Community Reviews
4.5 stars rounded up!
I started this year wanting to finally read a book by Zapata and this is now my fourth. I feel like I probably say this with every one of her books, but I don't know how she manages the slowest burn ever without letting the reader ever get bored. She's also so good at creating the same kind of characters in her books, without them ever becoming stereotypes or redundant. The strong, silent, grumpy alpha male (who isn't really an alpha male) and the down on her luck, sunshine female who worms her way into his life and heart. I'm addicted. I could so easily fall down the rabbit hole of Zapata books, but I have ARCs and reading challenge books demanding my attention, as well.
So, I adored The Wall of Winnipeg of Me. I always think opposites attract is my favorite romance trope but then I read a book like this where the love interests are so alike and it works so well. My heart ached for them both, their past traumas, their extreme loneliness, and I wanted them to find their well-deserved happiness so desperately I never wanted to put the book down. There were so many great side characters in this one, as well. I know one of them has their own book and I'm eager to find out if any of the others do, too.
I think so far From Lukov With Love is still my favorite Zapata, but that could also be because I read it first and now I'm nostalgic for it. But this one ties with Kulti for the second spot!
I started this year wanting to finally read a book by Zapata and this is now my fourth. I feel like I probably say this with every one of her books, but I don't know how she manages the slowest burn ever without letting the reader ever get bored. She's also so good at creating the same kind of characters in her books, without them ever becoming stereotypes or redundant. The strong, silent, grumpy alpha male (who isn't really an alpha male) and the down on her luck, sunshine female who worms her way into his life and heart. I'm addicted. I could so easily fall down the rabbit hole of Zapata books, but I have ARCs and reading challenge books demanding my attention, as well.
So, I adored The Wall of Winnipeg of Me. I always think opposites attract is my favorite romance trope but then I read a book like this where the love interests are so alike and it works so well. My heart ached for them both, their past traumas, their extreme loneliness, and I wanted them to find their well-deserved happiness so desperately I never wanted to put the book down. There were so many great side characters in this one, as well. I know one of them has their own book and I'm eager to find out if any of the others do, too.
I think so far From Lukov With Love is still my favorite Zapata, but that could also be because I read it first and now I'm nostalgic for it. But this one ties with Kulti for the second spot!
I loved this book so much. Reading made me feel giddy and invested in these characters. Reminded me of why I loved reading. Mariana writes beautifully. I thought that I would get frustrated with a slow burn, but she puts so much growth and connection between the love interests that even though you know they are going to get together in the end (it is a romance book after all) you are almost surprised and so happy for the couple like you would if your best friend found love.
The book's length and the slowest burn of all time made this book painfully slow and unnecessarily long.
We desperately needed Aiden's POV. His character is super stoic most of the time so we have no idea what he's really thinking. I had a hard time liking Aiden because his behavior in the first few chapters was appealing. He was a straight up asshole and never really redeemed himself. In the two years Vanessa worked for him he never said "good morning" to her or said "thank you". Come on! that is 100% entitled asshole behavior. His parents can only be blamed so much because he lived with his loving grandparents for years and had Leslie as a mentor/coach. Plus he has friends that he's had for years so at the end of the day he was only acting that way towards Vanessa. I think I had a hard time liking him because this felt like when people are rude to servers. Vanessa was his employee so he couldn't show common decency to her. No thank you.
Also, without Aiden's POV there was a lack of sexual/emotional chemistry between Vanessa and Aiden.
I liked the last 20% of the book, but I think that's mostly because Aiden and Vanessa were actually talking to each other. This book needed more action before the last couple of chapters. I'm not asking for there to be purely smut but one sex scene at the very end and a reveal of their feelings for each other at the 95% mark is just not all that satisfying to me.
We desperately needed Aiden's POV. His character is super stoic most of the time so we have no idea what he's really thinking. I had a hard time liking Aiden because his behavior in the first few chapters was appealing. He was a straight up asshole and never really redeemed himself. In the two years Vanessa worked for him he never said "good morning" to her or said "thank you". Come on! that is 100% entitled asshole behavior. His parents can only be blamed so much because he lived with his loving grandparents for years and had Leslie as a mentor/coach. Plus he has friends that he's had for years so at the end of the day he was only acting that way towards Vanessa. I think I had a hard time liking him because this felt like when people are rude to servers. Vanessa was his employee so he couldn't show common decency to her. No thank you.
Also, without Aiden's POV there was a lack of sexual/emotional chemistry between Vanessa and Aiden.
I liked the last 20% of the book, but I think that's mostly because Aiden and Vanessa were actually talking to each other. This book needed more action before the last couple of chapters. I'm not asking for there to be purely smut but one sex scene at the very end and a reveal of their feelings for each other at the 95% mark is just not all that satisfying to me.
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