This was perfection!!! Definitely was the best slow burn’ and grumpy sunshine trope. I definitely had all my emotions all over the place, but wow I’m still speechless 😶.
Single dad Tobias was it for me…. He was magnificent. The plot was so good I couldn’t even put it down!

3.5/3.75 rounded to a 4 ⭐️

HEAR ME OUT - Mariana Zapata is the queen of slow burn. The angst and when the ball finally drops it DROPS. It makes the pining and waiting so worth it.

The setting of this book is just 🤌🏼
It was so peaceful and just cozy to read about hikes and just a peaceful environment. It gave the story an extra layer of comfort throughout.

I really really enjoyed Aurora as a character. The character depth and development was outstanding and I just really enjoyed her as a FMC. She was a bad ass, independent sweet and just easy to love character and I so enjoyed her as a character. While she was so well done everyone else felt like side characters when i feel like Rhodes and Amos were also MCs in this story but they weren’t fluffed out as much as i would have liked.

While i feel like the slow burn is done extremely well, i still believe that it could have been 100-150 pages shorter. It also has a third act breakup and i just hate that. BUT it was extremely short lived and all of the MCs handled the situation maturely so that brought it back for me. I would have loved this book so much more if it was dual POV or even multiple POV with Rhodes and Amos.

Overall, I enjoyed this cozy, found family read.

5 STARS!

Ho.ly Mo.ly! "All Rhodes Lead Here" by Mariana Zapata. Wow. Going to be thinking about this one for a long, long time. THIS is how you do it!! I was unfamiliar with Mariana Zapata before reading this book, so I wasn't sure what to expect considering the book is quite long. I am so pleasantly surprised! This book might have me going back on my "romance novels don't need to be more than 400 pages" mantra. It is more than just your average contemporary romance. It's about starting over, finding (and rediscovering) yourself, processing grief, learning to trust again, and learning to love again. This book might be one of the slowest burns I have ever read, and I mean that in a good way, the best way possible. I honestly loved how long it took for main characters Aurora de la Torre and Tobias Rhodes to get together, to trust each other, to love each other. Tobias Rhodes. Tobias. Motherfreaking. Rhodes. Instant book boyfriend. Good lord, what a grumpy cinnamon roll smoke show. *drool* I also really liked Aurora and how she begins again in a place that is familiar, but also, in many ways, new to her. Zapata does a fantastic job of developing these characters. Honestly, she develops *everything* well! I loved the small-town setting. I loved the vibes of this book. I loved the forced proximity aspect. I loved the second characters and how well-developed they are. I loved the banter, the humor, the situations. If I had one gripe, I'd say the third-act kerfuffle is a little overblown, but it ultimately didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story as a whole. I laughed, I cried, I rooted for the characters, I swooned, I pined, I yearned. What a wonderful book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Mariana Zapata, Avon and Harper Voyage for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

I love seeing formerly self published authors finally getting picked up by major publishers! Zapata always has very original story lines and the best HEAs, but I never really felt like I was behind this book. The writing style was so strange to me sometimes, the metaphors and humor are often jarring, and it could have been 30% shorter and had such a better effect. I loved some of the plot and the characters, but the overall story just wasn’t my favorite.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC.

The master of the slow burn romance, Mariana Zapata, has done it again with All Rhodes Lead Here! It took Rhodes a long time to warm up to Aurora, but the journey was so entertaining. Set in small town Colorado, city girl Aurora had some funny run ins with the local wildlife as well as some scary moments while out in the mountains. I loved seeing her find herself again after leaving a long term partner to start over. I also enjoyed the incredibly reserved and self contained Rhodes and his teenage son Amos slowly coming out of their shells around Aurora and her non stop chatter. You can never go wrong with an MZ book, and I definitely recommend this one

𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘙𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦 follows Aurora De La Torre escaping to a small mountain town she reluctantly calls home after being dealt a heavy hand where she finds peace in the surliest of men.

The lone small town hilly vibes? The broody cinnamon roll? The found family? This book is my IT.

Rhodes understood the assignment of the sexiest, grumpy dilf I've ever read. I love how he slowly opened up his guarded self and took Aurora in his keep. Him being the father he was and being possessive towards Aurora was my ending!

Aurora, my sweet girl, killed him with kindness at every turn and I just knew he couldn't resist her for long! The way she fell back in with the community and the friends she made along the way? Perfection.

Amos's role throughout the book was precious too! He was the key to Aurora and Rhodes's relationship and that boy was hilarious and I loved how he is a mini Rhodes at his heart lol.

While this book had many aspect other than mere romance - the best ofcourse - my close second was how Aurora, Amos and Rhodes were a bonded unit. They cared for her together in the sweetest way only family can!

- ~ -

3.97 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘷𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘝𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

I am just so in love with whatever Mariana writes. I have probably read this story 3 times now and I know I'll read it again and again.

