my siblings right now, I would pick up everything and go wherever she wanted. She wouldn't have ever had to deal with her fear of staying in one place. She wouldn't have ever had to confront that because he's like, I would have fucked off with her. I would have gone anywhere she would have gone.
01:11:09
Speaker
And like maybe they would have had a happy life then, but probably not. Like she probably would have had to like confront it eventually. She would have been later and that would have hurt him more because he left his whole life for her. And so like, it was just, I just want to watch her plot. I want to watch her plot so bad. And so we kind of talked about Justin, but like talking about Emma and everything that she's going through too. It's so interesting because like she's, she tells Justin to choose empathy when it comes to his mom.
01:11:35
Speaker
But when you, when you, I don't know about you guys, but when I'm reading about Amber, I'm like, get off my page. I hate you so much. Oh my God. Yeah. We didn't even talk about that yet. Amber of it all. Amber of it all. Okay. So I just have to say, Amber, Amber came on the page. Who knew? Raise your hand. Me. Me. Because we're insane.
01:11:58
Speaker
I knew Neil and then I wasn't like who's... Yeah, because right when the paternity or the DNA test came back, I wasn't confused at all. I wasn't like, who is that? Blah, blah, blah. I was like, oh, fuck Amber from Part of Your World. Yeah. But they were so funny because I read this after both of them and they were like, we knew you'd clock Neil, we knew you'd miss Amber.
01:12:22
Speaker
Yeah. Because well, Neil is in Partier World a little bit more than I think Amber was in Partier World. She's in like maybe a couple of scenes because she's like on the phone with Daniel. She's not physically there. Yeah, she's just been on the phones. And Neil is there more often. He's mentioned a lot more than Amber is, but so crazy to like the way that
01:12:43
Speaker
Abby wrote these timelines for the fact that Amber got that money and didn't contact Emma for like two years. It makes me so physically sick to think about the moment when she realizes what was happening during the times that Amber was away, that she was just off having a good time on the 4th of July, in walk-on,
01:13:07
Speaker
And she was like at her house eating carrots and getting like sick because she was having to dig up carrots from her neighbor's yard like that. It makes me so, oh. And as someone who didn't clock Amber right away, like Abby did such a good job of like, obviously we're in Emma's head. Like she wants to see the best in her mom. Like I was like, oh, this woman fucking sucks. But like I had a lot of empathy for,
01:13:32
Speaker
Emma trying like wanting this and like craving her mom and like all this stuff. And then like when the reveal happens, you're like, you are fucking irredeemable. Like, get the fuck out of her life. Stay gone.
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, I, I, I genuinely thought that like Abby was going to give Amber some type of redemption arc. I think a lot, maybe a lot of people did. Like I thought that like something would happen and like we're going to like work it out. Yeah. I thought something was going to happen, but I think, yeah, once you, once you get to the point where Emma realizes like the full truth of everything, then you're like, Oh no, like this is not what's happening. Like she needs to go. Like for sure. It was especially rough rereading it because like, I just like,
01:14:15
Speaker
Because going in, yeah, knowing who Amber was, I was like, damn, like she's a shitty parent for like not telling her kids that they exist. And then like you're putting the pieces together like, oh, they have completely different lives, whatever. But then rereading it from the beginning and knowing that Amber would literally just like leave Emma alone to fend for herself as a child.
01:14:35
Speaker
I felt like Maddie doing Emma. You're like wanting to shake her by the shoulders. This is not a good parent for you. It just made me feel so, so bad. And you and I talk about a lot of the difference between Daniel talking about his mom in Part of Your World and Emma talking about their mom in Just for the Summer. Because in Part of Your World, Daniel is like,
01:15:01
Speaker
Amber like she's not even really been my mom like yes she had me when she was young but like she's not a good person like he has really no like I think he loves her in his own little way but yeah he's not like Emma making excuses for her and like waiting for her to come back like you know it's exactly who she is
01:15:17
Speaker
and you would think that he would have Emma's viewpoint given the fact that like she was I think leaving him more and coming back than like she left him safe and I feel like in that like safe environment with his grandparents he was able to like recognize like this is what adult love really feels like and by the time Emma was put with Maddie and her mom she had already been through the system for like years and years and like since she should be the one that's like oh fuck my mom but no she's the one that's like holding on to like yeah I want my mom to come back like oh her like
01:15:46
Speaker
I love when she's like the, when my mom comes and she smells like roses like I just get so happy but then like when that smell starts to fade like I just know that like things are going to like, just
01:15:58
Speaker
She's going to go away again? The way that she wrote about Emma's island and getting small and how there's only room for Maddie on the island, her and Maddie and her mom. And that just breaks my heart. And it feels so small the first time it's used in the book. It's just a way to describe how she's feeling. But then by the time you're all the way through the book, you realize the significance of that imagery. And Justin's alive and on an island.
