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this is my first ever Mariana Zapata book and I'm obsessed with it. at first I was drawn to her because we share our first name with the exact same spelling and it's not often that I see someone with my name outside of my country. then I decided to add a few of her books to my tbr over time and then I went to the Lisbon book fair and I saw this one and decided to buy it and I decided to immediately start reading it (yes I have 1100+ books on my tbr and yes I still did this).
and I'm in love. I love Aurora. and I'm in love with Rhodes 😭❤️
I'm not even an age gap girlie (even tho this age gap wasn't that big, she was 33/34 and he was 42/43) but I loved this SO much. I understand why people call Mariana the slow burn queen because WOW. this had me at the edge of my seat the whole time. I mean.... at the 400 page mark they hadn't even kissed yet 😭. I honestly had no idea I would love a slow burn like this as much as I did but omg. I want all my slow burns to be like this now. I'M OBSESSED.
but as I said before, I loved Aurora and Rhodes and their whole relationship from the beginning but I also loved Amos and Clara and Jackie and Yuki and all the other good side characters. these people are my family fr.
can't wait to read more Mariana Zapata books 🫶🏼
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Child abuse
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Pregnancy
I adored Rhodes, whose gruff standoffish demeanour hides his warmhearted and cinnamon roll centre. His love and support for his son was heart meltingly good too and as he and Aurora get to know one another (and Aurora breaks down his defences) we see a quietly protective side to him that I absolutely loved.
And given everything Aurora has experienced in her life, and emotional journey shes still working through — Rhodes, Amos (Rhodes’ teenage son) and the other Residents of Pagosa are just what she needs to fully heal and finally find a place she can call home.
We get some pretty humorous moments too which really helped with easing the tenser more emotionally scenes (my faves being the Bat and golden eagle scenes)
Overall another incredible read that slow-burn romance lovers will definitely enjoy. Just be sure to check the TWs
Also a massive thank you to Sophie (@SophieB_Reads on TikTok) for book fairying this to me, I absolutely loved it 😍❤️
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Mental illness, Pregnancy
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infertility
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Pregnancy
Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Stalking
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Pregnancy
I wasn’t sure I still enjoyed audiobooks; if they could keep me interested and focused on listening and Im unsure why I started with the 17hrs long one, but I don’t regret it at all. The narrator’s voices are soothing (Rhodes voice especially so) and the pace wasn’t a problem (though I do read much faster alone).
Regarding the work itself: I liked and resonated with the lovable characters and felt neutral about the writing style (maybe a bit too humorous for me- especially the pee-comments got annoying?) furthermore I enjoyed the pace very much.
The biggest shortcoming in my opinion would be that I missed some scenes or felt like they got cut short (the first meetings with THE FAMILY?! There are so many opportunities for insight into their character development and impact on each other I was so sure we were going to get an arc there and thus felt robbed -I still can’t believe we never actually got an interaction between all three of the parents??).
And on opposite side of the spectrum some aspects of her life got highlighted a bit too much for my liking: her job, the peeing (I get that that’s an inside joke, but at some point I tired of it) and her grieving her mother after her remains had been found (don’t know why that bothered me so much, but I felt like that didn’t fit into the story- at least at that point- and I heard it at 2 times the speed).
I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t ground breaking and I don’t know if I’d confidently recommend it tbh.
Graphic: Grief
Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment