Oh Mariana Zapata, I have such a love/please for the love of god find an editor relationship with you. She wrote my favorite slow burn romance ever, Kulti, and is back this time with a different set of athletes.
Jasmine Santos is a world class figure skater trying to decide if it’s time to end her career after her pairs partner bailed a year before. Ivan Lukov is the current reigning pairs figure skating champion and all around taunting pain in Jasmine’s backside at their shared training facility. When Ivan offers her the spot of partner for a season Jasmine decides to take a chance to go back into her dream full force and try to win. What starts out as an aggressive, antagonistic relationship evolves first into friendship and then further.
Ms. Zapata writes slow burns, that’s her “thing”. It’s not my thing in particular, but I really loved the effect in Kulti. This is the third book of hers I have read, and it’s starting to just feel a little too repetitive. She literally waits till 90 some percent of the way through the book for the characters to get together, every time. She could mix it up just a little, but has not so far.
That isn’t to say this is a bad story or you shouldn’t read it. First off though, I’m a huge figure skating fan. Have been since I was a little kid. I in no way had an ounce of natural talent for it, but goodness do I love to watch others fly across the ice. So I was totally down for a skating romance. Secondly, Ms. Zapata does the best characterization I’ve found of what it’s like to be a world class athlete. More so than any of the football, hockey, etc books out there she represents how grueling and all consuming it is to be an athlete at the professional level. I really appreciate that about her, because in reality you really do give up your whole life for decades in order to maintain that level of skill. She captures it so well. Third, Ms. Zapata also doesn’t always right the most “likable” heroines. Jasmine is loud, combative, and has zero f*cks to give, and I appreciate the reality of that yes it does take a decently aggressive personality for a person to make it that far in almost any sport. You don’t get there by acquiescing to everyone sweetly, that’s for sure.
My biggest issue overall is that Ms. Zapata desperately needs an editor. She’s not terrible, but an editor just tightens everything up, catches when you characterize someone the same exact way three different times, etc. She’s definitely growing her readership now so I hope an agent takes notice, and helps her out. Please, because it’s starting to throw me out of the stories more and more. I’m sorry, but as an example: there’s a skating event at Lake Placid. Okay, cool, until she tells me it’s in Michigan. I’m sorry, but that just throws me out of the story. First of all as a born and raised Upstate New Yorker, it hurts my soul, but secondly it’s such an easy thing an editor or even Zapata doing a quick google search could have caught. It’s just one of many little things that I feel having a second pair of eyes on it would really help.
This is all to say that if you enjoy really long slow burn romances, romances about legitimate world class athletes, or Zapata in the past, her newest one is right up your alley. Go forth and enjoy. Also, Ms. Zapata, call me if you need an editor. I’m not a professional, but I can help a little!
My biggest hangup with Zapata is the casual misogyny that the protagonists weaponize against other women that they see as, essentially, competition for the hero’s attention. It’s worse in some books than others (I tolerated it in Kulti but have heard from emmalita and others that it’s a dealbreaker with Lingus.) But like you said, slow burn is her thing (and mine) and she’s better than almost anyone at writing athletes. How’s the sexism in this one?
Out of curiosity, I looked up Lake Placid in Michigan, because the whole place is full of lakes and I wouldn’t have been surprised if there is another Placid there. In fact there is, however, it’s really effing tiny.
https://michigan.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,1,fid,635067,n,lake%20placid.cfm
A really curious choice, indeed.
There is zero female competition, zero perceived even, for our hero in this one, and unlike Sal in Kulti, Jasmine doesn’t think about it much at all after she starts getting to know Ivan. She really just centers on the two of them getting to know each other, which benefits the story and her writing as a whole. There’s a one page joke about his saying her sister is cute, and Jasmine getting jealous without even realizing why, but that’s it.
Besides some bullying between teenagers, all of the women in Jasmine’s life are pretty darn supportive, any woman who isn’t features maybe as a brief plot point (why she doesn’t like her ex partner’s new pair, because she was bullied by her as a teenager), but is never met. I definitely found her treatment of sexism improved since Kulti.
And yeah, I looked up Lake Placid, MI too for sh*ts and giggles, but really, if you’re going to a Lake Placid for a major figure skating competition, there’s only one place in the world you’re going. It really was just another reminder of the fact that she desperately needs some more eyes on her books before she publishes.
Good to know. I’ll probably buy this sooner than later.
I like slow burns and sports romances, so I’m all over this book, but the audio has no release date!
I agree with you that she badly needs an editor, but I’m really impressed with her that she does it all on her own. Also, this might sound shallow, but her covers are so good for a self-pubbed author! They always look so high quality and professional.
I’m definitely impressed with her doing it all herself (and totally agree on the covers!). And I’ll definitely keep buying her books because I really do enjoy them, want her to keep writing them, and she really seems to be listening to her fans when it comes to our criticisms (this one is over 100 pages shorter than Kulti!). I’m just hoping at some point she pops up on an agent’s radar, and they take her under their wing to get her the polish that I think could really catapult her career.
OMG, that sort of editing error drives me out of my mind!
This is exactly the kind of sentence I’d wind up composing, in a review begging for better editing. Solidarity.
“Third, Ms. Zapata also doesn’t always right the most “likable” heroines.”