Just for the Summer | Abby Jimenez

"sometimes the best way to show love or be kind to someone is to meet them where they are."

    Justin and Emma both have the curse: their exes all find their soulmates after dating them, while they remain alone. They met via Reddit, of all places, on his thread where he asked AITA for naming his ugly dog after a friend who met his soulmate after she dated him. Emma contacted him because she had a similar situation happen to her, and they hatch a plan too date each other to cancel out the curse.

    Well, that is the lighthearted premise. The story, however, delves much deeper and is much heavier than the surface would suggest.

       Emma is a travel nurse who moves from town to town every three months with her friend Maddy. She doesn't linger anywhere is supposed to go to Hawaii next. The idea to break the curse appeals to her and so she changes their plans and come to work in Minnesota instead, to meet Justin. Slowly, we learn that she is a foster kid with a complicated relationship with her mother - which leads to a complicated relationship with everyone else. She was abandoned as a child when Amber would simply disappear, yet she always hoped her mom would come back and had so much faith in her. She is the reason she never lingers anywhere long enough to put roots or get attached, her whole life fits into two suitcases she keeps under her bad for easy getaway.

    Justin is a software engineer whose life is about to get very complicated. Set aside his relationship issues, he is soon to become the sole guardian of his three younger siblings because his mother is going to jail for embezzlement. This comes on the heels of his father dying as well, which strengthens his anger and the resentment he feels toward his mother for basically ruining his life.  When he meets Emma, though, he is immediately smitten and knows this 'just for the summer' curse-breaking arrangement they hatched would not be enough for him. But as he gets to know her, despite longing and hoping, he realizes that she cannot love him and would never be willing to stay for him.

    Everything is thrown into chaos when Amber, Emma's estranger mom, shows up and seduces their landlord Neil, the head of the surgical department Emma and Maddy are working in. She is charming and lovely, but you can immediately see that Emma has rose colored glasses on as her mother doesn't really see her. Despite Maddy's warnings to be careful and not get her hopes up, Emma is crushed when her mother starts slipping into one of her episodes again. This all makes her flight response flare up because she's getting closer to Justin and his siblings - living with them, actually, being part of the family, which terrifies her. Everything comes to a head when, on her birthday, she finally looks at her DNA results and finds out she has family, despite Amber's insistence that they had nobody. Emma spirals when she meets her half-brother and faces the life she could have lived, if only her mother hadn't lied, if she hadn't hidden her away like a secret. This leads to a spiral and she realizes she must leave Justin for his own good, as well as get some help to work on her issues.

    The main relationship is really touching. I absolutely love Justin. He is tender and soft-hearted, a good provider for his family and so, so patient and tender with Emma. He gives her space, and shows affection in ways that are acceptable to her. Even when she leaves him, he accepts it and wallows without burdening her with his heartbreak. I wanted the best for him, truly, my favorite character in the book. I also appreciate how Emma worked on herself in order to be a good fit for this family that felt like hers, in order to not be like her mom and create more trauma for them. They really earned their happy ending.