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The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
READER RECOMMENDED: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata is a 99c Kindle Daily Deal at Amazon! At a previous RT, SnarkyWench and I gushed about sports contemporaries over some wine for a good twenty minutes, and she highly recommended this book. I immediately added it to my TBR pile because it features a football player and a marriage of convenience plot. The hero (who is Canadian) wants to marry to keep his US residency. Readers loved the slow burn between the hero and heroine, but found it a little too slow. Any Zapata fans in the Bitchery?
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mariana Zapata’s most beloved book, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me—now with new exclusive content!
Vanessa Mazur refuses to feel bad for quitting—she knows she’s doing the right thing. The thankless job of personal assistant to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans for her life, and none of them include washing extra-large underwear one more day for a man who could never find it in him to tell her good morning, congratulate her on a job well done, or wish her a happy birthday—even when she was spending it working for him.
The legendary “Wall of Winnipeg” may be adored by thousands, but after two years Van has had enough.
But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door begging her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. Mr. Walled-Off Emotions is actually letting his guard down for once. And she’s even more dumbstruck when he explains that her job description is about to become even more outrageous: something that takes the “personal” in personal assistant to a whole new level.
What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?
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Wait for It
Wait for It by Molly O’Keefe is $1.99! This is the fourth book in the Everything I Left Unsaid series, though it can be read as a standalone. Also, trigger warning as the heroine has an abusive ex. I also believe the hero is the ex’s brother. I’ve read previous books in the series and if you love angst, whooo boy, you’ll love the entire series. I can’t recommend O’Keefe’s books enough.
In a blistering novel of raw emotion and desire, a tormented woman teaches an alpha male that money can’t fix everything . . . but love can.
Tiffany : After fighting for a new life, I don’t want to play the victim anymore. However, with three kids to raise, I’m getting desperate enough to make a deal with the devil. My estranged brother-in-law, Blake, says he just wants to help, but he’s been trouble since I met him. I don’t know if I can believe this kinder, gentler Blake, and there’s a friction between us that has turned into the sweetest chemistry. He could be my salvation . . . or my downfall.
Blake : I haven’t always had Tiffany’s best interests at heart but I’m ready to make up for my sins. Besides, I can’t help admiring her: The girl’s a genuine survivor, tough and lean, with eyes of steel. But the more I get to know Tiffany, the more I want her. Every inch of her. Which means I’m about to make a bad situation a hell of a lot worse.
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Catching Captain Nash
Catching Captain Nash by Anna Campbell is 99c at Amazon and $1.99 elsewhere! This is the sixth and most recent book in the Dashing Widows series and I love the dress on the cover. You can grab all six books in the series for less than $5 and the first book is free! And if it’s your catnip, this romance has a married couple reconnecting after the captain hero husband was presumed dead.
Home is the sailor, home from the sea…
Five years after he’s lost off the coast of South America, presumed dead, Captain Robert Nash escapes cruel captivity, and returns to London and the bride he loves, but barely knows. When he stumbles back into the family home, he’s appalled to find himself gate-crashing the party celebrating his wife’s engagement to another man.
No red-blooded naval officer takes a challenge like this lying down; but five years is a long time, and beautiful, passionate Morwenna has clearly found a life without him. Can he win back the wife who gave him a reason to survive his ordeal? Or will the woman who haunts his every thought remain eternally out of reach?
Love lost and found? Or love lost forever?
Since hearing of her beloved husband’s death, Morwenna Nash has been mired in grief. After five grim years without him, she must summon every ounce of courage and determination to become a Dashing Widow and rejoin the social whirl. But she owes it to her young daughter to break free of old sorrow and find a new purpose in life, even if that means accepting a loveless marriage.
It’s like a miracle when Robert returns from the grave, and despite the awkward circumstances of his arrival, she’s overjoyed that her husband has come back to her at last. But after years of suffering, he’s not the handsome, laughing charmer she remembers. Instead he’s a grim shadow of his former dashing self. He can’t hide how much he still wants her—but does passion equal love?
