7.17k reviews for:

Kulti

Mariana Zapata

4.19 AVERAGE

krystalanddogs's review against another edition

3.0

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My feelings on this one are a bit conflicted. I liked the story more or less, I liked the mcs. There is an age gap, but it's not absurd. I didn't love a lot of the fmcs inner monologue - I think she comes across as young and immature more often not.

That said, I do think if language doesn't bother you much (think....blah, crap, other childish sounding attempts not to swear, and literally saying poop and pee...so much), or if this was rewritten to be a little less jarring (and fixing just 🤏 of the soccer content), this goes to a 4-5 star read easy.  MZ is the queen of slow burn romance, and on that front this doesn't disappoint. The tension, developing friendship, and the games the mcs play are very fun. 

as a women's soccer fan, the bits about the players being underpaid are absolutely true- but this was published in 2015 which was a time when things had seemed well on the up swing- also with a lot of scandals in the last few years (from review time in 2025), the idea of a M/F coach/player relationship did get a bit icky for me even though it doesn't really feel that way to a reader without that baggage. And ignoring that nuanced aspect, a player doesn't think if themselves as scoring a point when they score a goal, and in the final part of the book Sal "gets two yellow cards" which if you've watched soccer more than a couple times or read any basic rules - is a red card and a suspension, but our fmc finishes the game. It's such a minor detail that is easy to get right and in a romance that does so well representing sport most of the time it was very jarring.

fp6645's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny medium-paced

megpg24's review against another edition

3.5

funny hopeful lighthearted 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: Complicated

valenmaduro's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

its_fizzyizzy's review against another edition

4.0

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3.5 stars

hani_b's review against another edition

4.0

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I really enjoyed this!!!
I love the dad, so precious

izzyhagenbuch's review against another edition

5.0

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Mariana Zapata never misses. I was laughing out loud at the creativity of the insults that Sal kept hitting Kulti with. Their banter was amazing, and I loved the soccer element of the book. I will definitely be looking for more soccer romances in the future! I get why people say this is their favorite MZ book. This is one that I could reread over and over again and still enjoy.

green_banana's review against another edition

1.0

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This book was a meeeh. I feel that we didn’t really got to know the Characters and it was a relatively long book. It was slow, which doesn’t need to be bad but this one was just boring. The main characters was just boring, though I actually laugh a few time because she has some good side comments. He (don’t even remember his first name) was just strange. I thought about dnf-ing the book but something still held me to it but naah, I’m not going to recommend this to anyone.

esmemae09's review against another edition

4.0

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4.75 stars

I LOVED IT SO MUCH but I just couldn’t give it a 5 stars and be comparing it to the boys on tommen series, because those are my babies. LOVED THIS BOOK THOOOO!!! ❤️

deuxcherie's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny lighthearted 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

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i don't usually go out of my way to read het romance but oh my goodness the slow burn was so good and paid off so well. will read again.