51 pages • 1 hour read
Abby JimenezPart of Your World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Alexis”
Content Warning: This section features discussions of emotional and physical abuse.
Alexis Montgomery finds herself stuck in a ditch when she swerves off the road to avoid wildlife when returning from her great-aunt’s funeral. She calls her best friend, Bri, to tell her about the situation, complaining how a tow truck will take an hour to arrive and how she is stuck in uncomfortable shapewear two hours from her house in Minneapolis. As she begins to take off her Spanx, Alexis sees another car coming; an attractive man and his dog, Hunter, approach her window. The man tells her the only tow truck driver in their small town of Wakan, Minnesota, is currently at the local bar and won’t be able to pick her up anytime soon, so he offers to tow her car himself. Alexis agrees and, while being towed, tells Bri about the funeral: Her twin brother, Derek, was not able to come, and everyone kept asking about her ex-boyfriend, Neil. Bri suggests that, as she and Alexis are both newly single, they should go on a double date sometime soon. They agree to get drinks the following day. Alexis offers the man money once he has finished towing her car, but he declines, telling her to drive safely and then leaving.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Daniel”
At the local VFW bar, Daniel Grant spots Alexis, the woman whose car he towed 15 minutes earlier. His best friend Doug bets him $100 if Daniel can get Alexis to leave the bar with him. Daniel refuses and Doug tries to get their friend Brian to bet instead. Brian has feelings for the VFW bartender, Liz, who is Daniel’s cousin and married to Jake, an abusive police officer. Jake enters the bar just as the men are discussing him. Another local man, Mike, joins in on the bet as Daniel says he has to leave to “feed the kid” (17), going up to the bar to pay.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Alexis”
Alexis is at the bar when Daniel settles his tab, and he warns her that a few men have placed a bet to see whom she will go home with. Alexis suggests that, as she is about to leave anyway, the two of them could walk out together and Daniel could win the bet and split the money with her. Liz assures Alexis that Daniel is trustworthy, and the two women talk for a few minutes before Alexis and Daniel leave. Alexis learns that Daniel is the mayor of Wakan, but when he asks her what she does she obfuscates, as she does not want to give out personal information to a stranger. Alexis asks Daniel about his relationship status and his “kid,” but when Daniel shows her a picture of the kid, Chloe, she sees it is a baby goat. Alexis is surprised when she finds herself flirting with Daniel, as she swore off dating after breaking off her seven-year relationship with Neil.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Daniel”
Daniel leads Alexis out of the bar and gives her half of the money he won in the bet. Alexis tries to return it to pay for his earlier assistance and he refuses. Alexis asks him if there is anywhere nearby where she can get food, but Daniel informs her that the closest place is nearly an hour away and offers to make her grilled cheese at his house. Alexis agrees but makes it clear she is not going to sleep with him. They do in fact have sex, but Daniel finds her gone when he wakes up the next morning.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Alexis”
Alexis recounts what happened to make her leave. In the middle of the night, Alexis got a peek at Daniel’s wallet when it fell out of the hoodie she’d borrowed, and she saw that he was 28 years old. Alexis panicked when she found out Daniel is nine years her junior and snuck out of his house in the middle of the night, still wearing Daniel’s hoodie.
Alexis feels shocked at herself for having a one-night stand. She is surprised when she gets home and finds her twin brother, Derek, there. Derek has been in Cambodia working with Doctors Without Borders; before he’ll tell Alexis why he is back in Minneapolis, he asks her to sign an NDA. When she does, Derek tells Alexis that he got married to a famous recording artist named Nikki who goes by the stage name Lola Simone. Derek also tells Alexis that he is moving to Cambodia permanently, and Alexis panics because that means he is leaving her alone to work at the same hospital as her ex-boyfriend, Neil, who was abusive and unfaithful to her. Alexis thinks about her family and their legacy. She comes from a line of prestigious surgeons: A Montgomery has always worked at Royaume Northwestern Hospital since it opened in 1897. Until now, she and Derek have both worked at the hospital, where Neil is the head surgeon. Alexis has been making plans to leave, but now that Derek is going, she feels obliged to stay, as both of her parents recently retired. She feels she has “been handed a life sentence” (33).
Chapter 6 Summary: “Alexis”
At her work at the hospital’s ER, Alexis complains to Bri about Derek leaving and about being trapped with parents who are disappointed with her life choices and want her to get back together with Neil. She tells Bri about her night with Daniel, and Bri encourages Alexis to go back and see him despite Alexis’s concerns about dating a man so different from her. Bri assures her that she does not have to date Daniel and can merely have sex with him, something Alexis had not considered after swearing off dating. Alexis also tells Bri about how she has been approached to deliver the keynote speech at the hospital’s upcoming 125th anniversary, as she is now the only Montgomery working there.
