A delightful and charming romance that is a perfect fit for readers who adore lighthearted, humorous, and sexy stories about fake dating, unrequited love, and the complexities of family dynamics, with a dash of sports romance and a whole lot of heart.

That was fun and steamy romance. I love how it went from being a fake romance to a no strings attached affair. Rela and Theo are both upset by the engagement between Marcelus best friend and Theo‘s ex with his brother. Theo is a football player and he is the most lovely person in a book that I’ve read for a while. Marcella has had misconceptions about Theo since they were younger because of her friendship with his brother. I loved how as soon as they realize they had chemistry they just decided to go for the new strings affair. The development of the relationship made sense to me and I thought they had chemistry that came off the page. This is a book that I enjoyed from start to finish a

I love that 2024 is turning out to be the year of AMAZING debuts! I immediately fell for Marcela, a plus size, Latina YA librarian working in Texas who has been hopelessly in love with her best friend Ben for years.

Sadly, when Ben gets engaged Marcela has to reconcile with her unrequited feelings AND help Ben's former pro NFL player brother, Theo with his longtime feelings for Ben's fiance, Alice.

This was a bizarre love square, fake dating romcom about learning to love yourself and trust in the love of others and I absolutely ADORED it!

I can't wait for the next Librarians in Love book (hopefully starring Marcela's bestie, Angela). It can't go without saying that Theo is definitely TOP notch book boyfriend material, planning the PERFECT date for Marcela and wanting to share in and celebrate her passion for books.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Forever for an early digital and finished gifted copy in exchange for my honest review! Book lovers and sports romance fans don't want to miss this great debut that will have you swooning and that was also great on audio!

Steam level: mild open door scenes

Fav quotes:

"And why are we suddenly playing this terrible game with my feelings? ...[choosing a favorite book]..."is like choosing a favorite child."--Marcela

"Call me whatever you want...As long as I get to call you mine." --Theo

Book Review: The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez

"The Next Best Fling" by Gabriella Gamez is a spicy and heartwarming romance. Librarian Marcela Ortiz, in love with her best friend, turns to his ex-NFL player brother, Theo, for a no-strings-attached fling. Their chemistry is undeniable, and what starts as a cover-up for their true feelings leads to a deeper connection. Marcela, a relatable fat woman of color, and Theo, a refreshingly honest and attentive man, navigate their complicated feelings and messy family dynamics. This debut novel is a delightful read, full of charm and authentic characters.

The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez is about how young adult librarian, Marcela, finds herself in a love square after she’s spent nearly a decade holding out hope that her best friend, Ben, will wake up and realize that she is in the love of his life, only to seek a no-strings-attached rebound in Ben’s brother, Theo the NFL player, after Ben gets engaged to his long time girlfriend, Alice. This romance is messy and fun and heartwarming, and I loved every second of reading this book.

Admittedly, I’ve had the ARC for this book for solid minute, but I held off on reading it because I had a feeling that this would wind up being one of my favorites for the year, so I wanted to wait for when the mood reader inside me felt it was the right time to pick it up. Whatever reason I had for procrastinating reading this book, I was right. I felt so *seen* by Marcela as a fellow book lover whose favorite series is hyper-specifically Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes as well as being a fat woman of color who longs to live out her own happily ever after that she often reads about.

Marcela *is* the fat woman of color who’s the main character in her own romance that I am actively always searching for within my books. Her size is not The Obstacle of her life, but her opinion and fluctuating love for her body in a world where hers doesn’t fit conventional western beauty standards feels so realistic, so true to (at least my own) life!! How her size affects her dating life and honestly her view of herself as not being a viable option to date an NFL player— I understand these. While Marcela’s size doesn’t *define* her and despite loving her body, the fact that she’s aware of how she can be perceived by general society and therefore moves accordingly, I get that. Incredibly relatable. And I love that Theo loves every part of her. That’s!! what she!! deserves!! A man who loves her, not in spite of her body, but instead loves and embraces every single part of her.

My favorite thing about Theo is his pure honesty. He is so communicative and upfront with his intentions once he feels like he can no longer live in the in-between of no-strings-attached. The way he actively listens to Marcela and the way it shows in what he does for her and gives her in his big surprise box of gifts. He might not necessarily be every book lover’s dream, but he is certainly mine. I can only hope to one day find someone as *good* as Theo.

