Member Reviews

Marcela Ortiz finds herself in a whirlwind of emotions as her long-time secret love, her best friend, gets engaged. The pain of unrequited love becomes even more complicated when she encounters Theo Young, a charming ex-NFL player and older brother of her best friend. The two find themselves at odds and begin a fake dating relationship. This is the foundation of a beautiful story. I loved the inclusion of a plus-size FMC, and Theo is a big teddy bear. The level of compassion within this story is so weighted - it puts a huge smile on my face. I found myself giggling throughout the story, especially the humor and banter. The passion between Marcela and Theo radiates off each page, unveiling a spice filled with heat. Overall, this was a great debut, and I'm looking forward to the next read.

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This had just the right amount of drama i need in my books. I loved the body positivity and the plus sized rep. I def felt the chemistry between the FMC and Theo but i wanted more spice and passion. Some characters did feel a bit one dimensional but otherwise it was an easy fun read.

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I was really nervous for the "love square", but the author did a great job with all four storylines and I was pleasantly surprised!
I really loved Theo and Marcella together!
Super cute book!

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So much angst, so much swoon, and an incredible amount of character growth. This book was a fantastic read. It really showed relationships as they truly are. It wasn't all sugar plums and lollipops - it was messy like so many relationships can be. I loved this and I'm looking forward to more from Gabriella Gamez. Thanks NetGalley for the copy.

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Cute and fun read. I enjoyed reading about a plus size FMC done realistically. Seeing the relationship develops between 2 characters in love with others first was a trope I hadn’t read before.

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I will always read a book about a librarian. They bring so much to the joy. Just like author Gabriella Gamez's debut novel. There was some rough patches, but an overall good time was had. I look forward to Gamez's next book.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

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This wasn't perfect, but it's a debut, so that's expected to a degree. I loved the plus size rep, we can never see enough of that in romance. Marcela and Theo's situation was messy, but the author found a way to navigate that without pulling the story down. I'm looking forward to seeing what else this author puts out in the future!

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This book had me in a chokehold from the beginning! I'm a huge fake dating lover and this scratched every book itch. For a debut novel, This was so so good! I'm usually not a love triangle, or in this case a square, reader and I did want to shake the FMC at some points during most of the book but I didnt mind the love triangle! I cannot wait to read more from Gabriella!

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The Next Best Fling
By: Gabriella Gamez
Review Score: 4 Stars

Boogie’s Bulletpoints

•As soon as I started reading, I was HOOKED.

•An Ex-NFL player and a librarian? Sign me up.

•Fake Dating turned into Friends with Benefits? I love it.

•As a native Texan, I was excited that this book is based in San Antonio!

————————————————————

The Next Best Fling was kindly provided as an ARC by NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing). Thank you for allowing me to enjoy this wonderful book!

Release Date: Out Now!

Y'all, this was such a fun book. Marcela and Theo start fake dating as they try to get over people they love, Theo's Brother Ben…and his fiancee, Alice.

They start as a fling, but more feelings develop, and you can see them try and figure out where their true feelings lie.

I loved that he was a former NFL player, and she is a librarian. Football and books, 2 of my favorite things!

This was a really good book, and I definitely recommend it.

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2 “open communication got us nowhere” Stars

༺♥༻ Overview
This was a lovely book, a quick read with an interesting concept - we want different people but in the process found each other. Honestly, this might be a new trope I would like to read more, thanks to the author! 😊
However, while the book was enjoyable in the beginning, it slowly faded out and I realized I was just skimming words at some point.

༺♥༻What to expect
📬pining for other people
📬Open communication, but not at the same time??
📬Endless monologues
📬kind of relatable FMC
📬Funny, cute, banter with some chemistry

༺♥༻Characters

💞Marcela (aka Marce) & Theo
Marcela was such a sweet character, her feelings and emotions were valid and totally relatable and she is a librarian!!! her book clubs and the passion for her work and books is sooo relatable as I hope is to many bookworms! But as the book slowly progressed I started getting annoyed at her constant Ben, Ben, Ben. It started getting a bit redundant 😭 I understand what she was feeling but I started to get frustrated when she didn’t communicate and I had no idea WHY?! 😭😭

Theo was also a sweet heart, his openness was so endearing! I believe it truly saved their relationship lol. Also the “i can’t promise I WON’T develop feelings for you” at the start of their rebound-ship was such a breath of fresh air! You usually read oh I will never develop feelings for you blah blah men 🙄 also the DATE was sooo sweett but ofc everything went downhill because every time they try to have a good time SOMEONE happens.

