Hedayat Reda If you’re into maple-sugar-sweet small-town romance, the inevitability of fate, and a touch of magic, this may be the book for you.
I’ve been a longtime lover of the romance genre. Since I picked up my first Georgette Heyer novel, I discovered there is something reassuring about the type of book where you know it will end in “happily ever after” and “all’s well that ends well.”
Mostly, though, I live for the sly dialogue, small digs, and grand romantic gestures.
Part of Your World is a unique distillation of a 90s rom-com and sleepy small-town vibes—a little Virgin River, a little The Walter Boys. It’s the kind of book where you know the worst thing that can happen is that the main character will doubt her decision, make the wrong choice, and then inevitably find her way back. And somehow, everything will still work out perfectly.
Jimenez’s style is very straightforward: a clear plotline, plenty of cute moments, sickly sweet feelings, quirky disaster scenes. Typical romance, but one that wholeheartedly embraces love as its central theme.
The book begins with a wager, in which Daniel—a 28-year-old small-town carpenter and B&B manager—convinces Alexis, a big-city ER doctor from a medical dynasty, to let him “pick her up” in order to prove a point to his friend. What follows is a budding romance disguised as a fling. Alexis falls in love—with Daniel and with the town—and then, in turn, the town falls in love with Alexis. There is a crazy ex and a demanding father. Friends who save the day and friends who mess everything up. With every chapter, you get pulled deeper into the world, wondering what it would be like to hang out at the VFW, bottle-feed a baby goat, or stay at a historic bed-and-breakfast while eating Daniel’s baked French toast made with Madagascar bourbon vanilla.
From a technical perspective, the book relies heavily on telling rather than showing. For my taste, it was a bit repetitive and lacking in character development. I would have liked to see more scenes with Alexis’s family instead of lengthy breakdowns of her feelings. I would have liked less of the same worst-case-scenario thinking. I’m a fan of the thinly veiled metaphor, and this book is not that.
And yet, if you’re looking for a fun read, a quiet escape, and a reason to detach from your regular life for a few hours, this is a good place to start.
The supporting cast—from Alexis’s best friend Bri to Daniel’s cousin Liz and his best friend Doug—each have their own stories, quirks, cute moments, and emotional depth.
One of the things I came away with most from this book was the value of community and the ways people can and do show up for one another. The intersection of lives was fascinating. All fiction is rooted in truth, and this one made me believe in connection again.
I don’t know how many stars I would give this, but I do know I’d love to see a screen adaptation of Part of Your World. In my mind, Emma Stone would play Alexis, Daniel would be a young Liam Hemsworth, and there would be at least two scene-stealing baby goats.
Maybe that’s ultimately the appeal of Part of Your World. It’s about discovering that home isn’t always where you started, and that sometimes the people who understand you best are the ones you never expected to meet. Wakan gives you a place you can return to again and again, with neighbours who know your name, friends who notice when you’re struggling, and family that shows up with a casserole before you’ve even asked for help.
Or maybe I was simply won over by a charming carpenter, a historic inn, and a baby goat in pajamas. Either way, for a few hundred pages, I was more than happy to be part of Daniel’s world.
