Welcome to Litsy!

This is my second book from Mariana Zapata. She is the master at slow burn romances. You have Sal who lives and breathes soccer and plays for the woman‘s league. Then she meets her lifelong idol, German national men‘s soccer hero Reiner Kulti, who accepts an offer to coach Sal‘s team… dislike turning to friendship … loved this!!!

Excuse me while I make this book my entire personality!

I absolutely loved this ❤️ 📖 ⚽️

A slow burn romance that is absolutely worth the wait.

🏃🏻‍♀️ to get more books by Mariana Zapata

#HauntedShelf #HexesAndCrows @Catsandbooks
#31by31 Readathon #ScarathlonAtoZ @Texreader #LetterK

One of my favorite Zapata books. The only one I like better is The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. Great plot and characters. Fabulous prose and that slow burn to die for me. I wish every book I read gave all the feels like this. 5⭐️ all year long!

When she was young, a woman‘s professional soccer player had a deep crush on a world-renowned German soccer player. Now he‘s become her coach, and he‘s not nice at all. For all sorts of reasons, the crush is long gone. But she‘s nice and she tries to break through his tough shell, never quite successful but enough for him to make a huge impact on her life and career. I appreciated the MC was from San Antonio! Audio well done. Enjoyable light read.

A friend just recommended this book to me. It‘s free with Kindle Unlimited and Audible. So I‘m going to listen to it next! I‘m looking for a palate cleanser since all the Halloween reads and I think this‘ll do it

This author is becoming a favorite of mine. I love the FMC! This is how a strong woman should be written in my opinion. The slow burn was perfect! ❤️ You don‘t have to be a big sports person to enjoy the story either.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5⭐
I love slow burn novels. When a novel builds up to the eventual consummation, I feel it's so much sweeter. This is one of those books that'll make you believe in soulmates. Out of the five Mariana Zapata books that I've read, I enjoyed this one the most.

Omg! This book was epic! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #bookblogger #bookreviewer #bookworm

1. One fluently (English), one not so fluently anymore (French was my college major).
2. I ❤️❤️❤️ this book.
3. Three - brown Korean beef, green broccoli, and white rice.
4. 🤣😍⭐️
5. I‘m a day late so I‘m just gonna tag @4thhouseontheleft to say thanks for the fun questions!

Firstly, kick ass poc heroine, fun banter, and sexual tension for daaaaayyyyyyyysss

Secondly, this book changed my mind about slow burn romance. You can ask anyone I know what kind of romance books I hate the most and they would all tell you slow burn. If you are hesitant to read this book because, like me you want to get to hot sweaty stuff, I implore you to give this book a chance. Its worth the wait.

Go read this book!
#romansty #romance

I got a solid start yesterday between work and my real life book club. It‘s a rainy day so lots of reading time!Today will include a reread via #audiobook of tagged and finishing a delightful period romance by Evie Dunmore. #24B4Monday
@TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65 @jb72

I‘ve read 3 entire Mariana Zapata books in less than 72 hours. I might need an intervention. 🤣

Also no #friyayintro today. Just not feeling creative today, sorry!!

My #junereads ❤️

5/5

Another re-read. Callie Dalton does a great job narrating Mariana‘s books and I really enjoyed the audio version. I‘m sure this won‘t be the last time I read this book. Kulti has both the “enemies-to-lovers” and “famous athlete” themes that I love. #romantsy #romance #junereads #slowburn #soccerbooks

Good

"My schnecke. My little snail."
Mariana Zapata makes my time at work breeze by like a great love story. #liquorstoreblues

1/5⭐ For a character who has totally gotten over her teenage crush a decade before, she sure does mention it Every. Other. Sentence.

I was hopeful for a great slow-burn romance, but this book seemed slow because Sal dwells on everything and remembers things at great length. Even listening to the audiobook at 2x speed, the book stagnated in constant circling around the same ideas with no forward progression. #projectnew

I really wanted to love this. Many people I know love her work. This is the second book of hers that I‘ve read, and while I didn‘t hate this nearly as much as From Lukov With Love, I did not enjoy it. The typos, word choice errors, and contradictions drove me insane. I was practically yelling at my iPad through half the book and if she‘d used “could care less” one more time, I might have thrown my iPad across the room. #unpopularopinion

This book is driving me insane. Kulti keeps calling Sal “Schnecke” and she says she doesn‘t know what it means. But, a few pages ago, she mentioned having taken three years of German in high school. That‘s about all the experience I have with German, and even I know what it means. 🙄 Don‘t even get me started on the frequent use of “I could care less”. 🤬

Soccer world cup= sport romance

It was refreshing to read a story featuring a female athlete! I didn‘t realize I liked sports romances until I read “The Wall of Winnipeg” and “Kulti.” Mariana Zapata has also perfected the slow burn romance with this one! Hooo boy! *Fans self* And we get a fun cameo with the crew from “Under Locke!” I really enjoyed this one! (If you‘re wondering why I included a snail in my pic, you‘ll just have to read the book😘)
#GloryToTheGuild

I am on a sports romance jag, this is just a glimpse. I don't even like sports? So far Kulti is the best by a mile, but I'm looking for more with female athletes! Any recs?

