The Wall of Winnipeg and Me surprised me on many levels and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with Van and Aiden. I understand entirely why people have proclaimed Mariana Zapata the queen of slow-burn romances and I would say arguably this is one her strongest books (having now read three of them following this).

The premise of the book is that Vanessa is the assistant to the towering hulk, and legendary football player, Aiden. Who is grumpy, quiet and brooding and rarely has a nice word to say to her. Except then she decides she wants to quit her job and then entirely unexpectedly Aiden shows up at her house and he makes her an offer she cannot refuse.

The plot line is nowhere near original and I feel like I have seen a hundred different rip offs/spins off in the romance world of this kind of story. However, none of them had the slow-burn and the smolder that Zapata's storyline had. She developed both of her MCs really well, with Aiden and Vanessa growing over the story (and at a hefty 670 pages, there's a lot of growing to do!). I also really enjoyed that Zapata didn't try to institute any really obvious fake drama and everything felt easy and flowing from one chapter to the next as she continued to develop the relationship with Vanessa and Aiden.

Despite this book being over 670 pages, I sat down and read it in basically one sitting and I wasn't able to put it down. This book is not perfect, but it is enjoyable and lots of fun along the way. I would recommend it to any romance fans, any sports-romance fans especially and just anyone looking for a fun contemporary read!