Can Morwenna and Robert bridge the chasm of absence, suffering and mistrust, and find the way back to each other?
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A Dangerous Deception
A Dangerous Deception by Maggi Andersen is 99c! This romance has a fake relationship, forced proximity, and a heroine dressed as a man. Hello! Readers loved the heroine and the blend of action in the romance. However, some felt the plot a bit messy at times. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
London, 1816. A handsome baron. A faux betrothal. And Horatia’s plan to join the London literary set takes a dangerous turn.
Baron Guy Fortescue arrives in England to claim his inheritance, abandoned over thirty years ago when his father fled to France after killing a man in a duel. He is set upon by footpads in London, and on his way to his country estate, robbers attack him again. Guy escapes only to knock himself out on a tree branch.
Aspiring poet, Horatia Cavendish has taken to riding her father’s stallion, “The General,” around the countryside of Digswell dressed as a groom. When she discovers Guy lying unconscious on the road, the two are forced to take shelter for the night in a hunting lodge.
Someone wants Guy dead. Is it his relative, Eustace Fennimore? He has been ensconced in Rosecroft Hall during the family’s exile and will become the heir should Guy die. Guy proposes a faux betrothal to give him more time to discover the truth.
Horatia is determined to keep alive her handsome fiance, who has proven more than willing to play the part of her lover even as he resists her attempts to save him.
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Zapata is great, and I liked Wall of Winnipeg. Quiet hero, funny heroine. Some of her other books are hit or miss. Lingus is good, with a couple navigating the hero’s porn star career.
Click…and click…and click again. Thanks, Amanda! (I find it so cool that I can buy a book with two clicks: one to Amazon and another to purchase.)
FYI, all six books in that Anna Campbell series are 150-ish pages.
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me is one of my favorite comfort reads. I am a huge football fan, and a marriage of convenience fan, and the characters just mesh together so well.
Dangerous in Diamonds by Madeline Hunter is $1.99 on Amazon Kindle
Once again, I’m struck by how different our reading tastes can be. I tried The Wall of Winnipeg and Me after hearing the raves about this author, but unfortunately, it did not go well for me. Slow burn is not an exaggeration. I don’t think the hero and heroine even talked to each other beyond one sentence questions and answers until about 50% into the book and they don’t kiss until about 75% in LOL. I kept hoping she’d forget the hero and instead get together with his roommate who was a nicer guy and who actually held conversations with her instead of just grunting at her occasionally.
I loved The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. I like grunty, inarticulate heroes as long as their actions reveal their inner selves to some degree. I’m all about the slow burn as well. I guess everyone assesses chemistry differently. I also love Kulti which focuses on woman’s soccer, has a female narrator, and a serious asshat as a hero. Still, I succumbed. I think she’s one of the first authors to turn me on to sports romances.
Her other work ranges from B to D to DNF for me. I think that’s a tribute to the author because she does seem to be able to create very different characters to inhabit her fiction and that’s a gift.
@PamG: I DNFed Lingus. I enjoyed the porn star hero, but the heroine had the characterization of “only I can be sexually liberated.” Why is it okay for her to attend a porn convention and fangirl over stars, but other women who do it are skanks/bitches?
Mariana Zapata is one of the best authors I’ve discovered in the last few years. I’ve read The Wall of Winnipeg and Kulti at least 5 times each. She writes amazing enemies-to-friends-to-lovers stories. And I’d highly recommend these two books to anyone.
Add me to someone who could not get into the Wall of Winnipeg and Me. Slow with a hero who didn’t interest me. I’ve realized I have a hard time with a romance that is told only from the heroine’s pov when the hero is grumpy and/or distant. I had the same problem with (gasp!) The Hating Game.
It’s a very strange quirk because I devoured gothics when I was younger and those are almost always super mean heroes from the heroine pov. But I think those felt more removed from my life. If I’m reading “Romance with a capital R”I want some hero POV, especially if the guy is being a jerk.
