“I’ve always wanted to end a letter with regards – oh, and to get one where someone signs it yours truly and calls me ‘dearest’. It’s so Mr. Darcy.”
ER doctor Briana’s life isn’t going so great—her divorce from her cheating husband is almost finalised, her brother’s chances of getting a much-needed kidney transplant are poor, and the new ER doctor, Jacob (or as the nurses call him, Dr. Death), is probably going to steal her upcoming promotion. But Briana realises that first impressions aren’t always correct when Jacob sends her a handwritten letter explaining the misunderstandings and revealing that he has social anxiety. Soon, Briana and Jacob start exchanging letters non-stop and spending lots of time together. The line between like and love starts to blur after Briana discovers that Jacob is going to be her brother’s kidney donor and Jacob enlists Briana to be his fake girlfriend to save face at his ex’s wedding.
Yours Truly is a contemporary workplace romance invoking the forced proximity, fake dating, only one bed, accidental pregnancy, and “enemies to friends to lovers” tropes. It’s perfect for fans of books like Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese, Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams, The Plus One by Mazey Eddings, The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, The Love Wager by Lynn Painter, The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest, or Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez. Yours Truly deals with themes and topics such as mental health, chronic illness, female roles, communication or lack thereof, love and heartbreak, marriage and divorce, family, fear of abandonment, and loneliness and isolation. Trigger warnings include miscarriage, parental abandonment, cheating, social anxiety, and chronic illness.
First off, I liked how this was an easy and relatively quick read, so this book would be ideal to take on a trip or to read on a quiet day off. Briana and Jacob’s cute chemistry and “will they, won’t they” romance was very engaging and hard to put down, plus it was great seeing Alexis and Daniel from Part of Your World who made an unexpected appearances in Yours Truly as Alexis is Briana’s best friend! I found that I really enjoyed reading Briana and Jacob’s comical letters and the edition of Jacob’s journal entries—which Jacob uses as a coping mechanism for his mental health—towards the end of the book were very sweet and tearjerking.
One thing I didn’t really like was all the miscommunication and mixed signals that took place during Briana and Jacob’s fake romance and it felt like it took too long for them to realise their true feelings for each other and get together for real; their relationship was definitely a slowburn.
Overall, Yours Truly was an enjoyable and engaging read, perfect for fans of fake dating, slow burns, and workplace romances!
Yours Truly is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.
Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.
And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,” and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can’t refuse.