01:16:27
Speaker
They were living on an island the entire summer. He takes a floatie to like get to her, does anything to get on her island, both physically and physically. That was just so beautiful. That entire sequence of chapters when he takes the floatie to go help when she gets sick and then he gets sick and then they actually like end up getting together. Just that like that whole like
01:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. Those whole few days that they were together. I like you more than like you. Yeah, I like you more than like. And that's what I'm saying. Like Abby to me just takes so much bigger risks right now than so many of her peers, because like, we're talking about a fucking software engineer and a nurse. But yeah, you get this whole book on trauma.
01:17:11
Speaker
And also mental health and she has this like really amazing author's note at the end of both the audiobook and the physical book where she talks about working with mental health professionals, but she said that she specifically did not name Amber's mental issue that she had.
01:17:29
Speaker
because she's like a lot of people just don't have that luxury of like even knowing and Amber is someone who just clearly she's never gonna take care of herself even if she has the resources so like she wouldn't even really know but she as a writer had to know so that way she could like write it accurately like I just thought that was done
01:17:44
Speaker
so well. You guys the scene where you find out like this whole book Emma's like I'm gonna give her this chance like she seems like a better person she's going to therapy and then you find out that I'm a therapist as an astrologist that she's been talking to. I kind of love this. I was like I just felt my stomach sank and just like with Emma she was like are you fucking kidding me. And the fact that Maddie was just like uh the line of like Maddie was a first responder for my soul she already had been. I was like that like
01:18:14
Speaker
Maddie was always there, and even in that sequence, she fucking hated Amber, and she showed up, and she was putting those clothes away, and she was helping Emma, and she knew that it was, and she sent her home with Justin. I love
Themes of Trauma and Mental Health
01:18:27
Speaker
the besties that she has in this series, so like, Daniel and Doug, Alexis and Brie, Maddie and Emma, yeah, so good. And like, just all the little, like, when we saw Abby at Book Bonanza, she told us that like,
01:18:42
Speaker
just for the summer was gonna be her like easter egg book and like obviously the amber daniel emma connection is so big but they're just like little ones too that you can read about in the back of the book that she um that she had and now her next book is gonna and i love that she she's just so like how did you get here yeah exactly about a girl that like you briefly see
01:19:04
Speaker
on the street. You don't even know her name. Like it was, I thought it was just a moment and it is still that of like teaching Justin a little bit more about empathy too. And like how Emma is always looking out for people. And then the next weekend is going to follow this girl whose mom has Alzheimer's and a veterinarian. So it's like,
01:19:23
Speaker
It's going to hurt so bad. It's going to hurt so bad. I love all these books. I love them so much. I'm assuming you love them too. Samantha and Xavier. If you didn't know that the next book is called Say You Remember Me and the characters names are Samantha and Xavier.
01:19:49
Speaker
He's the vet and she is a social media manager for a food company. I'm so excited. I know Abby is on social a lot more than other authors, but seeing her so genuinely excited about every book that she puts out and all the care that goes... She stays promoting them too. Labor
Upcoming Book and Trivia Game
01:20:10
Speaker
of love. I'm just so excited to see what else she writes.
01:20:14
Speaker
I was just going to say that we all read her short story, the worst moment ever, which adorable. It's really cute. Like if that was a full length book, like I thought I liked it too. Yeah. I just like, you can just tell what Abby cares about in life. And I think that translates really well to her page, like her writing about all these medical professionals, like finding love and like having to like overcome a lot of personal shit. And you find out that she is someone who has to rely a lot on medical professionals. Yeah.
01:20:39
Speaker
in her life and like, I don't know, it just seems like she's like giving back what she's getting and it just makes me feel really happy. Thank God we didn't talk about the first two books of this episode three hours long. No, there's not much to say. Again, I think if you want more Lola Simone info, I would read that book simply for her. I know a lot of people do love her first two books. She actually wrote her second book first and then her first, they made her write the friend zone. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting.
01:21:05
Speaker
Yeah. Abby Jimenez. All right. I hope you're forever famous. Yeah. We want to give you some forehead kisses virtually right now. All right. So last little bit of little fun game that we have.
01:21:18
Speaker
Uh, we each prepared three trivia questions. I'm so curious to see what everybody's questions are going to be. Mine aren't that good. We all read Just for the Summer so recently that I was like, I cannot think of a single thing that I wouldn't remember from this book, but like you guys are going to prove me wrong. I feel like, I feel like my Just for the Summer question, you guys will get like so fast, but the other two, I don't know. From every book?
01:21:40
Speaker
I did one for each book. One for the part of your world series. I just kind of wrote some questions. That's fine. That's fine, girl. Whatever. That's okay. Yeah, because I did just for the summer yours truly and part of your world. So we're each going to go around and one say each question each, and then I guess just keep track of your own score. And I guess whoever gets the most points can be the Abby him and his queen. Okay. Okay. I'm going to lose. That's okay. All right. Do you want me to go first? Sure. Sure. Okay. This is my easiest one I feel like, but okay.
