Mariana Zapata

Before he was "Big Texas," he was "Zac the Snack Pack."Bianca Brannen knows time-mostly-heals all wounds. Including those your once loved ones might have unintentionally given you. (Those just take longer.)She thinks she's ready when a call has her walking back into her old friend's life. Or at least as prepared as possible to see the starting quarterback in the National Football Organization. Before the lights, the fans, and the millions, he'd been a skinny kid with a heart of gold. Waltzing out of Zac Travis's life should be easy. Just as easy as he walked out of hers.

Hands Down

Lucy

Julia S

aleksandra

3/5

I am a huge fan of Mariana Zapata's work, but this book, although I read it almost in one sitting, was not my favorite. 

Zac and Bianca were cute and all, but their relationship was more like friendship. Plus him calling her kiddo constantly, like please NO. This book could be a 4 star read if not THAT.

Small spoiler: they were in a friendship when they were younger ( from what I understand, kinda important friendship ), and he couldn’t recognized her when he saw her after a long time. I would probably burst into tears. 

*cough* let’s not forget about fart bombs.

The story in overall was good. I enjoyed the scenes with Zac's teammates, and Trevor in this book was kinda funny and helpful. Also I love that there was a scene with Vanessa and Aiden. 

I love MZ writing style and I will probably read all of her books. I’m happy that I read it as an ebook, one because I can’t see myself reading it for the second time, and two cause the cover is kinda ugly ( I mean his fingers are kinda scary.)

Isabella 

3.25

This is very enjoyable read. I liked the banters, and how they transition from friends to lovers. I wouldn't say it is my favorite MZ book though. I didn't like how Zac calls Bianca 'Kiddo' so I was hoping he would stop, but he didn't. Overall, it's an okay book. Nothing spectacular, but I liked it.

Ana Luiza

Assim que descobri que Mariana Zapata lançou outro livro já logo peguei pra ler. Gosto muito do jeito que ela escreve e do desenvolvimento de relacionamento amoroso que ela faz (ainda estou para achar um autor ou autora que faça romances semelhantes!). O Zac é um dos meus personagens favoritos da Zapata desde Winnipeg, e continuou sendo nesse livro. Gostei bastante da Bianca também, apesar de não ser minha personagem feminina favorita da autora (Vanessa sempre terá meu coração!). O plot dessa história é clichê, como a maioria dos livros da Zapata, mas é escrito de uma maneira única que deixa o leitor preso na história. 
Essa foi uma leitura muito boa pra mim, dei 3 estrelas mas gostei bastante. Acho que o problema é que desde que li The Wall of Winnipeg and Me coloquei expectativas muito altas para os livros da Mariana. Essa história foi simples e bonita, o casal é maravilhoso e eu torci muito por eles. Admito que durante todo o livro eu fiquei esperando pelo momento em que Vanessa e Aiden fossem aparecer hahahha (e valeu a pena <3).
Meu problema com o livro é o problema que tenho com todas as obras da autora. Não gosto do jeito que os personagens são descritos. Se em Winnipeg os músculos do Aiden são descritos 10 vezes por capítulo, em Hands Down os olhos azuis do Zac aparecem 15 vezes por página. Isso é algo que me incomoda muito, não só por ser chato de ler, mas porque o embranquecimento dos personagens acontece a todo o momento. A exaltação de características brancas é constante e Mariana não deixa espaço para o leitor imaginar o personagem de uma maneira diferente.
Acho a autora uma das melhores na construção de romance que já conheci, só espero que ela trabalhe melhor na representação em seus livros.

For ten years Bianca Brannen has stayed away from professional football player, Zac Travis.  Even though they had once been best friends, and to Bianca, something more, they had lost touch and had gone on with their lives.  Bianca not only works at a local gym, but she also has established a cooking show on Watchtube, a youtube clone.  An emergency with Zac's grandfather brings Bianca and Zac together again, but they are both at major crossroads in their lives, muddying an already complicated and painful relationship.  

Hands Down is the first book I've read by Mariana Zapata, and I'm a little disappointed.  The story is enjoyable and the characters, well developed, but Bianca is a bit annoying because she repeatedly explains why she isn't good enough for Zac.  Also, the length of the book is definitely slow burn, but it is so slow and plagued by a lack of conflict and angst, that by the end, it's tough to care anymore about their romance.  Overall, this book did not live up to my expectations, but I will try again with another Mariana Zapata book.

Lynn Braden

For ten years Bianca Brannen has stayed away from professional football player, Zac Travis.  Even though they had once been best friends, and to Bianca, something more, they had lost touch and had gone on with their lives.  Bianca not only works at a local gym, but she also has established a cooking show on Watchtube, a youtube clone.  An emergency with Zac's grandfather brings Bianca and Zac together again, but they are both at major crossroads in their lives, muddying an already complicated and painful relationship.  

