Life's Too Short

What's inside (8 sections)

1. Why this one hooked me
2. Vanessa Price lives like the clock is ticking
3. Adrian Copeland and the baby at 4 a.m.
4. A pretend family that starts feeling real
5. The test she will not take
6. What I loved and what wore me down
7. Key takeaways
8. FAQ

I did not expect to get attached to this one as fast as I did. I came in thinking it would be a light neighbor romance to read between heavier books, and then I was up too late with a baby crying on the page and a guy from next door holding her like he had done it a hundred times. That is basically the whole setup for Life's Too Short, the third book in The Friend Zone series, published in 2021 by Forever in a 384 page trade paperback. Abby Jimenez puts a travel YouTuber and a buttoned up lawyer in apartments next to each other and lets a screaming infant do the introductions.

Vanessa Price is the YouTuber. Adrian Copeland is the lawyer. Grace is the baby who ruins everybody's sleep. The reason the book sticks is not the cute setup, though. It is that Vanessa lives like she might not get much time, because in her family that fear is earned.

Why this one hooked me

I picked up Life's Too Short after reading the first two books in The Friend Zone series. The first one follows Kristen and Josh, the second follows Sloan and Jason and a big goofy dog named Tucker. I liked both, though the second one made me cry in a coffee shop, which I am still a little annoyed about.

This third book felt different right away because Vanessa is not really part of that earlier friend group in the same way. She is Kristen's friend, she shows up around the edges of the other stories, but she has been off living her own loud life. She quit her regular job a couple years before this book starts, bought herself some freedom, and started traveling and filming it. By the time we meet her she has millions of followers. People watch her eat street food in new cities, miss trains, laugh at herself, try stuff she is scared to try. The channel pays well enough that she sends real money to ALS research and helps support her family back home.

I liked that Jimenez does not make her famous in a glossy way. Vanessa is rich enough to help her dad pay bills and to float her siblings when they mess up, but her apartment is normal, her hair is often in a messy bun, and she edits video at her kitchen table. She feels like someone who got lucky on the internet and decided to use it.

What pulled me in was the tension under all that fun. Vanessa's mother died young. Her older sister died young too, both from ALS, both before thirty. Vanessa is twenty eight when the book opens. She has been told she has about a fifty percent chance of carrying the same genetic risk. She has not gotten tested because she does not want to live inside a countdown, and honestly I got that. She would rather live hard now, travel, raise money, see things, than sit in waiting rooms asking for a date she might not want to hear.

So the title shapes how she decides. Say yes to the trip. Eat the thing. Quit the job you hate. Avoid dating like you are shopping for forever if you are unsure you get forever.

Then Jimenez drops a baby on her doorstep and takes away the travel, the sleep, and the whole plan.

Vanessa Price lives like the clock is ticking

Vanessa's backstory comes out in pieces, which I liked. At first she just seems funny and chaotic. She talks to her camera like it is a friend. She has a motto about seizing the day that could sound cheesy but feels serious coming from her. She tells Adrian at one point that she keeps a list of things to look forward to, small stuff, a concert, a trip, lunch with a friend, because waiting for something good helps on bad days.

Then you learn the details. Her mom got sick when Vanessa was young. Her sister got sick later. Vanessa watched both of them lose strength and speech and independence. ALS is brutal that way. It takes the body while the mind stays clear. Jimenez does not turn this into a lecture. She shows it through Vanessa's habits. Vanessa notices every twitch in her hands. She drops something in the kitchen and freezes. She has some weakness in her wrist that she hides from almost everyone. She has panic humming underneath jokes.

She also made long term choices around this. She does not date seriously. She had a tubal ligation in her mid twenties because she did not want to risk passing on the gene and did not want to leave a child motherless. That is stated plainly in the book, not as a twist. It explains why she keeps men at arm's length. It is not that she does not want closeness. It is that she thinks closeness comes with a bill someone else will have to pay.

Work fits the same pattern. She quit office life to travel full time. The YouTube money lets her donate to research and disability causes. She also helps her dad, who has a serious hoarding problem, and her half sister, who struggles with drug use, and her brother, who always has a new plan to get rich fast.

When the book starts she has come back to Minnesota for a stretch. Travel paused. She is home, trying to rest, trying to figure out what is next. That is when her half sister shows up with Grace, who is just a few months old, leaves her with Vanessa, and vanishes. No real plan. No diapers enough for a week. Just, here, you take her.

Vanessa has never taken care of a baby overnight. She is instantly in over her head.

Adrian Copeland and the baby at 4 a.m.

