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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
This book had a promising premise. I like that Zapata tackled women football (I will never call it soccer, I'm from Europe and soccer is a horrible name, so I just can't do it...). As I've said, women football is totally underrated and underappreciated. So I liked that she tried to do that. But she failed. She failed on pretty much every level a book can fail.
1. Pacing:
My Kindle version has 489 pages. That's a lot. However, that in itself is not a problem. The problem is that you could summarize the entire book in maybe 4 sentences and still, it has 489 pages. Literally, for the first 200 pages, NOTHING happens. It's all the same thing over and over. The women train, Kulti is an arrogant, grumpy asshole who barely says two words and Sal keeps putting on her Big Girl Socks. That's it. There's absolutely nothing interesting about the entire story. After you hit about the 50% mark, there is some development but it's slow and boring and endlessly repetitive.
2. Plot:
The plot has, due to the issues with pacing, not much to offer when it comes to the two MCs. Really you can just read the first few encounters and repeat them in your head over and over again and you've got the entire book.
Another problem is her numerous sub plots that don't add any value to the story and are introduced but not dealt with at all.
Why is she supposedly so close with her brother Eric and yet, he NEVER makes an appearance, not even over the phone?
Why the Ceci drama?
Why did Kulti get divorced?
Why did he cover up his tattoo?
What's with the Eric/Kulti "accident"?
What's up with Kulti's DUI?
What's with all the La Culebra drama?
What's up with the Amber and her husband drama?
All these sub plots are touched upon but never developed. It seems, their only purpose is to make Sal look like a vulnerable, perfect, innocent person who's so good to everyone. But really, you'd think that if you have almost 500 pages, you've got time to develop these plots a bit more, right? Wrong! Zapata doesn't do it because apparently, it's much more important that we read in all detail how Sal drives Kulti home for a 347th time without talking....
3. The characters:
This is where Zapata really really failed in my opinion. Sal is pictured as almost a saint. She's so perfect. She's the best player ever, she's the kindest person ever, she's so helpful, she's so fun, she's so nice..... It's painful how much 'mary-sueing' is going on here. What annoyed me most though was her constantly talking about how she's not vain or superficial while being exactly that. There are so many times she feels the need to let the reader know that she doesn't wear make-up, or doesn't care what her hair looks like, only to spend the next 3 pages on a monolog about her body.... And how many times do you need to tell the reader that she's got freckles???? Seriously...
I also found her slut-shaming to be absolutely ridiculous. She has exactly 2 female friends. And all the rest are mean, gossiping, backstabbing sluts. She judges Kulti's ex-girlfriends as hookers, blames other girls for something she has no evidence of and acts like a righteous, hypocritical bitch, all the while insissting she's so freaking pure. She's also not particularly funny and her 'nicknames' for Kulti are downright embarrassing.
Kulti is no better than Sal as far as characterization goes. He's a very two-dimensional character who is neither memorable nor particularly special. Zapata doesn't really help his case by only using repetitive descriptions and actions. He's grumpy. He's arrogant. He's moody. Sometimes he does something nice. He's 6'2''. Because that's really important. I lost count how many times I had to read it. And he has green-brown eyes that twitch every now and then.... That's it.
4. Bad research:
This is the part that I think annoyed me the most about this book. It's like Zapata just had an idea she wanted to write but didn't actually bother to make sure anything is accurate. Her constant need to add Spanish to the mix was annyoing, especially because even after just writing "Si", she had to point out that whoever said that just spoke Spanish. Also, her Spanish ins't really good. I'm no native speaker but even I thought that Spanish was bad. Considering she's from Texas and with a surname like hers surely knows someone who speaks Spanish, I would have expected better.
But it's her "German" that's insulting, and here I have every right to say that because I'm a native German speaker. First of all, capitalization rules are different in German than they are in English. Every noun is capitalized. Yep, every noun. Meaning that she misspelled pretty much EVERY word in her novel. It's not "Gute nacht" but "Gute Nacht", it's not "schnecke" but "Schnecke". Sure, that may seem like a minor thing, but it's also a minor thing to look up. Besides, if there was a novel in English that consistently spelled "american" instead of "American" people would be pissed too. Additionally, capitalization is really important because it could, theoretically change the entire meaning of a sentence: "Gut zu Vögeln sein" means being good to birds. "Gut zu vögeln sein" means being good in bed. See why capitalization is important in German?! Again, in the age of technology, online dictionaries and what not, it's not too much to ask to get the spelling right...