Neil approaches them and asks Alexis to speak in private, but Bri won’t let Neil be alone with her. He tells Alexis that he wants to buy her share of the house they own together, as (he says) she is incapable of handling a property on her own. For the first time, Alexis stands up for herself in front of Neil, and the three are all shocked she was able to do so. Feeling more confident, Alexis decides she should find Daniel again.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Daniel”
April is Daniel’s favorite time of year: There are few tourists, so he gets to shut down the rental he runs and work on his carpentry. Daniel is still thinking about Alexis several days after she snuck out and wonders why she did so. At the VFW, Doug teases him for being sad about Alexis, but Daniel stays at the bar when Doug asks him to. Daniel knows his friend has depression and PTSD from his time in the military and understands that he needs company. Daniel receives a phone call at the bar from Alexis, who says that she feels bad for stealing his hoodie and wants to return it. The two agree to meet in Wakan later that night, and Doug and Liz help Daniel prepare for his evening with Alexis.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Alexis”
Alexis drives back to Wakan and to Daniel’s bed-and-breakfast, the Grant House, which he tells her has been in his family since 1897. Alexis is impressed by Daniel’s care for the legacy of his family’s house and mentally compares it to her family’s legacy at the hospital.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Daniel”
Daniel and Alexis get into his truck to go to the picnic he has planned. Daniel worries about what Alexis thinks of him, as he fears Alexis is too “fancy” for him. Daniel takes her to a drive-in movie theater his friend Brian opens up just for him and Alexis. When she sees the lengths to which Daniel has gone to make their evening romantic, Alexis feels she has to remind him that she is not looking to date right now. Daniel reassures her that he is going to make a big deal about Alexis driving several hours to see him regardless of her reasoning. Daniel asks again what Alexis does for a living, but she just gives him three guesses, all of which he gets wrong.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Alexis”
Alexis is surprised at herself for kissing Daniel in the back of his truck at the drive-in. When they get back to the room he prepared for her at the bed-and-breakfast, he begins to pull away from her, hinting that they should go back to his loft next door. Alexis agrees and spends the whole night in bed with Daniel.
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
This first set of chapters sets up the major differences between Alexis and Daniel and the struggles they will face throughout the novel while highlighting the similarities in their personal lives. Although the novel begins by showing Alexis speaking to Bri, someone she is comfortable with, and having fun in Wakan, it is also quick to introduce the pressure that Alexis is under and the extent to which her relationship with her family impacts her life. She puts her work and the opinions of her family above all else, letting her parents’ wishes guide her choices and feeling guilty when she does something she thinks deviates from their plans for her, such as sleeping with Daniel. Daniel is also following his family’s legacy, but Alexis learns early on that he loves what he does and only does what he loves.
Although their differences in age, class, and emotional availability are what Alexis is most concerned about when she considers why she and Daniel cannot have a real relationship, it is mainly this difference in priorities that the two struggle with, starting early in the novel. While Daniel lives in the moment, telling Alexis at the drive-in that he will enjoy whatever he can while she is in Wakan, Alexis is more conflicted about her past and future and thus frequently questions what she wants. For example, although she mentions enjoying her first night with Daniel and wanting to go back to Wakan, she also frets because she “[doesn’t] do risky behavior” (28), and she frequently worries what the people in her life would think of Daniel. Yet despite their differences, Daniel and Alexis have one major thing in common that drives both of them to act throughout the novel: Both are selfless helpers who always put others first. This is evidenced by Alexis’s career but also by her desire to make her parents happy, however misguided. Meanwhile, Daniel is loved throughout Wakan for the great efforts he makes to care for the residents of the town.
These early chapters also introduce the major theme of The Influence of Legacy and show how Alexis and Daniel both respond to it. It is significant that the Montgomerys have been working at Royaume Northwestern Hospital for exactly as long as the Grant House has existed and for as long as a Grant has been a mayor of Wakan. In comparing the legacies of these two families, Jimenez draws attention to both their similarities and differences. Both Daniel and Alexis feel attachment to their family’s legacy, yet it is apparent that Daniel honors that legacy of his own free will, whereas Alexis feels pressured by her family to keep working at the hospital when she would rather leave. When Alexis learns that Derek, the brother who has been groomed by their parents to be the resident Montgomery at Royaume, is leaving Minneapolis, Alexis only feels the obligation become more serious, saying, “It was like I’d just been handed a life sentence” (33). Like Alexis, Daniel is the last member of his family with the ability to uphold the Grant legacy, yet when she later asks him what would happen if he were to leave, Daniel responds, “Why would I ever leave?” (128). Both main characters are influenced by the expansive legacies of their family, yet while Daniel’s legacy is meaningful to him by choice, Alexis is controlled by hers.
Part of Your World falls within the genre of contemporary romantic comedy, and Jimenez cues readers as to what to expect by including many familiar tropes and conventions of the genre. Commonly, romances in this genre begin somewhat outside of the realm of what is normal for at least one of the main characters, as happens when chance takes Alexis out of her own world to the small town of Wakan. The small-town setting is also typical of contemporary romance and is often used to suggest what is missing from a main character’s life, such as how the close-knit community of Wakan shows Alexis the importance of community and different ways of taking care of others. By creating two characters who are opposites of each other, Jimenez highlights what they each lack and how they can grow: Alexis will eventually learn to prioritize those she loves and Daniel will develop a stronger sense of self-worth. One of the most common conventions of contemporary romance is the main characters’ insistence that, for whatever reason, they cannot be together. This plot device drives the conflict of novels like Part of Your World, and Jimenez presents the disparity between what the characters want and what they think they need very strongly in the opening chapters.
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