Marcela and Theo were both wonderful characters but often their behaviors and actions seemed childish like constantly walking away at every important conversation 😭😭 like nooo sit, talk!! There was always open communication but when that leads to nowhere, thats practically the same thing as miscommunication. Anyways they were cute together.

💞Others
Ben uhhh was a well written asshole. His relationship with Theo was confusing as hell like oh Alice was in the middle of their feud but oh no, not really. like wtf 😭 Every time he talked to Marcela, I wanted her to tell him to shut up. My eyes literally saw the back of my head every time he entered the scene.

༺♥༻Plot & Writing/Pace
The concept was interesting but the plot wasn’t as tied together and there was way too much drama, really felt like a thriller than a romance the way was heart was beating so fast, nervous- wtf was going to happen next 😭 Sometimes too much drama takes away from the enjoyment of the book as was with this one. There could have been so many things gone wrong with a rebound-ship and the author definitely hit every point 😭

In regards to the writing, in the beginning there was some unnecessary commentary about her making her breakfast, like excuse me, I don’t care 😑 Also half of the time, I couldn’t imagine the scene and their actions.

The ending was a bit unsatisfying for my tastes. I wanted Marcela to throw things at Ben which she kind of did with her words. Yayy she grew!! Overall, a good debut for the author. Just a bit more work on the writing and balancing plot.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC! This review contains my honest opinion where the words are mine and mine alone!

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3.75 STARS

When Marcela Ortiz’s best friend, and unrequited love, announces his engagement to his girlfriend of a decade, she realizes it is officially time to get over him. In walks Theo Young, ex- NFL player and brother of the man she’s in love with. On the night of his brother’s engagement party, a drunk Theo is ready to announce his feelings to his brother’s fiancée and Marcela puts a stop to it. Theo crashes on Marcela’s couch and when the two show up to brunch the next morning everyone assumes they spent the night together. Marcella and Theo enter into a mutually beneficial agreement— they’ll have a fling to get over who they’re in love with. Only, Theo isn’t aware that the guy Marcela needs to get over is his brother…

Theo is an absolute sweetheart and I loved seeing him and Marcela together. I loved seeing their character growth through the book and their friendship blossom into something greater.

Marcela is a librarian and a fellow booknerd. I adored seeing her passion for books and Theo’s willingness to listen.

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This is an open door romance with the fake dating and love triangle tropes (or a square?). Normally, I'm not really a fan of love triangles especially when it involves siblings but it didnt bother me here. I just thought Maricela and Theo were so adorable.

I'm definitely going to be looking out for more books in this series in the future!

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4.5/5**

I loved this sooo much!!

I honestly didn’t know what to expect going in since I’ve read friends with benefits before but something about this book clicked with me and i enjoyed the banter of the characters and each of their backstories and how each of the characters have their own struggles and learning how to work through them.

Can’t wait to see what’s in store next!

*thank you to netgalley and the publishers for a e copy of this book**

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Super cute romance, loved the spice. I think any book with a main character who loves books as much as me is a win in my books from the beginning.

*spoilers from here on*
I really enjoyed seeing Ben’s true side, but the whole breakup and Alice moving on part was so rushed and didn’t do much for me. Marcela also was a bit much when Theo was literally laying it all out about loving her and she still ran. A lil too indecisive for my liking.

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Overall this was just okay for me. Even from the synopsis you can tell that it will be a messy story. I think the way things ultimately panned out just had me unable to believe that this couple would be able to make it work long term. I did love that the main character was a youth services librarian and all the little glimpses into that. If there is a future book with Angela as the main character I will 100% read that!

I might recommend this to some, but unfortunately I think there are plenty of better options out there.

