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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
“My heart,” he murmurs, “it beats for you, Thalia. Now and always. I love you. Te amo. And this love burns like the sun.”
I'm really shocked at how much I liked this book. This is my 4th book by Karina Halle and I haven't enjoyed any of her books so far. I only picked up this book because I haven't read forbidden romance and younger man - older woman for a while and the blurb sounded interesting enough. I expected to find it mediocre at best, but woah ~ I was positively surprised.
My man Toni Kroos was mentioned a couple of times. Real Madrid's best midfielder and no I'm not biased or anything. Just trying to state facts here :D
Anyway, I really enjoyed the setting in Madrid and football. Finally a sport that I understand all the rules and know all the players!! Sports romances are like my kryptonite and it's always fun to read whether it is American football, basketball or hockey, but I realised that I'm waaay more into it when I know all the terms.. like when they were talking about "El clasico" or "UEFA champions league" I was getting SUPER excited! So yeah, the football setting really worked for me.
Alejo and Thalia were great characters. I was a bit sceptical at the beginning cause Thalia is forty while Alejo is twenty-three. That's seventeen years of difference. That's quite a lot, especially for guys in their tweenties. I was afraid that Alejo would be too childish, but that was not the case. He was a lot more mature for his age due to his circumstances. Alejo knew exactly what wants and wasn't unsure of his feelings for Thalia. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and he's not ashamed to show them. Therefore, the age-gap wasn't a problem because Alejo wasn't some alpha arrogant prick who was too cool to show emotion and created unnecessary drama. My soft football star.
I like Thalia for her resilience and kind-hearted spirit. She just went through a nasty divorce. Now she moved from Manchester to Madrid for a fresh start. She's a in a foreign country with no friends and she doesn't even speak the language and all she wants is to survive and leave the past behind. As Real Madrid new head therapist she has the chance to start again.
What I loved most about Alejo and Thalia's relationship is how supportive and selfless they were for each other. Thalia was Alejo #1 supporter during every game on and off the field. Alejo adores Thalia and would do everything for her. He would give up the game and team he loves so dearly if they would have a chance to be together. They were just adorable.
“You mean everything to me. You are the world. More than the world. You are the sun, Thalia. El Sol. And the sun doesn't worry about being too bright for the moon or the stars, it just burns and shines. Just like you. You shine. You're el sol de mi corazon.”
Additionally, there were some interesting secondary characters! Mateo and Vera were great friends to Alejo and Thalia! I'm not interested in reading their story, but they were good additions for this one! Alejo teammate Luciano was a awesome friend to them as well! I would have loved to get more of Alejo's family, they seem really cool! Of course not everyone is great, in every book there is at least some villain. Here is no different... Thalia had some fake friends to get rid off, but overall the good characters overshadowed the bad ones!
If you are looking for 500 pages of "forbidden romance" with a "younger man and older woman" age-gap couple that sets in Europe with football theme then you should give this book a try!
This was pretty solid. Romance is probably one of my favourites from Halle.
You know how you become super critical reading a subject you know 100% about; well this is a book for me. I don't know Halle's interest or knowledge of soccer, I think she did a pretty decent job. Until the end. It became a bit sloppy on in the big match. And I also think it had to do with the fallout and such of the couple. I knew it was going to happen that way and I wasn't happy about it. Also, I kind of had to get over the unrealistic elements of that last match and not eye roll. You know...
Really I'm just being picky over a romance book.
I liked the couple well enough(I do think Thalia read younger than her age at times). I think they had great chemistry. And I loved the setting of Madrid.
You know how you become super critical reading a subject you know 100% about; well this is a book for me. I don't know Halle's interest or knowledge of soccer, I think she did a pretty decent job. Until the end. It became a bit sloppy on in the big match. And I also think it had to do with the fallout and such of the couple. I knew it was going to happen that way and I wasn't happy about it. Also, I kind of had to get over the unrealistic elements of that last match and not eye roll. You know...
Really I'm just being picky over a romance book.
I liked the couple well enough(I do think Thalia read younger than her age at times). I think they had great chemistry. And I loved the setting of Madrid.