Apart from that Kulti's nickname "Schnecke" was ridiculous. Zapata wants us to believe that it's a term of endearment. Well, it's not. I'd say the aptest translation would be chick. It's not quite a derogative term, but it's certainly no endearment. So in German, you'd use Schnecke, like you'd say "That chick over there", for example. Again, do you research before you publish a book!!
While we're on the issue of German, I hated Kulti's name. Both of them. I have never seen "Reiner" spelt that way. I looked it up and turns out it does exist, but the usual, normal version of this name is "Rainer" or "Rainier" if you're going for a French touch. Reiner as it is actually means "cleaner" in German.... And don't even get me started on Kulti. What a ridiculous name. I looked that up too and it's really really not a German name. Interestingly enough, there is a map that shows the distribution of that surname and rank 1 is the USA, specifically, Texas. In the day of Google, it's not that hard to go online and look up German surnames.
Also on the topic of research is Zapata's complete lack of knowledge when it comes to football:
So first of all, women's football is underrated. That's a sad fact. Would a club get temporary attention for hiring a football legend? Sure. Would there be photographers waiting before EVERY training and interviewing players of that club for ten minutes or more EVERY DAY? No. Absolutely not. It's unrealistic. While we're on the topic of unrealistic: what's up with the Altus Cup? Is that a thing in the US because I've never heard of it. Why not at least stick to things that actually exist, like the World Cup, the Champions League, etc? And the FC Berlin does not exist. Again, only a detail, but it bugged me.
I also wish Zapata would have looked up that you call it a football CLUB, not a TEAM. It's a national TEAM, but a football club. What do you think the FC stands for????
And while you're looking up how to call your imaginary football CLUB, you might also learn about the rules of football. You cannot get 2 yellow card in one game. The second yellow card, is a red card and means you're out of the game and even blocked for the next one.
Also, you can't just switch national teams. Even if you're an American playing in Europe, you will only be eligible to play on the American national team. why? because it's about NATIONALITY and not residency. Ronaldo played for Manchester and Real Madrid but he was never on the national team of England or Spain. Why? Because he's Portugiese. So he's always played for Portugal.
Really, there is just so much that annoyed me about this book. This book needed an editor to cut out all the unhelpful sub plots. It needed a fact checker to get all the facts straight and it needed a lot more emotion and action that was not repetitive. I honestly don't get how this book has such a high rating on here and I don't recommend it to anybody.
1. Pacing:
My Kindle version has 489 pages. That's a lot. However, that in itself is not a problem. The problem is that you could summarize the entire book in maybe 4 sentences and still, it has 489 pages. Literally, for the first 200 pages, NOTHING happens. It's all the same thing over and over. The women train, Kulti is an arrogant, grumpy asshole who barely says two words and Sal keeps putting on her Big Girl Socks. That's it. There's absolutely nothing interesting about the entire story. After you hit about the 50% mark, there is some development but it's slow and boring and endlessly repetitive.
2. Plot:
The plot has, due to the issues with pacing, not much to offer when it comes to the two MCs. Really you can just read the first few encounters and repeat them in your head over and over again and you've got the entire book.
Another problem is her numerous sub plots that don't add any value to the story and are introduced but not dealt with at all.
Why is she supposedly so close with her brother Eric and yet, he NEVER makes an appearance, not even over the phone?
Why the Ceci drama?
Why did Kulti get divorced?
Why did he cover up his tattoo?
What's with the Eric/Kulti "accident"?
What's up with Kulti's DUI?
What's with all the La Culebra drama?
What's up with the Amber and her husband drama?