I am not the biggest fan of slow burns but there really is no slow burn like a Mariana Zapata slow burn. Rhodes and Ora had me giggling and kicking my feet like a giddy teenager. I loved these two. I loved this story. I loved being in this book. To me, this book was the epitome of show don't tell. I knew exactly why theses two fell for each other without having it explicitly laid out. This was sweet, funny, tender, and just amazing. The slow burn pay off was amazing and I loved all the epilogue stories. I could stay in this universe forever.

All Rhodes Lead Here - MZ
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

First of all this is beyond the most perfect title for Aurora’s story. MZ gave this one a nice pretty bow. Because Holy. Book. Hangover.

Aurora is such a breath of fresh air type of character. She has your quick wit and sarcasm that everyone loves to read about, but she’s also such a happy person. She sees the positive in all situations and tries to not let anything get her down. Some things do, but she doesn’t wallow or make a pity party for one. She works through it to come out stronger on the other side. I loved seeing this girl grow and freaking blossom in this story.

Rhodes is the perfect hero. He’s so compassionate in his own way towards not only Amos but Aurora as well. It’s those little things that just melt your heart, that you soak up. He’s the perfect amount of gruff, stern, sarcastic, and lovable.

I like that with this slow burn romance, they still took their time, after they acknowledged they had feelings for one another, to make the next step. They made sure they were both ready… It wasn’t that immediate jumping of each other’s bones. That makes the story feel more authentic.

All Rhodes Lead Here has jumped to my number two spot of favorite MZ books (no one can beat Winnie!). I just finished and I’m already ready for a re read. Too soon… right?

4.5 stars!
I enjoyed this slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine romance from Zapata.
Aurora (Ora) and Rhodes meet in an unexpected way when he finds her in his apartment over his garage, she having rented the apartment from his son Amos. At first he is pissed but relents when she offers him a more money for the rental and promises to be unnoticeable to him and his son.
But she is anything but... with her happy personality that shines through, you can't help but smile at her antics, her learning everything to work at the camp equipment/fishing store, how she catches a "hawk" and puts him in a cage... I was dying laughing!
What I loved about this book is how I knew, I KNEW that Rhodes was totally smitten by her... the slow-burn was KILLER and I was SO IMPATIENT for something to happen.
Everything in life happens for a reason... Ora came out of her 14 year relationship sad while dealing with the loss of her mom was completely heartbreaking.
But watching the love between these characters grow, reading the words that came out of Rhodes seemingly unromantic self made me swoon, Ora's relationship with his son was magical and I JUST FELL IN LOVE with these characters.
Amazing chemistry, beautifully emotional, a broody hero and a sunshine heroine... this is a must-read!

As much as I loved this book, I still felt that parts of it drug a little. It definitely didn't need to be almost six-hundred pages long. That said, I still enjoyed it and really liked the way the relationship evolved between the MMC and FMC - - even if it was an extremely SLOW slow burn.

Aurora and Tobias are both wounded souls looking for their other halves....but yet not. Tobias has been hurt in the past and doesn't necessarily want to open himself up to another woman. And Aurora is still carrying the grief of losing her mother years before to the point that it's almost paralyzed her. They both have to find a way to move forward on their own before they can ever move forward together.

Things I really enjoyed are the age gap, side characters, the setting and Tobias' staunch Navy personality. And that just names a few. This was a well-written and enjoyable book with classic Zapata feels.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata is a small town romance that I couldn’t get enough of.
The characters had such great chemistry with all of the build up.
The story is well-written, engaging and delightful on all levels.
A sweet slow burn romance with that small town charm.
Her stories have more soul and depth than your typical contemporary romance, and they are always refreshing!

Thank You NetGalley and Avon for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This book was cute and I did find it entertaining enough to finish though I do feel it probably could have been 200ish pages shorter. The romance took way too long to kick off and the FMC came across as a little dim-witted and sensitive. It took me a while to even start to like Rhodes and I just didn't feel enough of the connection I think maybe I am more of a Rom-Com girl than a contemporary when it comes to the romance books I read.

All Rhodes Lead Here is beautiful written. It’s about loss, love, making art, and finding yourself and those that love you.

I absolutely loved the slow burn pace of this book, which seems to be a common thing in Mariana Zapatas books. The characters relationships develop over time and they grow into their feelings.

I loved all the extra chapters in the end as we got a glimpse of the characters lives.

Unfortunately I didn't realize going into this that it's a 600 page romance, or I would probably not have read it. No romance needs to be that long imo. MZ writes slow burn, but there's slow burn and then there's... whatever this is. The two main characters barely interacted or talked for like the first 30% of this book (which is like 200 pages). The first HALF of this book could have been severely edited down in terms of content because I was just reading too many mundane details that my brain was shutting down.

