Review: Mariana Zapata is the QUEEN of writing slow burns! I must admit that I was a bit turned off by the beginning of “The Wall of Winnipeg and Me,” because the romance was slow moving, but the pacing grew on me. I was so invested in Aiden and Vanessa’s relationship that I was willing to take whatever Zapata was willing to give me. I cannot even begin to communicate how overjoyed I was the first time Aiden and Vanessa started hugging each other. Yes, I said that right…HUGGING EACH OTHER! 

 

Aiden was like a huge teddy bear. He was so sweet and reserved and I love how Vanessa slowly broke down his walls. They both had difficult pasts but didn’t let those pasts define them. Rather, they accepted and healed each other. I ultimately came to appreciate Zapata’s choice to take her time with Aiden and Vanessa’s relationship development because it was more true to life and made the end all the more satisfying. 

 

Zapata did a great job familiarizing the reader with football and the sport’s terminology. I am not super familiar with the sports romance genre and even sports in general, so I appreciated Zapata’s intentional choice to only tell the story from Vanessa’s point-of-view. Vanessa had a base level understanding of the sport and that understanding was conveyed through her thoughts that made it easy for myself to follow. I know that she has written a couple other sports romance novels, so I am excited to pick those up!