Hands Down is the first book I've read by Mariana Zapata, and I'm a little disappointed.  The story is enjoyable and the characters, well developed, but Bianca is a bit annoying because she repeatedly explains why she isn't good enough for Zac.  Also, the length of the book is definitely slow burn, but it is so slow and plagued by a lack of conflict and angst, that by the end, it's tough to care anymore about their romance.  Overall, this book did not live up to my expectations, but I will try again with another Mariana Zapata book.

This is one of the only couples in Mariana Zapata’s selection that I wasn’t crazy about. It just felt weird, I can’t explain it. Maybe the age gap was too big, but I’ve read plenty of age gap romances and didn’t mind them, so maybe it was just the constant “kiddo” nickname? Also the fact that they met when she was a basically a toddler and he was like 11? I don’t know. I also hate when authors write a southern accent (darlin’ literally had me rolling my eyes). I don’t know maybe it was also the fart throwing thing that gave me the ick, but this was a chore to read. Mariana sure could’ve used an editor on this one. Usually I love her long slow burn, but this couple unfortunately just gave me the ick. I even got a free trial of audible to help me get through it. 

Sarah Campbell

It feels very weird to have read the entirety of a 540 page romance novel to come to the conclusion that I don’t think I liked it very much. 

Mariana Zapata’s novels are usually guaranteed to be a comforting read for me. As an author it must be so hard to have your books compared to each other but this one just didn’t deliver the vibes and slow burn in the way I wanted. 

Honestly, to me a lot of it was quite cringey. I love both Bianca and Zac’s relationships with their friends and family. I liked the cameos from other books but overall I just never really connected to the love story. By the time they actually get together I didn’t care anymore, and I really really wanted to care. 

Could be a case of “wrong book for me” but mostly I’m just impressed that I finished. 

Megan BV

It feels very weird to have read the entirety of a 540 page romance novel to come to the conclusion that I don’t think I liked it very much. 

Mariana Zapata’s novels are usually guaranteed to be a comforting read for me. As an author it must be so hard to have your books compared to each other but this one just didn’t deliver the vibes and slow burn in the way I wanted. 

Honestly, to me a lot of it was quite cringey. I love both Bianca and Zac’s relationships with their friends and family. I liked the cameos from other books but overall I just never really connected to the love story. By the time they actually get together I didn’t care anymore, and I really really wanted to care. 

Could be a case of “wrong book for me” but mostly I’m just impressed that I finished. 

It was so nice getting to read Zac story after The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. He was such a lovely character and maybe he is different than other male leads in Mariana’s books like he is not grumpy or rude but he was the best in his own way. It was so nice seeing Vanessa and Aiden too. Jasmine and Ivan made a nice appearance and I love. Love how everything is connected it’s like a big family with thousands of branches. Reading about Bianca and Zac’s friendship was really interesting and so warm. I knew there was no way I wouldn’t like this book before starting, I mean it’s Zac!! and the most amusing thing was: Trevor!!! Trevor actually smiled in this book! I mean I disagree hate him for once and that’s great. 

Samaa

🧸

dnf 39%

im so disappointed this plot started good and then at some point bianca irritated the shit out of me also the writing was kinda off theres sm repetition which was so annoying and ruined the story for me.

bella <3

Jasmine

3.25 Stars

  Lovin’ you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and it’s the easiest thing I’m ever gonna do. I just know it.”

Sadly, I think this might be one of my least favourite MZ books but that being said it was still was enjoyable and I'm not upset I read it. The fact that I read it in two days speaks volumes of how addictive her writing is to me. I will admit while I liked Zac and Bianca it took a while for me to feel their chemistry so a lot of the book was me just hoping to get there because I liked the idea of them. They did get there and had some memorable moments where I was excited to see where it would lead. Maybe I felt that it was laid on too thick them being best friends and Bianca over and over being in love with him but going on and on about he only sees her as a friend. Constant use of nicknames, was a bit too much. I get it they have their own cutesy name for each other and that can be fine in some books even add closer connection to characters but there's just so much you can hear of Peewee in an over 500 page book imo. Though I did kinda like the little and big Texas especially because it lead to a cute scene in the epilogue. Also, some of the sense of humor in this book was not for me so that was also another thing that made this not as fun. 