Additionally, this is such a minor thing, but I also *loved* Marcela’s relationship with her mother. The way her mom takes care of her and shares her love by keeping her in stock with tortillas and other essential foods. Part of my experience in being a part of an immigrant household translates to the language of food— cooking food for and sharing food with the people we love, honestly a universal love language, shown beautifully via Marcela’s mother.

<non-plot spoiler for minor character>
Another thing I absolutely loved about this book was the explicit inclusion of Marcela’s best friend Angela saying that she’s asexual and how her reading Loveless by Alice Oseman gave her the language to figure out her identity. As a person who’s also currently trying to figure out if she’s somewhere on the asexual spectrum, I want to highlight how The Next Best Fling feels like I was so specifically part of its targeted audience, for I have also read Alice Oseman’s Loveless in an attempt to figure out my relationship to asexuality. (I, however, didn’t seem to find home in the label, unlike Angela, but the significance and impact of Loveless to the asexual community is not lost on me as a person who has turned to this book in hopes of finding home and answers in a label. While I may not have landed on finding home in a label from reading Loveless and while Angela may be a fictional character, I still find it validating to be reading another adult who has read this YA book and found an explanation for their identity because of it.)

I once again want to emphasize how much I love The Next Best Fling, how much fun I had reading it, and how much this book means to me, personally. Also, this cover is everything; I am such a fan. Sign me up for every book Gabriella Gamez writes, for she has gained a loyal reader out of me. Thank you, Netgalley and Forever, for the ARC!

She was in love with her best friend. He was in love with his best friend. The two best friends are now engaged. The ones pining make a plan to fake a relationship. Say what?!? Marcela once dated Ben, but he deemed them to be friends. Theo loved Alice and Ben knew it but went after Alice any way. Theo and Ben are brothers. Marcela and Alice were once best friends. You with me still? Marcela stops Theo from making a fool of himself at Ben and Alice's engagement party. Many assumptions are made when they show up together the following morning to brunch and they ran with it. Why not? Life can't be any more depressing. Somehow after spending all this time together and getting to know each other, they develop feelings. It's also an eye-opening time for Marcela as she thinks back to all the dates she cancelled, boys she broke up, plans she changed for Ben, and she begins to see him for who he truly is. There are many people who don't believe that Theo and Marcela are really together. He's a NFL player and she's a plus sized woman. The author did a tremendously great job portraying a plus sized woman in a tiny-eyed society. Overall, I enjoyed this book. The main characters ended up with the HEA.

I received an advance copy of this book at my request and voluntarily left this review.

Thank you Netgalley and Forever Publication for this advanced copy of The Next Best Fling.

This novel follows two individuals who are deeply heartbroken, who decide to start a " simple" fling. This fling turns into something more but also opens up a lot of secrets, feelings and revelations along the way. We see two people grow not only as their own person but as an item as well.
Marcela has been in love with her best friend for years and has some insecurities and doubts about finding love, While Theo, the brother of her best friend is in love with his brothers fiancé, He also struggles with a few battles of his own and doesn't know how to let that go, but throughout this journey together everything falls in to place.

If you love hook-ups to love, some messiness, cute moments that will make your heart be filled with joy and so much more, this book is definitely for you. It was nice and sweet, the perfect read if you want something spicy & complicated.

Note: Ben annoys me. lol

3.75/5 stars for me! :)

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this! I had been reading several dark fantasy and romance books before starting The Next Best Fling so this was a perfect book to dive into after all of that darkness. It was so much fun, made me giggle a ton, and the chemistry between the main characters was insane!

Some of the things I loved about this book:
-MCs are 30+ years old
-The banter was top tier
-MMC bought the FMC BOOKS! And not only any books, but signed copies of her favorite books!

Lastly, the main thing I loved about this book was how the author handled fatphobia and internalized fatphobia. I saw a lot of myself in Marcela. I adored how she loved her body but even she had her moments when she was self-conscious. And in comes Theo. He is obsessed with her in the best way and always makes her feel as beautiful as she is. He treated her like a queen from the beginning and we love that energy!

Tropes:
-MF Contemporary Romance
-Fake dating
-Rebound hookup
-Best friend's older brother
-Plus size rep
-Librarian x NFL player
-Latinx FMC
-Best friend's older brother

The Next Best Fling is book one in the brand new Librarians in Love series by Gabriella Gamez.
Wow! A freaking outstanding romance debut!
The characters in this book are so fun and entertaining. So realistic and very relatable!
Such a cute, breezy romance with an excellent storyline.
This was a fun, romantic, incredible read. I highly recommend picking it up when it comes out, and I know that I will be purchasing a physical copy for myself to keep on my shelf for rereads.

