Mariana Zapata

Vanessa Mazur knows she's doing the right thing. She shouldn't feel bad for quitting. being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plants and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary. But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked. For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't even find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable. What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants? 

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Hulaan mo :> 

I mouthed, “I deserve better, asshole,” making sure he read my lips as I did it. Then I raised my middle finger up at him and waved good-bye with it.

I wasn’t going to cry over Aiden. I didn’t cry over people who didn’t deserve my tears, and Aiden—especially not fucking Aiden—wouldn’t be the person to break me. Not now, not ever.

“I don’t want someone new. I want you.”

“You don’t have a few minutes for me?”

taci

Aiden costumava preferir magoar as pessoas ao falar a verdade em vez de recorrer à mentira.

Sophia

I didn’t think he really appreciated the amount of patience I had exercised when dealing with him for the last two years. Someone else would have already stabbed him in his sleep for sure. At least, when I went through plans for how I’d do it, it was usually in a painless way.

One day long after I quit, so no one would suspect me.

Vicky embling

"That's my girl. That's my fucking girl." 

"The only people in the world who can hurt you are those you let have that ability

Jordyn Wright

I don’t know anything about relationships, Van, but I know I love you. I know I’ve waited my entire life to love you, and I’ll do whatever I have to, to make this work.

I just flew four hours to get here. Who else would I be here for?

You don’t ever have to worry about me not wanting you somewhere. Got it?

Trust me, Van. Tell me. I won’t let you down.

Home is where you are. I would go anywhere for you if you wanted me to be there.

If someone messes with you, they’re going to mess with me, Van. I don’t want to hurt your feelings. I might not be good with this friend crap, but I’m not about to let somebody get away with hurting you. Ever. Do you understand me?

Touch my wife again, and I’ll break every bone in your goddamn body.

How about you hold you horses. He’s napping. I’m not going to wake him up, buddy. If you have a message, pass it along. If you don’t have a message, I’ll make sure to tell him you called.

Swati Raisinghani

Like football and art, like anything that anyone in the world has ever wanted, love was a dream. And just like a dream, there were no assurances behind it. It didn't grow on its own. It didn't blossom without food to feed it.

   It was the strongest in its selflessness.

And it could be forever with someone who wasn't afraid to never give up on the possibilities it presents.

Home is where you are. i would go anywhere for you if you wanted me to be there.

Zoe Wilson

should be proud of her for being true to herself." Ivan paused and then said three words that slayed me. "I would be."

"What are you supposed to be?" Was he serious? I looked down at my costume, thinking Id done a pretty good job putting it together three years ago when I'd last worn it to a friend's party. The The overalls, the yellow shirt, the one-eyed goggle pressing into my forehead. It was obvious. "A minion." goggle The Wall of Winnipeg blinked. “What the hell is a "A minion. Despicable Me." I blinked when he minion?" stayed silent. “Nothing?"

He looked at me. His blink was so delayed, I started thinking maybe I'd imagined it. "I figured it was too soon to call you Dinner Roll."

María | @AltroReader

I’m kinda sad that there is no dual pov in this book. I really wanted to see the MMC’s POV.. 

Reread 2025: this time I give this book a 3,75⭐️ I still liked this book but I found it a little bit boring at some times. I think this might be because I’ve alreadt read the book before. I still like the story but it was a bit to slow burn for me this time around. I also didn’t really feel the connection as much between the characters  

Emma Kamer

✨What no one tells you is that the road to accomplishing your goals isn’t a straight line; it looks more like a corn maze. You stopped, you went, you backed up, and took a few wrong turns along the way, but the important thing you had to remember was that there was an exit. Somewhere. You just couldn’t give up looking for it, even when you really wanted to.

✨Just as I opened the door, and before I could talk myself out of it, I mouthed, “I deserve better, asshole,” making sure he read my lips as I did it. Then I raised my middle finger up at him and waved goodbye with it. I hoped they both got syphilis.

✨When I was a kid, I learned the hard way how expensive the truth was. Sometimes it cost you people in your life. Sometimes it cost you things in your life. And in this life, most people were too cheap to pay the price for something as valuable as honesty.

✨The problem with some people was that they didn’t understand the principle of things. The other thing with people was that some guys didn’t understand when to let shit go, so they kept pushing and pushing and pushing until you just said “fuck it.”

✨“You can’t live your life bottling everything up. You need people, even if it’s only one or two, to believe in you, and as smart as that boy is, he doesn’t understand that.”

✨But apologizing wasn’t my forte and doing so wasn’t easy, but a good person recognized when they were wrong and accepted their faults.