Adrian lives next door. If Vanessa is all spontaneity, Adrian is all schedule. He is a successful lawyer, early thirties, the kind of guy who irons shirts, tracks his hours, keeps his apartment quiet. He just got dumped by his girlfriend, which stings, but he mostly buries himself in work. He has some old abandonment stuff from childhood that makes him careful about who he lets in. He does not do messy.

Then Grace starts screaming at four in the morning through walls that are way too thin.

The meet cute here is really a meet exhausted. Adrian knocks, half annoyed and half worried, expecting a nightmare neighbor. He gets Vanessa with spit up on her shirt, dark circles, a crying baby she cannot soothe, and zero idea what to do. She is embarrassed. He is tired. He offers to hold Grace for twenty minutes so Vanessa can shower and breathe. She says yes because she has no pride left.

And Grace, who has screamed for hours for Vanessa, falls asleep in his arms almost right away.

Jimenez leans into how funny and unfair that is. Adrian becomes the Secret Baby Tamer without trying. He bounces, he shushes, he knows to support the head just so. Vanessa watches from her doorway with wet hair and thinks, who is this guy.

I loved their early scenes because they are practical, not swoony. He shows her how to mix formula without bubbles. She shows him her freezer full of random leftovers. He folds her laundry while she naps on the couch. She watches his ancient foster Chihuahua while he takes calls. They binge The Office late at night after Grace finally goes down. It is domestic before it is romantic, which makes the romance land harder later.

The dog deserves a mention. Adrian is fostering a senior Chihuahua, tiny and shaky, convinced he runs the apartment. It gives the book some lightness when the baby stuff gets stressful.

Adrian also turns out to be observant in a way Vanessa is not used to. He notices she is favoring one hand. He does not push at first. He just helps. He holds Grace during his lunch break. He carries groceries.

That steadiness is catnip for someone like Vanessa, who is always performing okayness. With Adrian she does not have to perform as much. She can say, I am scared, I am tired, I have no idea how to keep this baby alive until tomorrow. And he says, okay, we will figure out tomorrow.

Of course they start spending every free minute together. Of course that starts feeling like a family. Of course that terrifies them both for different reasons.

A pretend family that starts feeling real

The middle of the book is my favorite part. Vanessa and Adrian do not officially date. They tell themselves they are just neighbors helping out. But they are basically co parenting.

Mornings look like this. Adrian knocks with coffee. Vanessa hands him Grace while she gets dressed. Evenings look like takeout, bottles, laundry, the dog snoring.

Jimenez is good at the small physical details that make baby care feel real. The smell of sour milk on everything. The blowout that happens right before an important video call. The four a.m. wakeups that make normally smart adults cry.

Through all that, Vanessa and Adrian get to know each other in the way you only do when you are tired and unfiltered. She learns he plans everything because growing up felt unstable and planning feels safe. Vacations have spreadsheets. Feelings get scheduled. He learns she avoids plans because plans feel like promises she might not keep. She lives day to day on purpose.

They push each other in good ways. She gets him to be silly. There is a scene where she talks him into a last minute drive for ice cream instead of working late. He gets her to accept help. When her dad's hoarding leads to a scary pileup, Adrian just shows up with gloves and trash bags and no judgment.

Kristen and Josh and Sloan and Jason pop in and out. It never feels forced. Kristen brings food and holds Grace so Vanessa can shower. Sloan recognizes grief when she sees it. Those cameos reward series readers without confusing new readers.

The romance builds slow. A lot of almost moments. A hand on a back. Falling asleep on the same couch. A first kiss attempt that goes badly because the timing is terrible and Grace starts wailing at exactly the wrong second. Jimenez lets them be awkward. I appreciated that. They are in their late twenties and early thirties, they have real baggage, they stay awkward for a while.

When they finally admit they have feelings, it is tender and scary. Vanessa says some version of, I like you, but I cannot give you a normal future. Adrian hears, I might lose you, and he does what planners do. He tries to solve it.

That is where the trouble starts.

The test she will not take

Vanessa has been hiding the wrist weakness for a while. She tells herself it is overuse from holding Grace, from carrying camera gear, from typing. Adrian watches her drop things twice in one day and puts it together with what he knows about her mom and sister. He has watched her YouTube videos by then, the ones where she talks openly about ALS fundraising and why she lives the way she does. He realizes she might already be showing symptoms.

He panics in a very Adrian way. He researches. He finds specialists. He makes a plan. He begs her to get checked, to get a diagnosis, to do physical therapy, to try anything that might help or at least give answers. From his side this is love. If there is a problem, you face it, you hire the best person, you fix what you can.

From her side it feels like control. She has spent years deciding not to test, not to live in hospitals, to spend her money and energy on living and giving rather than chasing certainty. She watched testing and waiting eat her family alive. She does not want Adrian to become her nurse instead of her partner. She also does not want him to stay out of guilt.

