Book ~ "Life's too Short" (2021) Abby Jimenez

From Goodreads ~ When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30 and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted.

But after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her infant daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua.

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.

Vanessa is a famous travel vlogger with millions of YouTube followers. Her mother and sister had had ALS and had passed away before they were 30 and there's a 50/50 chance that Vanessa has it too so she assumes she'll pass away at 30 also. She saw the misery her sister had gone through with treatments and decided to instead spend possibly her last couple of years having fun and seeing the world rather than treatment before ALS takes her too. Then her drug-addicted half sister gets pregnant and abandons Grace, her infant daughter, with Vanessa. Needless to say, this changes Vanessa's life and puts her travel and lifestyle on pause.

Adrian is a lawyer who is Vanessa's next door neighbour and owns their building. Until the night he helps her out with Grace, they have never had any contact. They start hanging out together and become good friends with Vanessa loosening up the always needing to be control Adrian. Adrian would like more but Vanessa has made it clear she's not interesting in dating anyone (he is unaware of her possible death sentence) and he doesn't want to ruin their friendship. Vanessa realizes she would like more but Adrian isn't making any advances so she assumes he just wants to be friends.

This is the second book I've read by this author and for the most part I liked it. The interaction between Vanessa and Adrian was cute. It's written in first person perspective in Vanessa and Adrian's voices (the chapters are labeled). As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity

It does get heavy at times because Vanessa is supporting her family and is concerned about what will happen to them once she's gone ... her father is an unemployed hoarder, her half-sister is a drug addict, her well-educated half-brother doesn't want a normal 9 to 5 job and she needs to find an adoptive family for Grace because she assumes she's going to pass away soon. Plus Adrian has family issues of his own. Vanessa may or may not be dealing with a life threatening disease but she does nothing to see if she is. So it got a bit annoying as she keeps dwelling on dying and not getting confirmation if she may have ALS. Find out either way and then deal with it rather than assuming.