All these sub plots are touched upon but never developed. It seems, their only purpose is to make Sal look like a vulnerable, perfect, innocent person who's so good to everyone. But really, you'd think that if you have almost 500 pages, you've got time to develop these plots a bit more, right? Wrong! Zapata doesn't do it because apparently, it's much more important that we read in all detail how Sal drives Kulti home for a 347th time without talking....
3. The characters:
This is where Zapata really really failed in my opinion. Sal is pictured as almost a saint. She's so perfect. She's the best player ever, she's the kindest person ever, she's so helpful, she's so fun, she's so nice..... It's painful how much 'mary-sueing' is going on here. What annoyed me most though was her constantly talking about how she's not vain or superficial while being exactly that. There are so many times she feels the need to let the reader know that she doesn't wear make-up, or doesn't care what her hair looks like, only to spend the next 3 pages on a monolog about her body.... And how many times do you need to tell the reader that she's got freckles???? Seriously...
I also found her slut-shaming to be absolutely ridiculous. She has exactly 2 female friends. And all the rest are mean, gossiping, backstabbing sluts. She judges Kulti's ex-girlfriends as hookers, blames other girls for something she has no evidence of and acts like a righteous, hypocritical bitch, all the while insissting she's so freaking pure. She's also not particularly funny and her 'nicknames' for Kulti are downright embarrassing.
Kulti is no better than Sal as far as characterization goes. He's a very two-dimensional character who is neither memorable nor particularly special. Zapata doesn't really help his case by only using repetitive descriptions and actions. He's grumpy. He's arrogant. He's moody. Sometimes he does something nice. He's 6'2''. Because that's really important. I lost count how many times I had to read it. And he has green-brown eyes that twitch every now and then.... That's it.
4. Bad research:
This is the part that I think annoyed me the most about this book. It's like Zapata just had an idea she wanted to write but didn't actually bother to make sure anything is accurate. Her constant need to add Spanish to the mix was annyoing, especially because even after just writing "Si", she had to point out that whoever said that just spoke Spanish. Also, her Spanish ins't really good. I'm no native speaker but even I thought that Spanish was bad. Considering she's from Texas and with a surname like hers surely knows someone who speaks Spanish, I would have expected better.
But it's her "German" that's insulting, and here I have every right to say that because I'm a native German speaker. First of all, capitalization rules are different in German than they are in English. Every noun is capitalized. Yep, every noun. Meaning that she misspelled pretty much EVERY word in her novel. It's not "Gute nacht" but "Gute Nacht", it's not "schnecke" but "Schnecke". Sure, that may seem like a minor thing, but it's also a minor thing to look up. Besides, if there was a novel in English that consistently spelled "american" instead of "American" people would be pissed too. Additionally, capitalization is really important because it could, theoretically change the entire meaning of a sentence: "Gut zu Vögeln sein" means being good to birds. "Gut zu vögeln sein" means being good in bed. See why capitalization is important in German?! Again, in the age of technology, online dictionaries and what not, it's not too much to ask to get the spelling right...
Apart from that Kulti's nickname "Schnecke" was ridiculous. Zapata wants us to believe that it's a term of endearment. Well, it's not. I'd say the aptest translation would be chick. It's not quite a derogative term, but it's certainly no endearment. So in German, you'd use Schnecke, like you'd say "That chick over there", for example. Again, do you research before you publish a book!!
While we're on the issue of German, I hated Kulti's name. Both of them. I have never seen "Reiner" spelt that way. I looked it up and turns out it does exist, but the usual, normal version of this name is "Rainer" or "Rainier" if you're going for a French touch. Reiner as it is actually means "cleaner" in German.... And don't even get me started on Kulti. What a ridiculous name. I looked that up too and it's really really not a German name. Interestingly enough, there is a map that shows the distribution of that surname and rank 1 is the USA, specifically, Texas. In the day of Google, it's not that hard to go online and look up German surnames.
Also on the topic of research is Zapata's complete lack of knowledge when it comes to football:
So first of all, women's football is underrated. That's a sad fact. Would a club get temporary attention for hiring a football legend? Sure. Would there be photographers waiting before EVERY training and interviewing players of that club for ten minutes or more EVERY DAY? No. Absolutely not. It's unrealistic. While we're on the topic of unrealistic: what's up with the Altus Cup? Is that a thing in the US because I've never heard of it. Why not at least stick to things that actually exist, like the World Cup, the Champions League, etc? And the FC Berlin does not exist. Again, only a detail, but it bugged me.