01:22:12
Speaker
I'm scared. What is the last store Justin and Emma go to at the mall of America before it closes? Bro, you're on track. I don't remember that. The beanbag store. You're correct, Brandi. Good job. Oh, I do remember that. They're laying in the giant beanbags. Yeah. I was thinking of stores like Converse store. I was like, store? It's literally, she just calls it the giant beanbag store is what she calls it. Brandi, one point to you. Congratulations.
01:22:40
Speaker
I can go. What is Brianna's go-to Taco Bell order? Oh my god. What? No. Crunchwrap. Chalupa. Yeah, no. That's what I was going to say. Fuck. Chalupa? Yeah, it's a chalupa. Dammit. I don't know which one to start with. OK. Who did Alexis go on a date with before she got with Neil? Josh. All right. Adrian. Die from the bread zone. Oh, yeah, it's Adrian.
01:23:08
Speaker
You're so right. That is their connection. Because in part of your world, her friends are like, remember that lawyer you went on a date with? And then you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not good under pressure, you guys. I don't like this. OK. I thought I was going to get zero points, so I'm thrilled that I know. OK. OK. When Alexis is perusing Daniel's books and in his garage, she asked him about the last book he read, which Alexis has also read. What is that book? And now I will accept just like what the book is about.
01:23:38
Speaker
doesn't have to be at the title. Romance book. No, no, no, they don't read, they read nonfiction books about, um, um, was it like, it was about a king or it was either about a king or it was about flu influenza. Yes. It's the great influenza by John M. Berry, which Daniel proudly says that his grandfather kept Waucon safe from cause he blocked all the entrances. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause she's like, Oh, I like reading about that stuff, like figuring out like what I would do different now. It's like a doctor. Yeah.
01:24:06
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Oh, there's zero chance in hell I would have gotten. Okay. I figured. What is Alexis's dad's first name? Oh, fuck. Oh, what is his name? Cecil. Yep. Yeah. Finally, I'm on the board. Okay, this is gonna be a similar question. What is Lola Simone's real name? Oh, fuck. Oh, my God. Lily?
01:24:36
Speaker
Is it with an L? No. No. Fuck. I have no clue. Am I allowed to look it up? No, that's G. I can look it up. What's a skirt? What's a skirt with? Maddie. You don't want it? No. No. Maddie is her best friend's name. Sorry. You just want me to tell you? No. No. No. It starts with an N. Nina? No. Natalie. No. Oh my god. Nora. I don't remember.
01:25:04
Speaker
Can I just say it? Nicole. Yes. It's Nicole. Ah, OK. Dang it. Yeah. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good question. My last question. OK. In Brianna's first letter to Jacob, how does she sign off the letter? Because quote, she's always wanted to end a letter that way. Regards. Good job. Good job.
01:25:27
Speaker
And then, okay, bonus question, you don't actually get points for this, but this is an easy one. She also mentions that she wants someone to sign a letter with what sign off and call her what because it is so missing. Yours truly my love. Right? Yeah. Good job. Thank you. Okay. My last question is, how did Emma tell Justin that she was in Minnesota? She sent a picture of the toilet King billboard.
01:25:52
Speaker
She sent a picture of the toilet king billboard. It wasn't a billboard. She pulls over. She pulls over on the side of the road. She pulls over on the side of the road to take a picture of it. No, it was a bus stop ad. OK, I said she pulls over. Yeah, I'll give you guys both half a point. OK, I have two, but just because I'll do the first one, then I'll do the other one and just see if you guys can get it.
01:26:21
Speaker
Which Abby Jimenez book does Neil first appear? Life's a friend zone. No, it is life's t-shirt. Okay. When her sister is in the hospital because she got shot. That's not funny. When her sister gets shot, Neil is a doctor and he's like kind of an asshole like doctor. Yeah. Okay. And then my other one was because Abby's just so good at side characters and like giving them like full lives. You're like, Oh, like I would read a book about them if she ever did.
01:26:51
Speaker
There's a character named Jessica who is throughout specifically the first part of your world. And you're truly what does her husband Marcus do? He's a lawyer, right? Yeah, he is. He's a loser lawyer from life's too short. He like works too much. Yeah. He's Adrian's boss in life's short.
01:27:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was fun. Do I get a bonus point for that? Yeah. Also, what is the name? Because you all haven't read this book, but it makes a lot of Easter eggs appearances. What is the name of the musical artist that people are always wearing t-shirts of in her books? Because he's the MMC from Jackson Waters. Yes.
01:27:32
Speaker
Yes. Good grief. Nice. I did that bonus point. I got five points. I wasn't keeping my score. Kendra, you got two and a half. Okay, aw.
01:27:47
Speaker
That was fun. Good job, Brandi. It was really fun. I'm so glad that we did this. Yeah. Yeah. Go to our Instagram at bring your own pod and comment on this episode post and let us know what your favorite Abby Jimenez book is. So sorry if your favorite is one of the first two that we did not talk about, but if you like it, we love it. That's your opinion. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, we hope to do more other dives in the future. Bye. Bye, guys.