Shout out to getting to see Van&Aiden and Ivan&Jasmine ahhh I love them and it was so fun having those appearances. I recently reread Wall of Winnipeg and Me and maybe that was a mistake because I've resigned myself to the fact that none of her other books will live up to it (though some are close) and I didn't expect Zac story to either but it just made it more obvious what really worked there and what I was really missing in here. I'm really happy though to read Zac's story I love his character I'm so happy to see him happy and he and Bianca definitely complemented each other. Normally I don't think Mariana Zapata's books need to be short but this one could've easily been a hundred pages shorter seeing as there wasn't too much to the storyline and a lot of repetitiveness. They had been apart for 10 years so it was mostly them building their friendship and Bianca's hesitancy because she didn't want to get hurt again, which was understandable. If you go in don't expect even the usual slow burn because this one is even slower than that

Kasey Montagnat

look I thought this was gonna be a 5 star I was loving the process of the book and everything else and him calling her “peewee” and “kiddo” just didn’t sit well with me it made me feel super uncomfortable and also them always talking about farts in a non funny way just a weird way. I normally love mariana and can’t fault any books this was my last book of hers and ur disappointed me. but overall the plot and the story and slowburn was good :)

Sofia Arcângelo 

If you're looking for a laugh this is the book for you. I had so much fun reading this childhood friends to lovers story. This was my third book by Mariana Zapata and I think this was the longest slow burn I've ever read. I was almost screaming to the characters to get it on already. 😅
Oh! I almost forgot to say that Jasmine and Ivan Lukov make a brief appearance in this book. 😊

Connor 

LOOK. I JUST. I love Mariana Zapata. I love Zac. I loved Bianca basically immediately. I might come back to this and explain more about how lovely this was, but for now I’m just going to leave it at the fact that Zac is the first not-grumpy Zapata hero I can think of, I love friends-to-lovers, I can’t believe this book made me like Trevor, there were two cameos in here and I screamed at both of them, and just. I love Zapata’s books. That’s all I got right now.

Yami🌷

Pero que libro más bonito Zac y Bianca son tan hermosos y amo su relación🥺 amé la pequeña mención de Jasmine e Ivan y encima estaban disfrazados de los Addams😍 también me encantó que salieran Aiden y Vanessa con sus hijos❤️

Cj y Amari los amé mucho me parecieron las personas más buenas del mundo y Trevor me agrado lo cual es sorprendente porque lo deteste en el libro de Vanessa y Aiden. 

En fin disfruté mucho este libro🥺💗

Catarina Freitas

Really really enjoyed this! So much!! Zac and Bianca are so cute i just want what they have. Enemies to lovers is chef’s kiss but you gotta admit a good friends to lovers is also soooo good. Seriously though i want my own Zac Travis, pronto. Please and thank you very much.

“My whole life, I’ve felt like I was missin’ somethin’, tryin’ to find somethin’. I don’t know how to explain it, and now, it feels like I found it, Boog. It was right in front of my damn face all along.”

Turtle lover

this was cute! I read 2 MZ boooks and I did not like it tha much but this is the first book that I liked!! Of course I am willing to read more of her works soon ☺ The story was nice and 'darling' 😎😏 ahihihiihi. it makes me so kilig~ ✨💕 how they are touchy with each other and how their relationship bloomed and how they were so close and aacck~ my heart 💘 

entertainment: ❤❤❤❤❤
plot: ❤❤❤❤
love: ❤❤❤❤
angst: ❤❤❤❤


sadly, after 3 weeks, I had forgotten all about the details in the book. 😞😕

Juliet Sittler

Good but a little too long… also the kiddo nickname felt weird to me when their relationship started to evolve. Idk. Still really liked it tho

está linda la historia, y me gustó mucho la amistad de Bianca y Zac, pero mucho drama innecesario y repetición de cosas que me agotaron, y solo me hicieron desear saltarme todo eso y llegar de una vez al final feliz. ¿Lo mejor de este libro? CJ, los cameos de Ivan y Jasmine, y las apariciones de Vanessa y Aiden con sus hijos.

Inês Filipa

sydney

i didn’t like this book as much as the others but i throughly enjoyed it. also AIDEN AND VANESSA ADOPTED A LITTLE GIRL

lalitha

idk why mz has an obsession with fart jokes especially in romantic scenes but tbh i dig it

catia

Again, Mariana Zapata did it again! It's only my second book of hers but I'm so freaking addictive I will read anything she writes I don't care!! 
Bianca, Bianca Brannen my precious baby, I don't know what I loved more about her, I just know I love her so damn much and she become one of the characters I most relate to, I don't know how to explain but I do, I relate to Bianca so damn much except the part of baking
Zac, Zac Travis a underrated softie who I could die for, he's so damn amazing, I love him ever since I read The Wall of Winnipeg and Me but in here? I end up falling literally in love with him all over again just like Bianca and I'm not sorry!! 
Their story was beautiful, it was heartbreaking, it was everything and I can't recommend their book enough, there's not enough words!!
I will miss them, I will freaking miss them so much. And again, the little details, the little freaking details damn MZ you own me, take all my money thank you.

aaliyah

i love the characters sm but i couldn’t buy into the romance, it didn’t feel real to me.

also he literally called her kiddo the whole time even after they had sex so-

Hands Down

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