I read Wall of Winnepeg last year on the front porch of my vacation cabin in the early morning while the rest of my group snoozed and I was on Graham McTavish watch. I was engaged enough that the man could’ve gotten into his hot tub nekkid and I wouldn’t have notice, but in the end, I was a little unsatisfied because there was so much more about Aiden I wanted to know.
Wait For It on the other hand? That was a look up from the book, realize the sun is on the other side of the horizon and that you are simultaneously dying of thirst and needing to pee in the worst possible way kind of a read. The whole series is fantastic. No one writes a good redemption/forgiveness/second chances story like Molly O’Keefe. I could squee about her all day long.
Love Mariana Zapata! I discovered her through kindle unlimited and have read all of her books. I just re-read Rythym, Chord and Malychin. Excellent friends to lovers plot. The titles of her books are kind of odd but memorable.
I didn’t hat The Wall of Winnepeg and Me and I appreciate the slow burn but the hero was inexplicably an asshole several times and it was never really addressed. He didn’t really apologize or explain or anything. Sure, he’s the quiet type with a sad past but I need more emotional connection.
I literally don’t care if the captain nash book turns out to be about a herbicide comparison because the cover is so pretty! Gorgeous dresses are my catnip. I refuse to part with my paperbacks of the Luxe series despite having the ebooks because the covers are lush and stunning.
@Amanda
I enjoyed Wait for It and Lingus (the book, the book) but if I’m honest, I can’t remember the main characters names any more at least in the latter. I liked the way Wait for It pulled together my two faves other faves. However, I disliked Under Locke (unbalanced relationship between protagonists)and DNFed Rhythm, Chord and Malykhin (somewhat immature protagonists).
Usually I read an author till I glutted and reread my major faves. Not so much Zapata though–such peaks and valleys. I think we need a word for anti-catnip and maybe a post inviting romance readers’ turn-offs with letters and arrows and examples
@PamG I tried to get “spray bottle” going as the anti-catnip but it never caught on
I loved The Wall of Winnepeg and have reread it several times. I was also training for a marathon when I read it the first time, and I’ve never read a romance with that as part of the plot before. I did like her Wait for It better though, because I felt like the slow burn made more sense and just their romance was SO intense and sweet gahhhh I love that book. Now her newest Dear Aaron was just meh for me. The heroine was just so insecure, I got tired of being in her head.
There is a omnibus of the first three of Marie Force’s fatal series that is currently free.
I am also a lover of Winnie, but I can understand why it isn’t for everyone. I LOVE the slow burn, after so many stories where they hate each other but are okay sleeping together etc etc (which I have no problem with, I’ve just read so much of it!) so it’s a nice change of pace.
Thank goodness for these on-sale lists. This is how I find out I’ve purchased something that is languishing (meaning, reclining on a chaise lounge with a case of the vapors) in my TBR pile. My mid-July resolution is to read more, accumulate less.
Maroana Zapata, my mixed feelings for you are so frustrating! Wall of Winnipeg and Kulti are MAGNIFICENT and frequent rereads, Dear Aaron was a single night read (but not quite as enjoyable as the first two but I looooove a good epistolary), Wait For It, I am still trying to slog through from January. I DNFed Lingus, as previous posters mentioned, the casual misogyny and namecalling of all the other women in the story was such a turn off. (So different from the awesome lady dynamics amongst several of the teammates in Kulti. There were believable and 3D female antagonists there. I think Lingus was written much earlier, though, and you can tell.)
I do really enjoy the Texas settings, having lived in Houston and now in the DFW area and I love a great broody hero. When she nails a story, she really nails it, but when they’re not great, she also nails it.
Is the guy on the Wait For It cover holding his jaw on? Did it fall off?
As someone who lives in Winnipeg (it’s a real place, I swear!), I pretty much have to buy this. I’m glad to read these reviews that it’s actually not a bad book. Thanks!
Wait … are we talking about two different books called Wait For It, one by O’Keefe and one by Zapata?
