Mariana Zapata

1st read: March 2021
2nd read: March 2022

I feel pretty much the same after my second read of this book. The first half was better than the second half and Jasmine's inner dialog was often long-winded and annoying. Ivan and the romance did grow on me a bit more this time around.
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I loved the first half of From Lukov with Love, but the second half was just okay for me.

The back and forth between the main characters was really fun to read. The ice-skating stuff was great, too.

I liked both main characters, but Jasmine was kind of annoying when she was dealing with her issues, and Ivan wasn't given enough character depth. Also, the transition from friends to love interests wasn't believable for me.… (more)

This review has a few spoilers. I tried to hide them, but who knows if I did it right.


This is a good book. Thank you Sofija for suggesting it. :)

I like the main character, Diana, and her nephews, Louie and Josh. Their relationships were really great. The author did a good job of capturing what kids are generally like.

The slow burn between Diana and Dallas was fun, but it lost a tiny bit of steam for me towards the end. The drama between the 2 of them seemed a bit forced at times. Dallas wanting nothing to do with Diana at the beginning, because he thought that she was hitting on him. He wants to stand by his commitments, which is great, but it seemed overly awkward. And Diana constantly talking about how she isn't hitting on Dallas, or how she doesn't want to take advantage of him, was a bit much. Overall, they're a cute couple.

I really didn't like the stuff with the fire. I don't think that it was alright for Diana to have a stressed 5 year old call 911, while she ran into a burning building. I'm glad that Ms. Pearl and the cat were alright, but Diana had two kids that needed her, kids who had already lost too much.… (more)

This is a strange book. I liked some of it, but the fmc ruined it for me. Plus, the last 100 pages dragged.

I didn't mind the fmc at the beginning, but she annoyed me more and more as the book went on. She's 33, but she acted so immature for her age and her decisions didn't make sense. All of the other characters thought she was super awesome though, which somehow made the book even more irritating.

Every single one of the fmc's interactions with animals was annoying and unrealistic.

The fmc being so down on herself because she had to work at learning her job didn't make sense. Everyone has to learn things for their job. Has she never had to work at something before? No one knows everything right away. (I do appreciate that she made a real effort to learn, though.)

All of the fmc's bathroom mentions and humor were jarring. I don't want to read about her bathroom habits. And the way that she talked about it with the hero was off-putting.

The mmc was alright most of the time, but he did some irritating things, too.

His nickname for the fmc was "buddy" and his reasoning behind it was just annoying.

He sometimes praised the fmc like she was a precocious child instead of an adult.

The mmc did eventually adore the fmc, which would normally be awesome, but doesn't work when the heroine annoys me.

A few things that I did like:

I think that the mmc's son, Amos, was well written. And I liked the fmc's friendships with Clara and Yuki.

Edit: I just noticed my comment from 3 days ago saying that I liked it so far. That last 25% really changed my mind.… (more)