Okay, y’all convinced me to try this one with your stellar reviews (so.many.reviews), and thank you scootsa1000 for loaning me a copy! I’ve said before that I don’t really read romances novels, but like many of you said, Kulti isn’t really typical of the genre (or my impressions of the genre, anyway). And I do love Outlander, and romcoms, and Taylor Jenkins Reid, so it’s hardly surprising that I enjoyed this. I also read a lot of fanfic — like, if fanfic counted towards my CBR count I’d be a hell of a lot higher than 263 for 2016 — and the slow burn type has always been my favorite (especially when they start out not liking each other, but I guess that’s any fanfic, right?). Anyway, I downloaded this on my Kindle at about 2:00 yesterday afternoon, and finished it around 11 this morning. So yeah….I liked it.
“It was the worst non-break-up ever in the history of imaginary relationships with a man who didn’t even know I existed.”
So our heroine Sal, who I liked quite a bit, had a major crush on a soccer star named Reiner Kulti when she was a little girl. But then she grew up, and became a soccer star in her own right. Now 27 years old, she plays for a team called the Pipers in Houston — a team that just hired Kulti as their new assistant coach. Only this version of her crush is surly, uncommunicative and occasionally downright nasty at times. But he’s still Reiner Kulti — and she still has that little part of herself that loves him.
Obviously, we know they’re going to get together, but man does Zapata drag it out as long as she can. A few of y’all mentioned that she could have used an editor here, and you’re absolutely right, but most of excess can be forgiven I think (I did stumble on this clunker of a line, which wouldn’t be any better if the typo HAD been caught: “Ceci and I’d old furniture back when I’d live with them before college”…geez). But Zapata does a great job of building a world for Sal — her family, friends and teammates all have backstories and real personalities. Honestly, my least favorite character was probably Kulti. He may have been gorgeous and talented (and six foot two, which Zapata must have mentioned 1 billion times), but he’s really kind of a dick most of the time. I’ve never gone for the brooding tortured type (in real life or in fiction), but I do like that he doesn’t apologize for it. And Sal doesn’t bend herself around it either.
I loved the various uses of languages that I don’t speak. I loved that Sal kept reminding herself that all her heroes still have to poop (seriously). I also loved the sports. I loved that they played soccer and baseball and trained and practiced and put so much work into it. I loved that Sal wasn’t a magazine editor or in advertising or an aspiring writer. I know zilch about pro soccer, but I loved the glimpse into this world, and the physicality that it gave their relationship before it was a relationship. I also really want to re-watch Bend it Like Beckham again right now, although that may have less to do with the soccer and more to do with Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who’s only five foot ten, but I’ll take him anyway).
I feel like this review went slightly off track, but the bottom line is: I’ve been converted to the Kulti cult, and thank you all for that!
So glad you enjoyed it too! I haven’t read any fanfic, but I can totally see the equivalence to this story. I found myself wondering several times who is the real world player that inspired this story.
I’ve been on a fanfic bender for the past two days . . . so I completely get you here. In fact, if this hadn’t happened, I would be probably at least two books up right now. NO REGRETS.
Yay!
Two things: after seeing so many rave reviews of this, it’s starting to take on that aura of Act Like It or The Hating Game, which made me think I was going to have to read it this year.
But I really can’t take another book about a woman falling in love with an unrepentant asshole.
Second, as someone who has never read fanfic, but loved Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, is there a good Harry Potter fanfic you think is worth the time?
Harry Potter fanfic . . . shudder. I don’t know why I just can’t with any of it. Just the idea of it for me is like, sacrilegious.
I’m all about the TV fanfic. That way you can read about people having sex with each other who refuse to do so on your screen.
Is this not what most people use fanfic for? Maybe I’ve said too much.
WITH YOU on the TV fanfic.
;D
That’s pretty much EXACTLY why I read fanfic. And why I’m always nervous recommending it to people. Like, how dirty do you want it, and what am I about to reveal about myself here??
P.S. Fanfic is very similar to romance, in that it’s very id-driven and about finding pleasure in tropes and predictability. Not sure most of it will interest you? At least, in my experience.