I also wish Zapata would have looked up that you call it a football CLUB, not a TEAM. It's a national TEAM, but a football club. What do you think the FC stands for????
And while you're looking up how to call your imaginary football CLUB, you might also learn about the rules of football. You cannot get 2 yellow card in one game. The second yellow card, is a red card and means you're out of the game and even blocked for the next one.
Also, you can't just switch national teams. Even if you're an American playing in Europe, you will only be eligible to play on the American national team. why? because it's about NATIONALITY and not residency. Ronaldo played for Manchester and Real Madrid but he was never on the national team of England or Spain. Why? Because he's Portugiese. So he's always played for Portugal.
Really, there is just so much that annoyed me about this book. This book needed an editor to cut out all the unhelpful sub plots. It needed a fact checker to get all the facts straight and it needed a lot more emotion and action that was not repetitive. I honestly don't get how this book has such a high rating on here and I don't recommend it to anybody.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-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:
Yes
emotional
funny
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
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
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
This was a long time coming, and I really loved it - I just felt like there was a lot unsaid 😭 and more that we needed from the ending and the development of the story. But it had the warmth that all of Mariana Zapata books give me. ⚽️❤️
Happy birthday to me - this book is fucking incredible. I mean omg. I woke up at 6:30am to read this book, cause I was so hooked.
Really sloooow burn. It was cute, but chemistry between mc wasn't as prominent as I hoped it would be.
Ok. This book has my heart. I would let Kulti do very inappropriate things to me and im not sorry about it. This wonderful author is the master of slow burn. The romance, the tension, the friendships are everything in her books.
4/5
✅ Sports Romance ✅ Age gap (27 x 40) ✅ Grumpy Hero ✅ Slow burn ✅ Forbidden romance (coach x player)
I really enjoyed reading this book and here's what I think about this one.
First of all, let me start by saying that I hated Kulti from the beginning. I am not a fan of asshole heroes in the pretense of being a grump. He's not a grump; he's just being a d*ck. If you want a grump hero who isn't an asshole, please read All Rhodes Lead Here. (Okay, I'll shut up about that book now). Back to Kulti, as I was saying, just because you're going through something doesn't mean you can treat people like sh*t.
Second, I like Sal. I thought she was a strong character who knew when to fight and when to hold back. I mean, some things are not really worth getting riled up over because they do not matter. I also love her relationship with her dad. They're not just father and daughter; they're also good friends, conspirators. I thought that was cute.
Later on, Kulti grew on me and I still think he's an asshole but he's Sal's asshole, not mine, so it's fine hahahaha. Overall, I love it because I like how their friendship also started and then eventually turned into being in a relationship, although, Sal was so oblivious, oh my God, it frustrated me LOL.
✅ Sports Romance ✅ Age gap (27 x 40) ✅ Grumpy Hero ✅ Slow burn ✅ Forbidden romance (coach x player)
I really enjoyed reading this book and here's what I think about this one.
First of all, let me start by saying that I hated Kulti from the beginning. I am not a fan of asshole heroes in the pretense of being a grump. He's not a grump; he's just being a d*ck. If you want a grump hero who isn't an asshole, please read All Rhodes Lead Here. (Okay, I'll shut up about that book now). Back to Kulti, as I was saying, just because you're going through something doesn't mean you can treat people like sh*t.
Second, I like Sal. I thought she was a strong character who knew when to fight and when to hold back. I mean, some things are not really worth getting riled up over because they do not matter. I also love her relationship with her dad. They're not just father and daughter; they're also good friends, conspirators. I thought that was cute.
Later on, Kulti grew on me and I still think he's an asshole but he's Sal's asshole, not mine, so it's fine hahahaha. Overall, I love it because I like how their friendship also started and then eventually turned into being in a relationship, although, Sal was so oblivious, oh my God, it frustrated me LOL.