For those of you who said they liked WFI, which ones were you talking about? I enjoyed both Kulti and Wall of Winnipeg as easy, sweet/clean slow-burn reads, but like others here I found the rest of Zapata’s stuff wildly uneven. Is her version of Wait for It worth the $5 price tag?
(Whoops sorry about the misplaced close-emphasis tag)
I liked Wait for It better than The Wall of Winnipeg. Winnipeg was good but modern ‘must marry’ books seem too outrageous for me. You can borrow WFI from Kindle Lending Library, that’s what I did. I’m hoping it goes on sale too because I’d definitely pick it up if it were a little less.
@Alison – Yup. There is a Zapata book titled Wait For It and an O’Keefe book with the same title. I enjoy both authors AND enjoyed both books. They are not for everyone though. 🙂
The Wall of Winnipeg was okay for me – I got really into it at first but it didn’t go where I wanted it (VERY slow burn) and the narrator refers to him as the “the Wall of Winnipeg” all the time instead of by name and not as a nickname or anything and that got so annoying it would throw me out of the story.
@Alison, I think Zapata’s Wait For It is probably her best written book to date. It’s really good, IMO, though “Winnipeg” is still my fav of her books.
The thing with Zapata is that I think you have to approach her books as more on the border of romance & “chick lit.” (I hate that term & most books in that genre, but go with me here…) The romance is definitely there and the main attraction, but because they are such slow burns and have a lot going on with the heroine’s friends & families, it doesn’t have the same relentless focus on the central couple that you find in most romances.
If you like friends to lovers and are OK with the romance kicking into high gear around the 50% mark, “Winnipeg” is THE place to start with Zapata, IMO, and for this price, I advise a one click! 🙂
Zapata is hit or miss for me too. Loved Wall of Winnipeg & Wait For It. Hated Kulti & Lingus (Kulti’s hero is a serious a$$hole, as someone mentioned above, & Lingus the heroine annoyed the crap out me). DNF Dear Aaron. But if you like slow burn romances (and I mean sloooow), try Winnipeg. There are reasons why the H&h do not jump into bed immediately, and they make logical & emotional sense. And the ratching up of the tension is palpable between H&h as the story progresses. I have some issues with the end of the book, but it’s a good read especially at this price.
Yeah, I’ve gotten really into Mariana Zapata recently, and while I love a lot of her books (Winnipeg, Wait for It, Kulti, and Dear Aaron especially!) I DNF Lingus, and couldn’t get into Rhythm, Chord, and Malykhim.
But at the same time, I can’t help but appreciate her as an author, because she writes such different books. It’s both fun and frustrating – I have no idea what I’m going to get when going into a new book of hers, and they can be very unexpected. While I like being able to find an author I consistently love, and binge on everything they’ve every written, it’s also interesting to find someone whose style is so varied.
Ok somewhat off topic but there’s another MARA and I totally agree with her. I’ve only met one other Mara in my life. So that’s cool.
Zapata’s Wait For It is my fave of hers. I think I’ve read so many books lately that are saturated with unnecessary sex scenes. It’s like they’re using sex to advance and develop the relationship but I want to see conversation and friendship and actual personality development. Characters are saying “I love you” and I’m thinking “why? Do you even know this person?” but WFI is all about developing that deep love and respect and just understanding of who the other person is. I LOVE Diana. I really just love the whole thing. Read it!!!
Zapata is hit or miss for me but I’ll one-click her books anyway. Her Wait for It is great. Winnipeg wasn’t my favorite, and the other ones people have mentioned as weaker I agree with as well, but Kulti and especially Wait for It I really love.
Just glommed Winnipeg and kulti,I love slow burn/friends to lovers where it’s not unrequited love to lovers, and these fit the bill. Great characterization, and I loved how driven and mature the heroines were. Heroes were definitely the strong and silent (or grunty) type but I actually didn’t think they crossed into alphahole territory, and I normally have a low threshold for that. I don’t think I’m picking up her other books except maybe wait for it, because the blurbs sound like my anti-catnip, as someone said above