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adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Something about the writing style of this book made it so easy to imagine and enjoy, even though I’ll admit, I didn’t feel like there was a ton of excitement or depth to most of the plot. But I absolutely fell in love with all the characters, not just the MMC and FMC.
I think this may have been one of the only time there was a teenager rather than a child and it made it that much better! He was such a great kid and his unique parental situation brought something interesting to the story.
I’m always a sucker for low conflict (or lack of miscommunications/third act breakup) and this one was pretty much that. The small conflict felt necessary for the whole of the story, to show just how much she was wanted and needed by these two that had welcomed her into their lives. And we all love to see an HEA several years down the road, it just itches a good spot in your brain. 🙂
Although the resolution to her mothers story wasn’t a happy one (and I did feel like I had a glimmer of hope the entire book), it was a relief that there was some peace given to Aurora (and to us readers) because who wants to live their life wondering?
Also, a single POV having the second narrator for the male character was fantastic!! I wish more authors would do this.
Spice Level: 🌶️
Tropes:
Slow Burn
Grumpy/Sunshine
Small Town
Single Dad
Although the resolution to her mothers story wasn’t a happy one (and I did feel like I had a glimmer of hope the entire book), it was a relief that there was some peace given to Aurora (and to us readers) because who wants to live their life wondering?
Also, a single POV having the second narrator for the male character was fantastic!! I wish more authors would do this.
Spice Level: 🌶️
Tropes:
Slow Burn
Grumpy/Sunshine
Small Town
Single Dad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
5/5 stars
1.5/5 spice
Tropes:
Strangers to friends to lovers
Slow burn
Trauma/healing
Protective hero
Grumpy/sunshine
Single dad
Single POV
The slowest of the slow burns but honestly I'm not mad about it. I really enjoyed the personal journey Aurora went through. I think that was more important that her finding love. Overall, I loved the grumpy/sunshine trope with this one. This was my first book with this author but I'm definitely interested in reading more.
Thank you to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.
Trigger/Content warnings:
Mentions emotional abuse, extortion, divorce, and death of parent. Sexual content
1.5/5 spice
Tropes:
Strangers to friends to lovers
Slow burn
Trauma/healing
Protective hero
Grumpy/sunshine
Single dad
Single POV
The slowest of the slow burns but honestly I'm not mad about it. I really enjoyed the personal journey Aurora went through. I think that was more important that her finding love. Overall, I loved the grumpy/sunshine trope with this one. This was my first book with this author but I'm definitely interested in reading more.
Thank you to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.
Trigger/Content warnings:
Mentions emotional abuse, extortion, divorce, and death of parent. Sexual content
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Emotional abuse, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I loved this book the first time I read this, and I still do. I very much enjoyed this reread, especially because of the duet narration of the audiobook! The bonus scene was also very cute. 🥰
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had high hopes for this book and it delivered on all of them!! The story and characters are great and in typical Mariana Zapata fashion the grump and slow burn are perfect. Only down side is that the ending drags a bit, but it nicely closes up all plot points.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Mariana Zapata is really the Queen of Slowburn Romance, and I've missed reading her books.
I loved the characters that we got to follow in this book. Both Aurora and Rhodes felt like real people. And because of that, I still really enjoyed it even though the romance didn't feel as prevalent as I would have liked it. I did like that it felt realistic and you could see their feelings grow.
However, this felt more like a plain contemporary story or a character study for at least two-thirds of the book.
I did really like the exploration of grief and unconventional families.
But I think I just wish that I liked the conclusion more. It felt like it wrapped up too quickly.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the characters that we got to follow in this book. Both Aurora and Rhodes felt like real people. And because of that, I still really enjoyed it even though the romance didn't feel as prevalent as I would have liked it. I did like that it felt realistic and you could see their feelings grow.
However, this felt more like a plain contemporary story or a character study for at least two-thirds of the book.
I did really like the exploration of grief and unconventional families.
But I think I just wish that I liked the conclusion more. It felt like it wrapped up too quickly.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Mental illness, Pregnancy
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unfortunately I didn't realize going into this that it's a 600 page romance, or I would probably not have read it. No romance needs to be that long imo. MZ writes slow burn, but there's slow burn and then there's... whatever this is. The two main characters barely interacted or talked for like the first 30% of this book (which is like 200 pages). The first HALF of this book could have been severely edited down in terms of content because I was just reading too many mundane details that my brain was shutting down.
Which honestly sucks because the last 20% of this book is really good! Once you *actually* start to see the tiniest spark (aka they have conversations) between the main characters I enjoyed it. I really liked the development of the relationship between Aurora and Tobias' son Amos (tbh she has more interactions in the first half of the book with Amos than Tobias). There's a hard hitting part at the end regarding Aurora's grief over her mom that got me a bit misty.I'm not sure that I needed her ex to come back begging for her, I felt that was extraneous.
Overall I'm not sure I really vibed with Aurora as a main character and she made some really dumb ass decisions in this book that irked me (hello hiking on your own when you are clearly not an experienced hiker and your mom disappeared while hiking??? please make it make sense). Also this is a self published book moving to traditional publication and the arc I read had some super repetitive parts and several typos that I hope are fixed before it's published...
I have some other books by this author on my list that I will read, but I'll be checking the page count before I do.
🌶️3/5
Which honestly sucks because the last 20% of this book is really good! Once you *actually* start to see the tiniest spark (aka they have conversations) between the main characters I enjoyed it. I really liked the development of the relationship between Aurora and Tobias' son Amos (tbh she has more interactions in the first half of the book with Amos than Tobias). There's a hard hitting part at the end regarding Aurora's grief over her mom that got me a bit misty.
Overall I'm not sure I really vibed with Aurora as a main character and she made some really dumb ass decisions in this book that irked me (hello hiking on your own when you are clearly not an experienced hiker and your mom disappeared while hiking??? please make it make sense). Also this is a self published book moving to traditional publication and the arc I read had some super repetitive parts and several typos that I hope are fixed before it's published...
I have some other books by this author on my list that I will read, but I'll be checking the page count before I do.
🌶️3/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy
Aurora's ex and his mother are vile and the horrible things they did to her are brought up several times.
Tobias' mother struggled with mental illness and as a result he had a rough childhood.
There is one explicit spicy scene.
Pregnancy happens as part of the HEA (not a surprise).