I'm glad I finally picked up a book by Zapata, & I'm glad I went with the audio. 16 hours of the slowest slow burn I think I've ever read. I really liked the heroine who always stood up for herself to the often rude hero.

I have to say, though, the casual slut-shaming disappointed me, as did the depictions of some of the female minor characters. I'm on the fence between pick & so-so, but I'll go with pick because I did finish. #romantsy

"He poops." ?

I'm just immature enough to find the heroine's sense of humor funny.

WOW. This is the slowest slow-burn romance in the history of slow-burn romance. 600 pages of pure angst and crazy intense sexual tension—my poor little heart. I need a hug 😩

My #Narcissistic6
1. The title character, smug soccer player
2. Jimmy the spoiled lead singer
3. The arrogant Lord Jason Fielding
4. The hot smug rugby player (hooker is a position)
5. Lucien, a proud vampire
6. Jericho the mysterious bookshop owner
Thanks @ValkyrieAndHerBooks

Usually I don‘t like slow burn romances but this author does a great job writing them. I love that in her books the heroine and hero are friends way before they become lovers.

I really liked how Sal was a strong woman trying to make her way in women‘s professional soccer(futbol). I loved her relationship with her family.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Excited! One of my #pop18 books for next year is $0.99 in the Kindle store today. This is my book about or involving sports.

🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐

It was a slow start, but it got really good. Would recommend.

This is my third Zapata's book after Wall of Winnipeg & Wait for it. What can i say? Soccer is not called the beautiful game for nothing & I become a stark raving fan every 4 yrs for the World Cup. Kulti conjures every yummy aging soccer player I have in mind,Sal your budding female soccer star. However he fantasy of a renowned soccer player coaching a female player too big to bridge at times & i just focus on the romance. A beautiful one #osrbc

Just finished this beauty and it's amazing! A great slow burn romance! I loved it so much!! 📚❤️🙌

⭐⭐⭐⭐Who knew soccer could be fun? In Kulti, Salome is a starting forward for Houston's women's soccer team. Her biggest idol growing up was Reiner Kulti, a world famous German soccer player. After her brother has a nasty run-in with Kutki on the field she is quickly disillusioned with him. Now, Kulti is retired and her new assistant coach...

The slowest of slow burning romances! The writing style took some getting used to, but this was great! ⚽💋

Another book haul from the library!!

Swoon! Aiden will always be my favorite Zapata man but Reiner Kulti is a close close second! 😍 I loved every minute of this book.

That moment when #goodreads realizes you're obsessed with a new book. I do love the ability to track my highlights, I'm now actually using that feature more often! #28highlights #newrecord

Doing some last minute storm prep tonight, making sure the house heat is turned up higher than normal (i.e. 70° lol) and making sure everything (including the Kindle!) is charged because we're getting a last gasp of Winter, a nor'eastah! I hate big storms, and it's never a good sign when your weatherhound bff texts you that your band on the map is going to get walloped. @mrsmarch May we all keep power!!! ?? Stay safe Northeastern Littens!

Omg. This book. So first of all, I did not think this was going to be my kind of book - I don't like soccer, and I generally don't like "older man" books. I do however very much enjoy "slow burn" romances, and this one absolutely fits the bill. I have a total #bookhangover from this, and I'm not even mad about it. Now time to plow through Zapata's backlist #romantsy

That moment when you discover one of your new favorite authors has a backlist!!!!!!!!! 🛒🛍🎁🎀😍🔥💯💃👑

This is the first book I have read from this author and it was so good. I never thought I would like a slow burn such as this, but instead of getting bored I was hooked and I kept flipping to find out what's going to happen next. Now I am #currentlyreading #WaitForIt and it's turning out to be again a slow burn. I've already 😂 and giggled and cried.

I can't wait to get home tonight and read Kulti! #osrbc #romantsy

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
A player/coach slow burn romance that kept me hooked start to finish. Kulti was arrogant and an are and a marshmallow for the right woman, and that was feisty Sal. Another winner from MZ! #romansty

I think I'm the only person who didn't LOVE this book.
I wasn't crazy about the pacing and found myself questioning Kulti's fixation on Sal.
There were also issues the main character Sal had, that suddenly just disappeared without any real resolution except her deciding the issue in question simply wasn't a big deal.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Kulti, but I didn't love it like so many others did.

I love humorous, but touching romance books with HEA... This one did not disappoint. I listened to it and the narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life

One of the best romance books I've read in a long time. I did an immediate re-read. #audiobooked #kindle

This was recommended by a friend and I really enjoyed the story. The book was long and the build up to the relationship was drawn out, but made sense. I can't wait to read more from Zapata.

When you want to stop fan-girling 😂

Had to DNF this one. My first for 2016. I just couldn't get into this one and it was over long at almost 500 pages! That's a lot for a sports romance. 🙁

So so so freaking solid. The best romance I've read in a long time... And I read A LOT. Slow burn. Tension. Soccer. Humor. I couldn't put it down. I legit tried to read while chopping onions. Must read more by Mariana Zapata asap!