Two Halves, One Brian

Book Stats

• Publication Date: 03/24/26
• Format: ebook
• Pages: 399
• Narrator POV: 1st person POV, alternating between the 2 main characters – Larissa and Chris

Book Ratings

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars

Spice Rating: 🌶️/5 chili peppers

Summary & Review

If Abby Jimenez writes a book, I’ll read it. She is such a wonderful Rom-Com author and I adore all of her work. So imagine my excitement when this book became available to borrow on Libby! I paused all my other books just so I could devour this one. 😍

As always, Abby does a wonderful job weaving a cute romance with difficult topics and situations. This story primarily follows Larissa and Chris. Larissa is dating Mike, after having met him at a concert he attended with his best friend – you guessed it – Chris. As their relationship progresses, Mike pushes Chris and Larissa together a lot to cover up for his own struggles and shortcomings that he doesn’t want Larissa to know about. He knows Chris always has his back and is willing to step in and lie on his behalf. But without realizing it, a friendship immediately blossoms between Larissa and Chris, which starts to slowly develop into more.

Now this wouldn’t be an Abby Jimenez Rom-Com if there weren’t struggles, tense situations, and a little bit of heartache. This one is no different. You’ll giggle at the banter, fall in love with the chemistry, and grieve at the heartbreaking moments. She always does such a fantastic job making us readers get all the feels!

I’ve never been disappointed by a book she’s written and I will always recommend her as one of my top Rom-Com authors. In fact, I’ve never rated any of her books less than 4 stars, which I feel says a lot about her work.

I have a few small complaints that I’ll include purely because I try to be a transparent and honest reviewer, but just know that these didn’t ruin the story for me at all. 😊

1. There are fireworks all over this book. The art is gorgeous. But there were no scenes in the book that included fireworks? That kinda threw me off. That’s a stupid complaint, I know, but I just kept waiting for a cute firework scene. 😂
2. I get that the girl and the best friend got together and that’s against bro code or whatever, but why was it such a big deal? I mean, will it be weird? Sure. Will it take a minute for everyone to adjust to the new dynamics? Of course. But would adults really give up all their friendships because of this? That seems wild to me.
3. On the other hand, after getting to know Mike’s personality, his struggles, and his feelings toward Larissa, it’s kinda crazy that he just moves on and forgives Chris so quickly. It’s okay to be upset, just don’t let it completely ruin the friendship if you can help it. But he was just super accepting, considering everything.

But yeah, that’s all. Overall, this was a cute story. It wasn’t my favorite Abby Jimenez book, but it’s hard to top perfection, ya know? This was a great read and I would absolutely recommend it!