Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.

“You wanna go out to eat? I’ll take you. You wanna go out and get a Sprite? Tell me. You want to watch a fucking movie? I’ll take you to the goddamn movies. If you want to go to beat the shit out of your cousin again, I’ll fucking take you. You want to meet someone to be your best friend and your fucking partner? I’m right fucking here, baby girl.”

The thought or picking a favorite Mariana Zapata book gives me hives, so I won’t. I have read and listened to this one a borderline embarassing amount of times. I’m just such a sucker for proper grumpy/sunshine, and this one does it so well. Ripley stays just as grumpy throughout, and he’s a bit of a dickhead sometimes, but there’s just something about his protectiveness that does it for me. He might not say anything of the sort, but he’ll show you how he feels with his actions. You know, when he’s not being mean, lol.

“If I want to come get you, I’m gonna come get you. Deal with it,” he stated, or more like told me. “You wanna stop at that donut place you like or what?”

I mean, how can you resist this guy? Lol

Luna is the biggest sweetheart. I suppose there’s a bit of ‘not like other girls’ vibe, and she really isn’t, but she isn’t secretly just a mean girl like many of those characters can be, either. She’s kind, protective of her family, loves her friends, and very lonely. I love how she tries to be positive and kind to everyone, no matter what, just to give herself peace, but she’ll also stand up for herself.

There’s just something about it that works so well for me.

But this was my curse—to love and care for people who didn’t love or care for me back. At least not the way I wanted them to.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & content tags ⚠️
Boss/employee
Slow burn
Grumpy/sunshine
Past trauma
Found family
Former biker
Work problems
Family problems
Age gap
Tattooed MC
Long-term crush
Hurt/comfort
She falls first, he falls harder

⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Physical assault of MC (on page, by estranged family member)
Car accident (on page, no injury)
Mentions of past car accident (death of parent, off page)
Explicit sexual content
Alcohol consumption
Off-page death of grandmother
On-page funeral
Mentions of drug and alcohol addicted parents
Details of past child neglect and abuse
Mentions of MC’s sibling being cheated on (past)
Mentions of past gun violence (MC threatened by family)
Home break-in and destruction of property
Brief mention of MC’s parent dying in childbirth (past, off page)
On-page heart attack (important SC)
Children in epilogue

⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
Other person drama: FMC goes on dates with several men throughout the book, before anything happens with the MMC. Nothing ever happens with these dates. They don’t go well. Low angst, no jealousy.
Breakup: No
POV: 1st person, single
Genre: Contemporary romance
Pairing: M/F
Strict roles or versatile: N/A
Main characters’ age: 26 and 42
Series: Standalone
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Pages: 580
Happy ending: Yes


“You kill me, girl,” he murmured in the roughest voice I’d ever heard. “I swear to God, you’re a fucking puzzle I thought was all in the box, but every damn day I find a piece or two hidden all over the place.”



You can find most of my reviews on Instagram as well: https://www.instagram.com/booksafety?igsh=MWZ3azhkdDc2Y2ludg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr