By Gabrielle Koreger

“Part of Your World” by Abby Jimenez (“Life’s Too Short”) is a small town, age gap romance. Alexis is a doc- tor at a hospital that was founded by her family 125 years ago. Her family has high expectations of her, but carry- ing the weight of the family name is not something she wants. Daniel is the mayor of a small town called Wakan. His family founded the town and each generation has lived there since.

When Alexis’s car is driven off the road because of a rac- coon, she finds herself stuck in a ditch before Daniel offers to pull her out. After one night together, Alexis is sure she can just go home and forget all about this small town, but she finds herself missing Daniel and the chaos that comes with him. Although they live two hours away from each other and their lives could not be more different, Alexis and Daniel decide to continue seeing each other.

Jimenez did a great job of giving Wakan a typical small town feel, while giving it its own personality. It was nice to see how everyone in the town always comes together to help each other no matter what. You can really see how much the town means to Daniel and the more he shows Alexis, the more she falls in love with it.

This book is a romantic comedy and some parts will make you laugh out loud. One of Daniel’s friends owns a farm and the names of his an- imals are just hilarious. There are also a lot of scenes with a baby goat in pajamas which will be sure to make you smile. Although this book is co- medic, it also touches on some important topics, such as emotional and physical abuse. Alexis is just coming out of a relationship with some- one who emotionally abused her for years and you see her struggling to recognize that she is not at fault. She is also struggling with emotional abuse from her father. There is another side character who is in a physi- cally abusive relationship with their significant other. Jimenez does an amazing job of showing how these types of relationships affect not only the person in the relation- ship, but also everyone around them. We see characters hav- ing to watch their loved ones go through this while they are helpless to do anything to stop it. Jimenez was very realistic in this aspect and she leaves an important message with her readers.

There are some parts of this book that are a bit pre- dictable, but that does not take away from the story at all. Alexis has an amazing character development and she becomes more and more admirable throughout the novel. Jimenez uses Alexis as an example to show people that you do not have to have your life completely figured out, even if you are almost 40. Alexis knows what she wants to do but she has never had the power to be able to accomplish her goals. While reading, we see her finally do what she’s always wanted to do, which is continue to help people, but on her terms.

The ending of this book will leave you wanting more books set in this town. This is the first book in a series that is going to be coming out over the next year. The next book will focus on her best friend, Bri and, hopefully, one of Daniel’s friends.

Image from AuthorAbbyJim via Twitter