They have a big fight about it. He gives her an ultimatum without meaning it as cruelty. Either you see a doctor or I cannot do this. She hears that love has conditions. She chooses herself and Grace and walks away.

I thought this stretch was the strongest and also the hardest to read. Jimenez does not make Adrian a villain. He is scared. And she does not make Vanessa stubborn just for plot. Vanessa is scared too. She has buried her mother and sister. She knows what those appointments feel like.

The breakup chapters also move the family plots forward. Vanessa's half sister goes to rehab after an arrest. Her dad agrees to more help with the house, slow progress, not a miracle. Her brother's latest money plan fizzles and Vanessa finally sets a firmer boundary about cash. Grace stays with Vanessa, with paperwork making it longer term.

Adrian goes to Nebraska to see his family, which helps him understand his own fear of being left. He realizes his ultimatum was about his anxiety, not about what Vanessa needed. He comes back ready to listen instead of plan.

Their reunion is not grand. No airport chase. He shows up, apologizes specifically, says he was wrong to demand medical decisions as proof of love. She tells him plainly what she can and cannot promise. He says he wants today with her, not a guaranteed thirty years.

The last chapters give them a steady rhythm. Work, baby, dog, friends, burnt toast, late night edits. Vanessa still films, though now Grace co stars whether she wants to or not. Adrian still works a lot but leaves on time more. They talk about the future in honest terms. Not fairy tale. Just two people choosing each other with open eyes.

What I loved and what wore me down

What I loved most was the voice. Vanessa is funny in a self deprecating way that never feels mean. Her YouTube bits, her texts with Adrian, her inner monologue while running on two hours of sleep, all of it sounds like a real person. Adrian's dry humor sneaks up.

I also thought the disability and caregiving details were handled with care. Vanessa is allowed to be angry, selfish, funny, tired, generous. She loves Grace fiercely but admits motherhood was dropped on her and she is learning. Grace screams. Grace throws up. Grace needs constant holding. That felt true.

The found family stuff worked too. The scenes where everyone pitches in to clear space in her dad's house are moving because nobody gives a speech. They just haul trash, find old photos, order pizza.

Now the fair criticism, because a couple things bugged me.

First, they get close insanely fast. I know the baby forces it, but they share keys, child care, late nights, family crises within days of meeting. Kirkus made this point in its 2021 review and I agree. Most people would not hand their newborn to a guy they met yesterday so they can shower, no matter how tired they are.

Second, Grace sometimes vanishes when the plot needs her to. One chapter she is colicky and impossible, the next she sleeps for six hours so Vanessa and Adrian can have a long talk and a date night. Babies do not work like that. A few readers have called Grace a plot device, and I see why. I still cared about her, but I noticed when she went quiet on cue.

Third, there is a lot piled on. ALS risk, new motherhood overnight, drug addiction, rehab, hoarding, panic attacks, a brother always hunting money, Adrian's family wounds, career pressure. All of them together sometimes crowds out the central couple. I wanted more scenes of just Vanessa and Adrian talking without a crisis ringing in the background.

Fourth, the middle medical mystery drags a little. Vanessa hiding symptoms, Adrian noticing, both not saying it outright, that tension sustains for a long stretch. I understand why, denial is human, but I got impatient for a direct conversation sooner.

None of that ruined the book for me. It is still my favorite of the three Friend Zone books for humor, though book two hit me harder emotionally. If you want a romance that is funny and sexy but also sits with hard questions about how to live when time feels short, this is a strong pick. If insta closeness or heavy family subplots bother you, you might prefer to start with The Happy Ever After Playlist, which is tighter, then come back here.

Who should read it. Readers who like contemporary romance with chronic illness handled seriously, single guardian stories, neighbor romance, banter, dogs, and babies who act like babies. Readers who want low angst should know the ALS thread stays present the whole time, even in funny chapters. It never becomes tragedy porn, but it never disappears either. That feels right for Vanessa. She lives with it every day, so we do too.

I closed it feeling fond of these two. Not because they solved mortality. They did not. But because they stopped wasting the time they do have on fear. Vanessa keeps filming joy. Adrian keeps showing up. Grace keeps growing. Life stays uncertain. They choose it anyway.

FAQ

Is Life's Too Short part of a series?

Yes. It is book three in The Friend Zone series, after The Friend Zone (2019) and The Happy Ever After Playlist (2020). Kristen, Josh, Sloan, and Jason return as supporting characters.

When was it published and how long is it?

Forever published it on April 6, 2021. The trade paperback edition cited here runs 384 pages with ISBN 9781538715666.

Who is Grace in the story?

Grace is the infant daughter of Vanessa's half sister. The sister leaves Grace with Vanessa and later agrees to extended care while dealing with addiction and rehab.