Which honestly sucks because the last 20% of this book is really good! Once you *actually* start to see the tiniest spark (aka they have conversations) between the main characters I enjoyed it. I really liked the development of the relationship between Aurora and Tobias' son Amos (tbh she has more interactions in the first half of the book with Amos than Tobias). There's a hard hitting part at the end regarding Aurora's grief over her mom that got me a bit misty. I'm not sure that I needed her ex to come back begging for her, I felt that was extraneous.

Overall I'm not sure I really vibed with Aurora as a main character and she made some really dumb ass decisions in this book that irked me (hello hiking on your own when you are clearly not an experienced hiker and your mom disappeared while hiking??? please make it make sense). Also this is a self published book moving to traditional publication and the arc I read had some super repetitive parts and several typos that I hope are fixed before it's published...

I have some other books by this author on my list that I will read, but I'll be checking the page count before I do.


Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy (part of HEA)

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata
Re-release Date: 1/30/24
Format: ebook
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Mariana Zapata will forever be one of my favorite romance authors. I save her books for when I’m in a book slump because I know she will always deliver. All Rhodes Lead Here was no exception - it was phenomenal!

Zapata's books are chunky slow burns and I feel like you need to be really on your game to pull that off like she does! I love spending so much time in these stories and really feeling the chemistry build naturally. It feels so genuine, and all the characters are so lovable you feel like you become part of the community by the end of the novel!

I feel like this book does grumpy x sunshine perfectly. Rhodes isn’t an unreachable grump or a total jerk for the sake of making him a grump. And ugh it melted my heart every time he called Ora “Angel.” Also big bonus points for an unconventional family structure that does not lead to any drama. Love that so much!!

The conflict in this book felt a little unbelievable for how well and maturely Rhodes and Ora communicate leading up to their argument, but other than that this book is dang near perfect! Another absolute winner from Mariana Zapata!

Tropes: grumpy x Sunshine, age gap, slowest/sweetest burn of your life, forced proximity, neighbors/ landlord, found family

Infinity stars.
I love this book, this story, the emotions that come with it. So wonderful.
Aurora is starting over after leaving a 14-year-long relationship, going back to her hometown to reconnect with her late mother and taking back her independence. She reaches Pogosa Springs, Colorado, and finds more out about herself and what she’s made of than she ever expected. The most unexpected however is the slow-burn romance with her new grumpy landlord and the friendship with his teenage son.
I feel like Aurora is a character that everyone can relate to and is on some level inspired by. She’s grieved and loved and lost and has picked herself back up every time, with a sunny disposition that has you smiling throughout her story. I laughed with her, cried with her, and got mad with her, throughout. She’s just a really beautiful character and I could have had multiple spans of 600 more pages of her, honestly.
And Tobias Rhodes - the grumpy neighbor- is just… ahh. So wonderful. He was beautiful to watch falling in love with Aurora and to see how he loved his son, Amos. Believing in Aurora the way he did, supporting her, and helping her to learn without questioning her was so amazing. Rhodes understood her and watching him become so sweet on her was so heartwarming!
All in all, I think this is one of my new favorite books that I’ll be recommending forever. I’m so glad I was able to support its re-release!

Oh I loved this. I'm becoming such a fan of Mariana Zapata. The slow burn is so good, mostly I think because there's development during. The characters are getting to know each other, becoming friends, and getting to a point where it's real romance and not only sexual attraction. I really loved Aurora's journey and development, especially that she was so steadfast in her decision(s) about her ex. Rhodes is one of my favorite male leads I've read because he's flawed but makes efforts to improve and change, he's honest about things he doesn't know how to respond to. Really loved this couple and the friends and family around them.

I think it'd be easy to accuse Aurora of being to naïve or of seeming much younger than she is but given her past and the things she's been through, it makes sense that she's insecure and sure that people won't like her. And there's nothing wrong with holding on to sweetness or innocence when it's been hard to have that.

I loved this, Mariana Zapata's writing style is so good and I'm excited to dive into her backlog!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The romance was captivating and the plot was more than just their relationship. However, since there is about a 20 year age gap between me and the main character, I had trouble connecting to her, mostly with some of the things she would say or do, like saying “owie” when she got hurt. I feel that, in a good way, you can tell that she is a millennial. I think that this actually adds to her character and makes her a more lovable main character. Her relationship with Rhodes was so good and I could read about them forever, I was unable to put it down as soon as they so much as touched hands. Her found family with everyone from Pagosa warmed my heart, this is definitely one of my favorite romances I’ve read so far.

After a bad breakup with a celebrity boyfriend, Aurora returns to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, her late mother’s beloved mountain town. She hopes to rebuild her life with a fresh start in the scenic landscape. Her wary landlord Tobias Rhodes eventually warms to Aurora through hikes and fireside talks. Will their unexpected friendship blossoms into love?

This is such a beautiful novel. It amazes me that the author can sustain the plot, the character development, and the romance through such a long book without readers losing interest. I generally prefer novellas, yet I didn’t want this book to end. It’s funny, heartwarming, and romantic, with relatable characters I was happy to spend a good, long time with.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.