Tag: Mariana Zapata

Review: From Lukov, with Love by Mariana Zapata

Posted February 14, 2019 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: From Lukov, with Love by Mariana ZapataReviewer: Rowena
From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata
Narrator: Callie Dalton, Teddy Hamilton
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: February 1, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible Escape
Point-of-View: First
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 524
Length: 14 hours, 55 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2019 A-Z Reading Challenge, Rowena's 2019 GoodReads Challenge
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four-half-stars

If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one.

After seventeen years—and countless broken bones and broken promises—she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close.

But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she’s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything.

Including Ivan Lukov.

I had a really quiet weekend at home so I listened to a couple of audiobooks and this was the first of them. I have enjoyed pretty much all of the Mariana Zapata books that I’ve read so far and that didn’t change with this one. I adored Ivan Lukov and loved getting to know Jasmine Santos, or as Ivan referred to her, “Meatball”. I really enjoyed their banter back and forth and the way that they bickered with each other over everything under the sun. They had that hate vibe going pretty strong for a good chunk of this book and I was so here for it.

We hear this book through Jasmine’s POV so early on, we are not fans of Ivan Lukov. He’s arrogant and an asshole and he gives not one shit that he pisses Jasmine off. In fact, he seems to enjoy pissing her off. Jasmine and Ivan are professional ice skaters who skate doubles but at the moment, they don’t have partners so when Ivan approaches Jasmine to skate with him for a year, she balks because, hell no. She doesn’t even like this punk ass…but holy cow, Ivan presents an opportunity for Jasmine to go after the dream that has been out of her reach since her last partner left her in the most humiliating way possible. He is giving her a chance to win with him, a decorated Olympian in her corner and even though she doesn’t trust him, she’s in. OMG, she’s in.

A huge chunk of this story is told while Jasmine and Ivan are practicing. They have a lot of work to do in not a lot of time so immediately, they get to work. They practice and practice and practice and when they’re not practicing, they hang out and they become friends. They still bicker back and forth but there isn’t the edge of hate surrounding it so it’s easier for the two of them to be around each other. Jasmine doesn’t have a lot of friends but one of her best friends is Ivan’s sister and while Jasmine’s family knew and loved the sister, they didn’t know Ivan but Ivan becomes more than Jasmine’s partner in the short time that they’ve become partners. He’s become her best friend and what a ride it was, seeing them come full circle with each other.

This was such a fun romance. I thought Mariana Zapata did such a fine job of bringing Jasmine and Ivan together. They came so far with each other and when they finally get together, it was so satisfying and I absolutely loved that their bickering didn’t end when they both realized that they loved each other. They kept right on bickering over every little thing because they could. Because that was their way.

There were times when I thought Jasmine was really stubborn and shouldn’t have been but when all was said and done, I really liked her. I liked her smart mouth and prickly personality. I loved the way that she was with Ivan, with her siblings and with her Mom. My heart hurt for her where things were concerned with her father but I thought Zapata did well in making us understand her way of thinking and I loved that she wanted to be better for her family. Everything that she went through in her life humbled her and I loved that she knew that she was going to get it right this time around when she makes the decision to partner up with Ivan.

Then there was Ivan. swoon I wanted to kick him in the nuts for a good chunk of the beginning of the book but when he wins me over, he completely won me over. Getting to know him was such a treat and seeing him with all of his pets and then seeing him with Jasmine and coming to realize how much Jasmine meant to him? Gah, I was a sucker for all of it. I was a sucker for him. Gah, he was a great hero and this was a great romance. I’m not the biggest fan of professional ice skating but I’ll be watching the next Winter Olympics just so that I can picture Ivan and Jasmine skating around and winning shit.

Mariana Zapata delivers another fabulous contemporary romance featuring two ice skating champs that I really enjoyed. I should also mention that I really loved the narrators for this audiobook. Kudos to Callie Dalton and Teddy Hamilton. I loved that Teddy Hamilton read for the parts of Ivan and that Callie Dalton read for most of the book since the book was in Jasmine’s POV. The entire story flowed so well with the two of them narrating and it made for a very enjoyable reading experience. I definitely recommend this one to everyone.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

four-half-stars


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Review: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Posted May 10, 2016 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana ZapataReviewer: Holly
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: February 19, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 673
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars

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?

Ames and Rowena both recommended this to me. I haven’t been reading much in the the way of NA or contemporary rom lately, but I figured I’d give it a try. It was a cute story, though I felt it could have been about 150 pages shorter.
Vanessa has been professional football player Aiden “The Wall of Winnepeg” Graves’ personal assistant for two years. He isn’t a warm and fuzzy kind of guy, and they aren’t friends, really, but she’s enjoyed her position despite how cold he can be. She likes the challenge and order of it, but her dream is to run her own web design company. She’s been working on building her business on the side and finally feels like she has enough in savings to take the gamble and quit working for Aiden so she can focus on her dream. She’s nervous about telling him, but figures he’ll understand. She’s still kind of hurt when Aiden acts like he doesn’t even care that she’s leaving. Sure, they aren’t best friends, but she’s been with him for two years..a little surprise or sadness on his part would have been nice to see.
She’s willing to give him time to find a replacement until he ends up being downright cruel to her. Then she figures she can walk away and not feel guilty about it. Based on his reaction, she’s beyond surprised when he shows up on her doorstep asking her to come back. He’s no less cold as he was before, but she begins to realize there’s more to him than she thought. When he asks her to marry him, she’s shocked. She isn’t interested at all, until he offers to take care of the one thing she’s been stressing about more than anything: her student loans.
The story was cute and I liked both Vanessa and Aiden for the most part, though there were times I wanted to kill one, the other, or both of them. The story dragged here and there and I really think a good portion of it could have been cut out. Still, I liked the slow progression of the romance and the story. I’ll definitely try more by the author.
three-half-stars


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Review: The Wall of Winnipeg by Mariana Zapata

Posted April 26, 2016 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: The Wall of Winnipeg by Mariana ZapataReviewer: Rowena
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: February 29, 2016
Pages: 473
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars

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

four-stars


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