Attempting To Read My First Mariana Zapata Book….

Mariana Zapata is someone I hear about online a lot. So I decided to read one of her books for myself… or at least, try to read one.

So I picked up one of Mariana’s books that is called When Gracie Met The Grump. It’s a story about a superhero who crash lands and injures himself in the yard of a superhero hater, who then has to look after him. He’s grumpy, she’s snarky… it’s a vibe.

So there were a few reasons why this book never made it past chapter two for me. I did end up reading the first chapter, and the “last-ish” chapter for fun and I was pretty much ready to be done. The reasons for not continuing this book are personal preference, but let me share those reasons anyway.

Firstly, I noticed pretty quickly that there was a ton of swearing in this book. More than I like to read in my stories. I don’t mind a few here and there, and sometimes it can be an effective tool but this felt like the author is a swearer and it was just part of her vocabulary that carried across. In terms of the writing style, Mariana has a pretty nice flow!

I also noticed that characters who weren’t particularly religious were doing things that were, and the main three superheroes were referred to as “the trinity” which is actually pretty disrespectful in my view, to Christians (who refer to God as The Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit). So because of this, I didn’t know how appropriate the references were going to be in respect to Christians or God. It didn’t feel like the author cared if or how she might offend Christians – something I don’t jive with.

I also despise reading toxic “romantic” relationships. In my view, you CANNOT be toxic and have a romantic relationship – healthy or otherwise. I don’t actually understand people’s obsession with reading toxic relationships. While I didn’t actually get to see much of the relationship itself, in a brief skim through some of the chapters (especially the beginning where they really don’t like each other) all I saw was someone who begrudgingly was helping someone, and a jackhole who just wasn’t worth the effort. Honestly, kick that boy outta your house! You can be grumpy without being an absolute dick is all I’m saying. I can do enemies to lovers (I actually like this when it’s done well), but this was just dick and dick-ish meet. I didn’t like anyone.

I am disappointed that I wasn’t able to read on, and I know that Mariana is the queen of slow burn… which basically means you go through and entire book of torture while the main characters DO NOT GET TOGETHER UNTIL THE LAST PAGE! And when they do get together, the spice is a little too hot for me.

Ultimately, instead of making myself read something that would annoy me, I decided to DNF this book and move on. Sorry Mariana Zapata, but I’m out.

See You in the Adventures
Christy Grace