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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
Love love love
I love her style of writing, you get to fall in love with the characters before they really fall I love with each other! You’re always routing for the best.
I love her style of writing, you get to fall in love with the characters before they really fall I love with each other! You’re always routing for the best.
2.5 stars
This has been the year of romance for me. Up until 2018, I'd sworn off the genre, for no particular reason other than I thought it was too silly for me.
Yes, I was stupid. I've seen the light now.
When I started binging adult contemporary romance in january this year, Mariana Zapata's name as an author that readers recommended came up a lot. Wait for It was a title that I'd never heard of, and only read because I thought I was getting [b: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me|29367958|The Wall of Winnipeg and Me|Mariana Zapata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456774327l/29367958._SY75_.jpg|48358625] instead. When I realized I'd gotten the wrong book, I thought "eh, whatever, I just want to read something by her." Maybe this was the wrong book for me to start with.
The story is about Diana, a 29 year old woman who's responsible for taking care of her two young nephews, Josh and Louie, after her brother has passed away. They've just moved to a new house in a family-safe neighborhood and, on their first night in their new place, a fight breaks out at the house across the street. Diana intervenes, takes the assaulted man to his place, and while she's there, meets his brother - a six foot sculpted former navy man with tattoos around his arms and a face she'd die for.
That turns out to be Dallas.
Through a series of events, we see Diana and Dallas getting to know each other and each other's family, and the relationship between them developing, yadda yadda yadda. It's a romance, y'all know what you're going to get before you even crack the book open. That's not what I had trouble with, actually; I really enjoyed the slow-burn romance we're introduced here, seeing them both test their dynamics and play house a little before actually getting together. They were sweet. Diana is a fiery character and Dallas is the most steadfast and helpful male character I've ever read about. It was nice to read a story that revolved entirely about two grown-ups who had responsibilities and were actual functioning adults (even if Diana feels lost sometimes about to actually be that functioning adult because, girl, same).
What I didn't like - and what made me lower my rating from what would originally be an easy 4 stars - was the jealousy and possessiveness that went unquestioned and unchallenged through the book. Diana is, in her own words, "a crazy bitch". Apparently, being "a crazy bitch" means that whenever she thinks about her dream man being with other women before her, she wants to kill them. Or she calls them sluts, or bitches, or whatever. Or she just wants to lightly kick their asses. And that's taken as a form of endearment, a way for her to show her man how much she loves him.
Uh, no. I'm not down with that.
Dallas, too, does some similar things, although not to such an explicit extent. Whenever Diana is talking with another man, he gets in the way; when she goes to a bar with her girlfriend and simply talks to the older men sitting next to them, he gets pissed because she's drinking and talking to strangers (she's 30 years old oh my God let the woman LIVE), and that's all before he's even told her he likes her. Soooo... yeah. The most supposedly romantic moments of the book where shrouded in this kind of demonstration of affection, and I found myself frowning more than swooning a lot.
For a romance novel, this one is really long - almost 700 pages, crowning it as the longest book I've read (so far) this year - and I enjoyed that because Mariana Zapata writes in a way that is not repetitive, as it can easily get with long contemporary novels, but that allows us to really get to know the characters. However, for such a long book, we only get to see Diana and Dallas' dynamic as an actual couple for the last two chapters, and even then, it was only in brief moments. For a novel that spent SO MUCH TIME building up to not actually deliver on that... it was quite a big let down.
This is far from being my favorite romance of the year, and as I finished it, I found myself lacking something. It didn't deliver on what I thought it would - I didn't find it as romantic as I wished, or as sad (because there's quite a lot of tragic backstories) as I thought I would. I am still going through with reading Zapata's backlist, because I've seen people praising her often enough that I think she merits more chances. However, this is not a book I'd actually recommend.
This has been the year of romance for me. Up until 2018, I'd sworn off the genre, for no particular reason other than I thought it was too silly for me.
Yes, I was stupid. I've seen the light now.
When I started binging adult contemporary romance in january this year, Mariana Zapata's name as an author that readers recommended came up a lot. Wait for It was a title that I'd never heard of, and only read because I thought I was getting [b: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me|29367958|The Wall of Winnipeg and Me|Mariana Zapata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456774327l/29367958._SY75_.jpg|48358625] instead. When I realized I'd gotten the wrong book, I thought "eh, whatever, I just want to read something by her." Maybe this was the wrong book for me to start with.
The story is about Diana, a 29 year old woman who's responsible for taking care of her two young nephews, Josh and Louie, after her brother has passed away. They've just moved to a new house in a family-safe neighborhood and, on their first night in their new place, a fight breaks out at the house across the street. Diana intervenes, takes the assaulted man to his place, and while she's there, meets his brother - a six foot sculpted former navy man with tattoos around his arms and a face she'd die for.
That turns out to be Dallas.
Through a series of events, we see Diana and Dallas getting to know each other and each other's family, and the relationship between them developing, yadda yadda yadda. It's a romance, y'all know what you're going to get before you even crack the book open. That's not what I had trouble with, actually; I really enjoyed the slow-burn romance we're introduced here, seeing them both test their dynamics and play house a little before actually getting together. They were sweet. Diana is a fiery character and Dallas is the most steadfast and helpful male character I've ever read about. It was nice to read a story that revolved entirely about two grown-ups who had responsibilities and were actual functioning adults (even if Diana feels lost sometimes about to actually be that functioning adult because, girl, same).
What I didn't like - and what made me lower my rating from what would originally be an easy 4 stars - was the jealousy and possessiveness that went unquestioned and unchallenged through the book. Diana is, in her own words, "a crazy bitch". Apparently, being "a crazy bitch" means that whenever she thinks about her dream man being with other women before her, she wants to kill them. Or she calls them sluts, or bitches, or whatever. Or she just wants to lightly kick their asses. And that's taken as a form of endearment, a way for her to show her man how much she loves him.
Uh, no. I'm not down with that.
Dallas, too, does some similar things, although not to such an explicit extent. Whenever Diana is talking with another man, he gets in the way; when she goes to a bar with her girlfriend and simply talks to the older men sitting next to them, he gets pissed because she's drinking and talking to strangers (she's 30 years old oh my God let the woman LIVE), and that's all before he's even told her he likes her. Soooo... yeah. The most supposedly romantic moments of the book where shrouded in this kind of demonstration of affection, and I found myself frowning more than swooning a lot.
For a romance novel, this one is really long - almost 700 pages, crowning it as the longest book I've read (so far) this year - and I enjoyed that because Mariana Zapata writes in a way that is not repetitive, as it can easily get with long contemporary novels, but that allows us to really get to know the characters. However, for such a long book, we only get to see Diana and Dallas' dynamic as an actual couple for the last two chapters, and even then, it was only in brief moments. For a novel that spent SO MUCH TIME building up to not actually deliver on that... it was quite a big let down.
This is far from being my favorite romance of the year, and as I finished it, I found myself lacking something. It didn't deliver on what I thought it would - I didn't find it as romantic as I wished, or as sad (because there's quite a lot of tragic backstories) as I thought I would. I am still going through with reading Zapata's backlist, because I've seen people praising her often enough that I think she merits more chances. However, this is not a book I'd actually recommend.
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
emotional
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No