Book Review: From Luvok With Love by Mariana Zapata

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From Lukov With Love

Author: Mariana Zapata
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance | Sports Romance
Released: February 1st 2018
Review Source: Purchased

If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one.

After seventeen years—and countless broken bones and broken promises—she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close.

But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she’s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything.

Including Ivan Lukov.

This book was fantastic. Zapata is the queen of slow burns. I read this book over two weeks ago and I still think about it, along with her other novel, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me.

It starts with Jasmine having a passion for skating, but not catching a break. You can feel how much she loves skating, how much she yearns for more. It’s her passion and she spends so much of her time, energy and money on it but it doesn’t pay the bills. Her break comes in the form of Ivan Luvok. Ivan propositions her and offers to partner up with her for a year and he will get her over her fears, as well as get her out there in the world of competitions.

This is my third Mariana Zapata book and I quickly noticed the best part about her writing is her ability to build her characters. In From Luvok With Love, I absolutely adored the relationships, and I’m not just talking about Jasmine and Ivan’s developing relationship, but the scenes between Jasmine and her family. They were hilarious. I was constantly smiling and those scenes were such a mood booster. And Jasmine, she was brilliant, talented and funny. Here are two of my favourite quotes from her:

“That’s what my life had come to? People being proud of me for keeping my mouth shut?”

“I could have been the bigger person, but f*ck it, I was five foot three and I wasn’t built to be that person ever.”

What made From Luvok With Love extra special to me is that it is the first book to make me cry without someone dying or something tragic happening. I got so invested in the storytelling and the characters were so brilliantly written, that Jasmine’s pain was my pain. There was a moment with her father- a moment of realisation that her father didn’t approve of her life choices, the skating, and didn’t seem proud of her and Jasmine didn’t think he loved her, either. And that broke me. It hurt my heart because it felt so real.

“My dad thought it was funny to say that I only had two emotions: indifferent and pissed off. It wasn’t true, but he didn’t know me well enough to be aware of that.”

Mariana Zapata is a fantastic author and fast became one of my new favourites of the year. I read them through kindle unlimited, however I will probably end up buying the paperback and audio because I already want to re-read them. If you’re a fan of slow burns, and even if you’re not, give this one a read. I promise it’s worth it.