✨I wanted to be better. I wanted to be a good person. I wanted to be someone—not necessarily someone great or someone important—but someone I could live with.

✨“If it makes you happy, it wouldn’t bother me.” I snapped my head up to look at him. “Really?” “Yeah.” He snuck me a glance. “Stop acting like you’re shocked. You really think I would tell you no?”

✨“The only people in the world who can hurt you are those you let have that ability, Van.

✨The Wall of Winnipeg stared down at the much smaller man, and in a voice that was as close to a cool, unattached statement as possible, he said, “Touch my wife again and I’ll break every bone in your goddamn body.”

✨“You don’t ever have to worry about me not wanting you somewhere. Got it?”

✨Because fuck it, what was life if you didn’t live it and make the most out of it? What was life without loving someone who cared about you a lot more than he cared about anyone else? That was my truth.

✨“How do you not know that you mean the world to me? I haven’t made it clear enough?” “I don’t know,” I stuttered. “Do you love me?” His gaze was so intent the entire world seemed to stop. “You tell me. I never stop thinking about you. I worry about you all the time. Every beautiful thing I see reminds me of you.

✨“Home is where you are. I would go anywhere for you if you wanted me to be there.”

✨Like football and art, like anything that anyone in the world has ever wanted, love was a dream. And just like a dream, there were no assurances behind it. It didn’t grow on its own. It didn’t blossom without food to feed it.

“Yes. But I can’t remember anymore what it’s like to not be happy.”

Mariaaa

✨What no one tells you is that the road to accomplishing your goals isn’t a straight line; it looks more like a corn maze. You stopped, you went, you backed up, and took a few wrong turns along the way, but the important thing you had to remember was that there was an exit. Somewhere. You just couldn’t give up looking for it, even when you really wanted to.

✨Just as I opened the door, and before I could talk myself out of it, I mouthed, “I deserve better, asshole,” making sure he read my lips as I did it. Then I raised my middle finger up at him and waved goodbye with it. I hoped they both got syphilis.

✨When I was a kid, I learned the hard way how expensive the truth was. Sometimes it cost you people in your life. Sometimes it cost you things in your life. And in this life, most people were too cheap to pay the price for something as valuable as honesty.

✨The problem with some people was that they didn’t understand the principle of things. The other thing with people was that some guys didn’t understand when to let shit go, so they kept pushing and pushing and pushing until you just said “fuck it.”

✨“You can’t live your life bottling everything up. You need people, even if it’s only one or two, to believe in you, and as smart as that boy is, he doesn’t understand that.”

✨But apologizing wasn’t my forte and doing so wasn’t easy, but a good person recognized when they were wrong and accepted their faults.

✨I wanted to be better. I wanted to be a good person. I wanted to be someone—not necessarily someone great or someone important—but someone I could live with.

✨“If it makes you happy, it wouldn’t bother me.” I snapped my head up to look at him. “Really?” “Yeah.” He snuck me a glance. “Stop acting like you’re shocked. You really think I would tell you no?”

✨“The only people in the world who can hurt you are those you let have that ability, Van.

✨The Wall of Winnipeg stared down at the much smaller man, and in a voice that was as close to a cool, unattached statement as possible, he said, “Touch my wife again and I’ll break every bone in your goddamn body.”

✨“You don’t ever have to worry about me not wanting you somewhere. Got it?”

✨Because fuck it, what was life if you didn’t live it and make the most out of it? What was life without loving someone who cared about you a lot more than he cared about anyone else? That was my truth.

✨“How do you not know that you mean the world to me? I haven’t made it clear enough?” “I don’t know,” I stuttered. “Do you love me?” His gaze was so intent the entire world seemed to stop. “You tell me. I never stop thinking about you. I worry about you all the time. Every beautiful thing I see reminds me of you.

✨“Home is where you are. I would go anywhere for you if you wanted me to be there.”

✨Like football and art, like anything that anyone in the world has ever wanted, love was a dream. And just like a dream, there were no assurances behind it. It didn’t grow on its own. It didn’t blossom without food to feed it.

✨“Are you happy?” I asked.

“Yes. But I can’t remember anymore what it’s like to not be happy.”

Another book that had me feeling like I didn't want to end because I'm gonna miss the characters. I like how slowburned Aiden and Vanessa's story was. I like Vanessa's choice of words whenever she describes something or someone. Calling Aiden behemoth had me, literally, one of my favorite moments.

Aside from the stranger-slash-enemy-to-lovers story, it's also heartwarming that family issues and problems are tackled in this book. Realized that people really do have different ways of handling anger and traumatic experiences in life.

