Review: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
Mariana Zapata
Published on Februar 29, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary (Taken from Goodreads)
Vanessa Mazur knows she's doing the right thing. She shouldn't feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.

But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked.

For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable.

What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?

My Thoughts

I picked this one up because it was in the semifinals for the Goodreads Choice Awards. I've been on a YA book kick all year, and had only read one book on the list. So I grabbed a few more before I voted. But I digress. I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Correction: I did not expect to love this book as much as I loved it. It was without a doubt one of my favorite reads this year. Since I finished it, I've been wanting to go back and reread it all over. It was just splendid.

I expected this to be. Girl has unrequitted love with her boss, hot man football player. Girl gives up and quits leaving him behind. Player man football player realizes he misses her and begs her back, the fall madly in love happily ever after. It was not. Well, they did get their HEA... but there was no unrequitted love going on. There was no crushing periof for the first half of the book. You just see these two interacting and developing a friendship first and love second. And it was sweet, sweet, sweet. Like gives you a toothache sweet, and so beautiful.

Vanessa was such a strong female lead. She knows what she wants in life, and she isn't afraid to go for it. She has overcome a lot to get to where she is, she is the perfect image of a woman that knows who she is and has learned to love herself. Aiden is much more reserved. He doesn't know how to socialize. How to treat people. His life revolves around one thing and one thing only. Football. Until, Vanessa's openness helped him learn to come out of his shell and care about others. It was a sweet sweet ride watching him become this wonderful man... a slow, beautiful ride. Because this is a very very very slow burning romance. Seriously. I don't think there was even a real kiss between these two until the last 100 pages... but damn is it worth the wait.

I will admit the first 50-75 pages or so was slow moving. Very slow moving. I almost gave up. But, stick it out. Once Vanessa quits, the story picks up a lot. This is a long book. Especially for a contemporary romance. But, I think it needed the length to really give the reader believable character growth... and the growth is so much fun to watch. 

Basically, everyone needs to go read this book like now. It made it to the semifinals, sadly not the finals.. but it deserves it. This is not a book you want to miss!