Reviewer: Rowena The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: February 29, 2016
Pages: 473
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Vanessa Mazur knows she's doing the right thing. She shouldn't feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.
But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked.
For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable.
What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?
I’ve been seeing this book everywhere on Facebook but also on Goodreads and everyone loved it so of course I wanted to check it out for myself.
Vanessa is done being the personal assistant to the Wall of Winnipeg aka Aiden Graves. For the last two years, she’s saved every penny she made working for Aiden but while he’s a good paying boss, he is completely cold in every other regard. She is done being ignored, she is done being the bad guy delivering bad news on his behalf. She is just over the whole working for a celebrity thing. She hates the other people that work for Aiden and she’s got her own dreams of owning her own graphic design business and she’s finally got the money to start it up so it’s time to say goodbye to Aiden and being his employee.
This was a fun read. Aiden and Vanessa are so different from each other. He’s hard, cold and a freaking machine but she’s a lot more laid back and fun to be around. She’s not a pushover and I liked that. I liked that even when she got so rip roaring pissed off at Aiden, she stuck by him and was loyal to him. I liked that she got back at him for making her do stupid things by flipping him off when she thinks he’s not looking and I absolutely adored that he saw her do it every single time.
The first time that Aiden shows up at Vanessa’s apartment and gets all pissed off that she lives there, I loved him. I laughed at how pissed off he was, that he thought he didn’t pay her enough that she had to live in that piece of crap place. I loved how doggedly determined he was that they go through with their plan. I loved that once he was all in, he was all in and really, I just really enjoyed Aiden. Sure, there were times when I wanted to punch his lights out (or die trying because whoa, he was a big, solid man) but in the end, I absolutely adored him. When they go to Vanessa’s younger brother’s basketball game and come across Vanessa’s bitchy sister and her husband? I about swooned into a puddle of love, I loved him so much.
Vanessa was a fun character. I loved that she was so completely normal but still so interesting. She was hard headed at times but I liked that because it kept her from being one of those cookie cutter perfect heroines. I liked seeing her overcome the crappy family hand that she was dealt. I loved seeing her try to fit herself into Aiden’s world without losing who she was at her core. I adored the person that she was. She had Aiden’s back through and through and he was super lucky to have her. Aiden may have been the one with all of the money and the big house and the amazing cars, but he was the lucky one because he had Vanessa.
This was a fun book. I enjoyed every little thing except the part where the book never freaking ended. There were times when I thought the story should have ended or even could have ended and still been a solid read but the book just kept going. Still, I enjoyed Aiden. I enjoyed Vanessa. I enjoyed the secondary characters and I enjoyed the book as a whole. Good stuff.
Grade: 4 out of 5
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