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REVIEW✨
The Next Best Fling
By Gabriella Gamez
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••

I loved this book so much! It was super easy and a fast read, the writing was flawless and flowed effortlessly. It’s a story will lots of rich emotion, angsty, spice, personal growth, and about falling in love with patience and support. I really liked the meet cute for Marcella and Theo, using each other to get over their feelings for a couple that is getting married to each other. There is so much drama, which I loved so much! I personally think that Theo is a cinnamon roll male lead that totally melts your heart. I did find that some of the drama with Ben was a little unrealistic. But you’re rooting for Marcella and Theo anyway, so who cares. I loved the representation of plus sized female lead, it’s rare to see so I loved reading it. I highly suggest this book to anyone looking for a great romance novel.

Included in this book…
🌸 Long Time Crush’s Brother
🌸 Plus Sized Latina FMC
🌸 MMC is a retired NFL player
🌸 So Much Pining
🌸 Grand Gestures

Romance: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Plot points: 💥💥💥💥
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

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As we all know I have been pining for this book since I heard about the series. And then I met the author at TLA and I knew it was going to be everything I wanted and more. And let me just tell you, I called it.

Ok so the first thing about this that sticks out to me is obviously the librarian, so I’ll start with the main characters. So Marcela is a librarian that has been in love with her best friend for over a decade. And he’s just announced that he’s getting married to their other mutual friend. And yes, it’s just as messy as it sounds lol It was so much going on in this book lol First off I was mad at her. Because 10 years?! GIRL. Why? She should have BEEN let that man go. But she is a librarian and I loved that about her, because obviously. She even was a YA librarian who read YA and I loved that. I loved even more so that she was talking about books in the book. If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for books about books so this was awesome.

As for Theo, he was also messy. He was the brother of Marcela’s crush/best friend but also the crush/best friend’s fiancée’s ex. Yes they made this really weird love square and even though I find triangles ridiculous, I was weirded out because I enjoyed this lol But other than that, I thought Theo was a bit clueless. I didn’t love him because when you’re in a situation like this, there’s no room for the person you actually do love to feel like you love them. Does that make sense? He should have been fucking crawling to her by the end of this book but he wasn’t and I didn’t like that. And I know you might say she didn’t want him to, but SHE DIDN’T WANT HIM TO BECAUSE HE WASN’T ACTUALLY ACTING LIKE HE WAS OVER THAT OTHER GIRL.

Ok so the plot tho was weird. It was fake dating, and they had the embarrassing thing that makes people start fake dating, but after that it was just a bunch of mess. I still can’t say for sure when they decided they were starting to like each other for real. It just felt like nothing was happening besides the trope. BUT the dates and their interactions were so cute! I really liked the one date they went on, but I won’t say because spoilers. But if you read this, you’ll know what I mean lol

This was cute! Definitely a solid debut. I will most definitely be on the lookout for the next book in this series. And yes as an Eagles fan, I read this a while ago and I’m STILL mad that out of two different football teams in this state, she chose THOSE EFFING GUYS. I hope we get to ignore them in the next book smh lol But I’ll be there to see it!

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The literary call backs and Ben's swoony gestures made The Next Best Fling a "hit" for me!

Marcela has been in love with her best friend, Theo, for years now. Hearing that he's getting engaged and married fast to his sweetheart, she knows she needs to close that page of her heart. Tasked with picking up Theo's brother and spending time with him, she hears that he, Ben, is in love with Theo's fiance and wants to tell her. The solution? Pretend they are actually THE couple and "fake date." But when fake dating turns to actual feelings that Marcela didn't sign up for me, will she run away from the next best fling to occur in her life?

The Next Best Fling is an easy to read debut novel where immediately I could sense the attraction between Marcela and Ben. While I enjoyed the author's pacing and characters she put on the page, I hated Theo and his decisions in the later half of my read. This part seemed to be breezed over and added in to create another conflict for Marcela when she was already struggling with her heart. Something felt off for me there however; I adored the swoony gestures and overall man that was BEN. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and ADORE the librarian plus size representation.

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Every scene has drinking: drinking in the present, drinking in a flashback, other people drinking, passing out from drinking. It's ALL that happened! And it wasn't a casual or occasional drink - every scene was way past drunk.

Blackout drunk on a Monday night right after work was the end for me. It didn't even add anything to the story! The only way this book could be turned around is by an intervention.

eARC provided via NetGalley for review.

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This was a lot of fun. I liked seeing them fall in love and realize that they can be a good partner to someone. It was nice to see them open up to each other and be the most open that they've ever been. I'm looking forward to whatever this other writes next.

I received an arc through netgalley.

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