Gah! Just as I feared.
I’m not pruddish, I swear, but none of that appeals to me.
I guess, like the romance genre, I hear so much about it that I want to like it, but my innate surliness makes that a fruitless endeavor.
Like, for example, it is very common for a fic writer to do a take on the “have to share a bed” trope. Or the “stuck in small places” trope. Or the “Fake relationship transitions to real relationship” trope. And depending on how talented the author is, the pleasure comes from seeing how close they get the characterizations, how close they replicate the experience while giving you a fantasy “just for fun” version of the story, say, where Sherlock and John decide they are in love after all. Or Mulder and Scully didn’t take eight years to bone. Etc.
Or, there’s something called “crack-fic” that does a spin on the characters that isn’t really true, but is just for funsies. Like, the characters get drunk and do silly things. Or make weird bets. And even weirder stuff.
And then, there’s AUs (alternate universes), which are so fun, and so fascinating to think about, because why are they so fun? Basically an AU fic is one that reimagines the characters in an alternate setting and/or timeline, either just straight re-telling the story, or embellishing with other tropes. Like, for instance say that Jaime Lannister is a famous boxer who loses his hand in mugging, and Brienne owns a bakery, and they decide to have sex with each other. Or Jaime and Brienne meet at college, and Brienne is on the basketball team and Jaime is on the men’s one and they decide to have sex with each other.
It’s a very, very strange world and I am only now realizing how deeply I am into it, because I’ve been reading fanfic since the 6th grade and oh god what have I done to my brain??
Lol
My conception of fanfic was more, “I love these characters so much, and want to continue their adventures.
I knew there was usually a lot of sex, but I assumed that was secondary.
Well, to be fair, there is a bit of that as well . . . I told you I might have been betraying my own preferences here . . . but even in the sexy stories, the sex isn’t always the primary focus. The “how you get there” is.
Like I said, reluctant to recommend fanfic without knowing your…proclivities…BUT I highly recommended Archive of Our Own as a place to start. You can get pretty specific with your searches: https://archiveofourown.org/
From the sounds of it, I’m guessing fanfic wouldn’t appeal to me.
Rainbow Rowell had me hoping there might be some as yet undiscovered Harry Potter adventures out there.
But if it’s all just Draco and Harry groping each other, I think I’m good. Lol
There’s always this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2548866.James_Potter_and_the_Hall_of_Elders_Crossing
No idea if it’s good, though, only that it’s popular.
Haha. There’s definitely a lot of options if you want to read about groping. But there’s also G-rated fanfic with no hints at romance at all, and stuff that stays close to Rowling’s canon. Just have to search for what you want!
I didn’t mention it in my own review since I obviously didn’t care that much, but since everyone is bringing up the need for an editor I’ll say it here: my biggest “This doesn’t need to be here, like, at all” was the grumpy younger sister. There is literally no arc there. Sal introduces her conceptually as the younger sister who has a hard time being the one who doesn’t care about soccer, and then when Sal goes home there is this whole tangent about how her sister is avoiding her, and the whole thing is never resolved! I don’t necessarily need a Very Happy ending where they talk out their differences and all that, but it was so bizarre to me how she remained this totally peripheral character who impacts the story in no real way other than to be a bitchy kid sister.
By contrast, the older brother wasn’t physically present for most of the book either, but his existence generates real conflict: he has a history with Kulti that needs to be addressed. What is the conflict that the sister brings to the table? She doesn’t like soccer and is possibly insecure about it? I mean, fine, then actually address it in a meaningful way; don’t just have her show up and pout in the background.
I complain because I love. I five-starred this book and this was the only record-scratch.
I haven’t looked in to it, but BethEllen mentioned to me that a bunch of Zapata’s heroines are related to each other. That makes me wonder if she is setting up the sister for her own story one day. The girl who hates soccer gets her own soccer player?
The sister was definitely extraneous. She could have summed up the “my family has an issue with me playing soccer” thing solely through the mother.