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Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
432 pages | Published by Forever
The Set Up: Travel nurse Emma like that her job keeps her from getting attached to anyone, a result of her tumultuous upbringing in and out of the foster care system. It’s just as well, since every person she dates goes on to immediately find The One. She runs across a viral Reddit thread posted by Justin, who seems to have the same problem. Emma and Justin form a fast friendship and decide to experiment: if they date each other, maybe it will cancel out their mutual curse for good. This temporary summer fling starts off light and fun, until Emma’s toxic mother makes an appearance and Justin suddenly has custody of his three younger siblings. Things get serious, fast, and it’s more strings than Emma has ever thought she could handle.
This is Abby’s best so far. She REALLY stepped it up with this one and it is worth ALL the hype. I’ve thought all of her books are in that Romance+ world, and Just For the Summer took it even further.
I was expecting a light and summery romance, but this book has so much more depth than the beach read I thought it would be. Compared to other AJ books, this one is LOW on the spice (like, almost none at all) but honestly the forehead kisses were enough (!!!!!)
Justin is THE ONE. He was the absolute best, so thoughtful and reliable, and I loved every cute interaction we got between him and his siblings. I loved Emma and her empathy and how much she grew over the course of the book. Her friendship with Maddy was so special.
Beyond the romance, there was SO MUCH going on here with their respective families. To finally get the full picture of Emma’s mom made the whole book really click for me. The family dynamics on Justin’s side were really compelling too, to see how he adjusted to this new role that he never asked for but couldn’t say no to.
I just really loved this book. It was one that I wished I was reading all day until I could pick it up again, but at the same time I didn’t want it to end.
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