Overall, it's a great read, and again, I'll miss the characters in this book big time, like the "big guy."

Ps. I'll just close my eyes for the amount of typos in this book just because I love team Graves 🫢

Kath

Another book that had me feeling like I didn't want to end because I'm gonna miss the characters. I like how slowburned Aiden and Vanessa's story was. I like Vanessa's choice of words whenever she describes something or someone. Calling Aiden behemoth had me, literally, one of my favorite moments.

Aside from the stranger-slash-enemy-to-lovers story, it's also heartwarming that family issues and problems are tackled in this book. Realized that people really do have different ways of handling anger and traumatic experiences in life.

Overall, it's a great read, and again, I'll miss the characters in this book big time, like the "big guy."

Ps. I'll just close my eyes for the amount of typos in this book just because I love team Graves 🫢

big ab

this book i swear to god has every single trope you could ever imagine rolled into one, and i ate up every single chapter. absolutely delicious.

This set my standard for slowburn romance.

I'm not really a fan of slowpace books but this one i love so much. What a good book to start 2023. Wow. This is one of those books that I don't want to end.

aileeeeeeen

Aiden is the sweetest man alive! I like it so much when he doesn't try hard to compose words but he rather to express his affection and love by action. god, he is so perfect!

madreadz⟢

I had a lot of expectations for this book because it was so highly recommended by so many book lovers and so many claiming it was the best slow burn romance read. I did appreciate the slow burn aspect of it, I felt like there wasn’t much character development with Aiden and his relationship with Vanessa. There seemed to be holes in the relationship and gaps that needed filling in. But it was a great read overall.

Isabella 

4.5 
Who would have thought I would be adding a slow burn book as one of my favorites? I am not a huge fan of slow burn, but this book. This book is making me love slow burn. I loved everything about it. I didn't even find it too boring or slow because it was perfect. I was fully into it from the beginning until the end which is something I struggled with slow burn books. I wish we have gotten more though, but from what I know with Mariana Zapata's writing, it usually ends like this. My only complaint is that it isn't dual pov. Imagine an Aiden pov; I would melt. I love Aiden and Vanessa so much. I still think about their confession scene and the epilogue.

Sidney Schaffner

Was just filler until 90% of the way through. Also, a character gets sexually assaulted and the main character laughs at them. Then toward the end she woke up with him already touching her inappropriately. No thanks.

Ana Luiza

** spoiler alert **
           Comecei a ler esse livro assim que terminei meu primeiro livro da Mariana e fiquei apaixonada pela escrita dela, e de alguma forma consegui gostar desse ainda mais do que From Lukov. Não sou a pessoa mais ligada a romance com esporte mas todo o restante do plot parece que foi feito pra mim: friends to lovers, slowburn, roommates, etc. Além disso, o livro tratou de questões familiares e crescimento pessoal de uma maneira muito bonita. 
Vanessa se tornou uma das minhas personagens femininas preferidas de todos os tempos. Na maioria das vezes, ao escrever personagens fortes e independentes, elas são descritas como grossas ou como se não se importassem com ninguém. Vanessa é extremamente gentil e sensível mesmo passando por coisas muito complicadas na vida. Não precisou tratar ninguém mal durante o livro para se mostrar forte.
Aiden me irritou um pouco, e em certo ponto eu até queria que ela ficasse com Zac (meu amor!!!!!!), principalmente por que falta de educação pra mim não tem desculpa, não importa o que você já passou na sua vida. Mas ele ganhou meu coração e eu me vi torcendo muito por esse casal. Tanto que em certas cenas eu fiquei com frio na barriga, como se estivesse acontecendo comigo.
O livro é extremamente longo mas passa muito rápido e de forma muito fluída. A única coisa que me irritou foi a autora descrevendo os músculos do Aiden umas 5 vezes por capítulo, e não é nem exagero. Já tinha entendido que ele é gigante nas primeiras páginas. Mas não me incomodou o bastante pra diminuir a nota porque esse livro me passou um sentimento muito bom. Não tem nada melhor do que a construção de relacionamentos saudáveis ❤️

 an enjoyable ride with many highs and some lows?

₍ᐢᐢ₎

 an enjoyable ride with many highs and some lows?

some meh's:

- her inner ramblings (one one hand, totally understandable, on the other, sometimes i was losing track on what was going on ngl)

- im sorry zac sounds absolutely lovely but the way letters were removed to emphasize his southern drawl (i think) were kind of making me cr*nge a little (will still be reading his book tho!)

- the way things were described threw me off a little.. 

some wah's:

- because the it's a slowburn, when the first kiss happened, i was shaking !! 