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

I DNFed this book at 33%.

🩷 librarian FMC
🩷 plus size rep
🩷 pulls you in right away
🩷 San Antonio setting (and all the little Texas references!)
🩷 interesting premise

What really bothered me is that the MMC and FMC decided to hook up SO fast. Maybe it’s not the speed but that it came out of nowhere? It seemed ridiculous that she was still not over the guy she’d been in love with for YEARS and decided to hook up with his brother? I just couldn’t get on board with it even though I wanted to give it a fair chance.

I was so hopeful about this one, but sadly I couldn’t get past one of the main plot points.

**4.25

This was SO CUTE!! I had this book on my radar and could not have been happier when I was lucky to get an ARC for it. Let me just say it exceeded my expectations. I loved the premise A LOT and the characters were so easy to fall for. It was fun, it had so many references for us book girlies, and the romance was fantastic! This was an incredible first book by this author and I will absolutely be reading more by her in the future.

3.5 stars.
This book was good, kept a good pace, but honestly I didn’t like the whole ‘I’m not going to tell him cause jr doesn’t matter’ when it actually does.
The spice was really good though and I loved the build up leading to it.
Theo and Marcela didn’t really have that good of chemistry if that makes sense but Theo’s amazing character made up for it. Him and Alice were the only redeemable ones in this whole book if I’m being honest

3.5 stars

This story started out strong for me. It's easy to read and I liked both Marcela and Theo's characters. The story just got a little muddled in the middle. The back and forth between both of them was too much. Does he like Marcela for herself or to get back at his brother? (His brother, Ben, is Marcela's best friend.) Is she with Theo for the right reasons? They both seemed genuine but could have used a little more trust and communication. Plus, I do think the "I love you's" were too soon after both pining for other for so long. Seemed too unrealistic.

Overall, I enjoyed it and would read another book by this author.

Thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. Thank you to Booksparks for the #gifted physical copy of the book as part of the #SRC2024 campaign. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Next Best Fling was such a fun read! I felt like I was watching a Latin telenovela.
I found myself rooting for Marcela and Theo with all the plot twists. Marcela’s mom reminded me a lot of my own mom and Angela was such a fun character. Hoping her story is next.

4 -⭐⭐⭐⭐

"He wants the bride, she wants the groom. But what if all they really want... is each other?
Blegh."

The Next Best Fling is an adult contemporary romance and the first in a series of interconnected standalones, Librarians in Love. The story follows Marcella, a librarian who has for years carried a torch for her best friend, Ben. When Ben becomes engaged, Marcela knows she must move on but things take an interesting twist when she stops Ben's brother, Theo, from drunkenly admitting his feelings for his brother's fiance at the engagement party. One thing leads into another and Theo and Marcela decide to fake date to hide their feelings and find a distraction. No one expected the connection but can this fling be anything more than a rebound?

This book was a lot of fun for me!

I really felt for Marcela and how she managed to hold things together. She is really faced with unpacking parts of herself she never really expected to. She gets an opportunity here to really explore herself and realize what she has been missing...but there is also fear and worry that comes with it.

Theo is a cinnamon roll with baggage that is so much fun to unpack. His backstory draws you in and I loved seeing how invested he became in Marcela. He may appear big and gruff but this man has got it BAD.

There is a good element of side characters in this book I was not expecting. Marcela's best friend provided the advice and support Marcela desperately needed when she was unsure. Ben really helped provide the perspective we needed to unpack the tangled threads and Alice, the fiance, actually surprised me in a lot of ways.

This book does have spice - I would say 2.5 spicy peppers out of 5 spicy peppers. We see them begin exploring things around the 25% mark with spice hitting midway through. There are periodic scenes from there on as the characters try to figure out what their relationship is but there are moments of pause when they hit a roadblock. The spice is detailed and explicit but well written. I also found Theo to be quite the dirty talker and an affectionate person, which really added to the romance.

"I'm rooting for you to get the happily ever after you deserve, even if it's not with me..."

The story itself is more character driven than anything else. While we explore Marcela's work at the library with some truly fun adventure, the main focus is Theo and Marcela trying to figure their situations out alongside Ben and Alice's engagement. I found the banter and drama to be fun to navigate. I also found the chemistry between Marcela and Theo to sell me each and every time. There's romance, family drama, secrets, and reveals that really draw you in. I wasn't a big fan of the quasi-breakup drama but there were some twists I was not expecting at all. The ending tied it all up with a bow and I felt it was cute and appropriate.