- aiden's redemption arc and i mean i get it some things he did are considered bare minimum but in this economy its tough to get a little loving so gentleman activities are highly appreciated

- that one scene...

- the epilogue <3

looking forward to the other books 

Riya

An absolute slow burn, which I’m not generally a fan of, but it worked well in this story. Not super well-written, but not so much that I couldn’t read it. 

Alyssa deRaad

Addison Miller

This was the most delicious slow burn romance. I didn't think I would be a sports-romance kind of girlie but mariana zapata may have won me over. 

Ellen Ivey

Renata

mariana zapata, the high queen of angst holy dammit 
i loved this sm, i love aiden sm too agh the book was so good 

- "If someone messes with you, they're going to mess with me, Van. I don't want to hurt your feelings. I might not be good with this friend crap, but I'm not about to let somebody get away with hurting you. Ever. Do you understand me?"

- "Do you think I suck?"
 “No” 
 “Then why would I care what someone else thinks?"

- "Touch my wife again, and I'll break every bone in your goddamn body.”

- "That's my girl” 
 "I am?"
 "The only one” 

- "That's my girl. That's my fucking girl."

- "Did you listen to anything I told you when you finished your run? I've missed you. I've missed you so much you can't begin to comprehend how much. I didn't want to leave you. I kept trying to talk myself out of going. Why do you think I never brought it up?'

- "You tell me. I never stop thinking about you. I worry about you all the time. Every beautiful thing I see reminds me of you. I can't finish my practices in Colorado without wishing you were around,”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♾️/5 Susie ~>👧+🚗=👩‍🦽🏥

Gabriela Kondratyuk

Were I to play a game called “Take a shot every time Vanessa calls Aiden “Big guy”.” I would be so incredibly drunk that I wouldn’t have noticed the thousand eye roll worthy moments in this book. It was enjoyable enough to finish but that’s it. I don’t know why I keep trying to read these romances cause I’m always disappointed in the end.

Christine

Samantha 

miss zapata KNOWS how to write a slowburn and kill it everytime

Danyella Barajas

Wilma Lindmark

This is the best slowburn romance I have ever read, because you really got every bit of the "small" moments that build their relationship from what it was from when she worked from him. And it was written in such a great way that you really understand the impact everything had on Vanessa. Their relationship felt very genuine and developed in a natural way, which I think had much to do with the length of the book. Since everything that was important to their story was included and did not feel forced. I really loved how Aiden was portrayed in the book in all his grumpy and stubborn glory with all his quirks that perfectly made sense and fitted his personality. The same can be sad about Vanessa, everything made sense and did not feel unnatural. I can't even count how many times I smiled like and idiot while reading this book about what Aiden did for Vanessa.

So did this take me forever to read? Yes. But did I enjoy the journey? Eventually, I did. My original plan was to read a chapter a day and finish it at the end of the month as you can see with it being June 18th that did not happen😂

Once I got about 20% I was hooked. I am fully certain that, I, someone who does not prefer slowburns believes that MZ requires my brain in a way that makes me enjoys it. That for the smallest of things make me giddy. It really makes me appreciate those little things. The characters were also ones that needed to grow on me. Vanessa had her moments that I thought we stepped out of what we were building for her but still overall enjoyed her character, her mannerisms, and background. Aiden, oh Aiden, my little recluse softie. He didn’t have me in that first half but by the end you see everything so clearly and honestly he was the smartest man because of it because he got exactly what he wanted, ego be damned😂

Honestly love this not so little green-card marriage plot and the whole enemies to faking marriage to friends to lovers action this all had. If you are looking for a 665 page book, the rerelease I think will be shorter, this is something you may want to check out. 

Priscilla Stanfield

So did this take me forever to read? Yes. But did I enjoy the journey? Eventually, I did. My original plan was to read a chapter a day and finish it at the end of the month as you can see with it being June 18th that did not happen😂

Once I got about 20% I was hooked. I am fully certain that, I, someone who does not prefer slowburns believes that MZ requires my brain in a way that makes me enjoys it. That for the smallest of things make me giddy. It really makes me appreciate those little things. The characters were also ones that needed to grow on me. Vanessa had her moments that I thought we stepped out of what we were building for her but still overall enjoyed her character, her mannerisms, and background. Aiden, oh Aiden, my little recluse softie. He didn’t have me in that first half but by the end you see everything so clearly and honestly he was the smartest man because of it because he got exactly what he wanted, ego be damned😂

Honestly love this not so little green-card marriage plot and the whole enemies to faking marriage to friends to lovers action this all had. If you are looking for a 665 page book, the rerelease I think will be shorter, this is something you may want to check out. 

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

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