Overall, this is an adorable romance with a bit of angst as two people with unrequited love find themselves falling in love truly. I had a blast!

Thank you Forever Publishing for this !

I enjoyed this debut!

Two people join forces to move on from their unrequited love towards a newly engaged couple. Said people are the groom-to-be’s brother and female best friend.

There are certain parts of this book I really enjoyed and others that frustrated me. The progression of Marcela and Theo’s relationship evolves genuinely and I love their connection. I also love that Marcela is a librarian and book girlie! Theo’s interest in her interests was a warm hug. Marcela’s arc from being in love with her best friend to moving on was done really well and I’m so happy that people in his life saw Ben for what he was! He ended up being a good villain.

The lack of communication from both main characters frustrated me, but especially from Marcela; I didn’t understand it all the time.

I was pleasantly surprised with this story and happy I decided to request it. This is a cute sexy contemporary romance involving fake dating and diverse characters. I liked the chemistry between the two main characters and especially how the MMC wasn't afraid to open up to the FMC. It was a little disappointing that the FMC didn't want to open up as much with the MMC and she could be a little self sabotaging, but with how she viewed herself and her dating life I can see why she had a hard time opening up more and trusting. Thanks to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC.

GENERAL INFO

The Next Best Fling- Librarians in Love #1

Publication date : 7/9/24, Read 7/8/24

Book's cover: love a pink cover featuring the H and h

Format: e-Book, 384 pages

Source: Thanks to NetGalley and Forever(Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC🩷 ! I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Setting: San Antonio, TX

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Multicultural Interests, Women's/Adult Fic

Tropes: plus size h, fake dating, books about books, sports romance, unrequited love, in love w/ BFF, family drama, no strings attached

HEA/HFN ending: HEA

Epilogue Included: yes, 1 month later, meet the parent

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: Marcela gets the surprise of her life when her BFF Ben announces he's getting married- too bad she's in love with him. Ben's older brother Theo wants to confess he's in love with Ben's fiancée Alice, but Marcela pulls him away so he won't embarrass himself. After his drunken night, Theo awakes with Marcela by his side, and let his family believe they hooked up. Marcela believes a rebound will finally help her get over Ben. As they spend more time together, feelings shift between them.

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F

Amount of Sex In The Book: enough

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Marcela Ortiz-27, Mexican American, a librarian who has been in love with Ben since college when they briefly dated.

Theo Young-Ben's older brother, ex NFL player in love w/ brother's fiancée and wants to confess it in front of everyone.

Ben-Marcela's BFF

Alice Cho-Ben's fiancée

Angela-Marcela's BFF

H /h RELATIONSHIP INFO

OW/OM/Exes: The "love square" between Marcela, Ben, Alice, and Theo

AUTHOR OVERVIEW: Gabriella Gamez-debut author

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

COMMENTS/NOTES: I identified with Marcela's body image issues and her love of books. Believing she wasn't good enough caused her a lot trauma. Marcela's parents divorce and her father's abandonment added to her complicated relationships. I loved Theo because he accepted her even though they were polar opposites. He was the athlete coaching football and she was the bookworm with a book club, love of special editions, and Goodreads😉 . This reminders me of the movie The Wedding Date when the bride to be had an affair with the best man-her sister's ex. And of course My Best Friend's Wedding when former lovers turned BFFs with one getting married and the other believing they were still in love, and tried to get them back.

This book was okay. I had a good time reading it, but I wasn’t in love with the characters or the story all that much. Marcela and Theo’s connection, Marcela falling out of love with Ben… it all felt a bit too rushed in my opinion. Also, a lot of things happened off the page, and I’m not a huge fan of that writing style. I want you to show me things, not tell me.

Overall, this was a fun, quick read, but not a memorable one.

Marcela is in love with her best friend, but now that he’s engaged, she knows she need to get over it. At her best friend’s engagement party, Marcela runs into his older brother Theo, who is in love with the bride to be, Theo is drunk and ready to confess his feelings, but Marcela stops him and brings him back to her place to sleep it off. When they show up the next day at brunch together, everyone assumes they hooked up, so they decide to lean into it and start a fake relationship. I loved the premise of this and thoroughly enjoyed this book. Marcela was a great character and I appreciated her growth throughout the book. My only complaint is that I wish we got more from Theo’s point of view.