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.

I had a good time with this book! Following a librarian and an ex-NFL player getting over their exes in an interesting love square was a nice change of pace from my usual romance reading. Marcela and Theo are a fun couple, exploring steamy attraction while coming to terms with their own feelings.

I would recommend this book to romance readers that like a friends with benefits and fake dating story along with a love square and will they won’t they vibes.

An ARC copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Yes please and thank you! This was phenomenal. I had so much fun with Theo and Marcela. I loved that they were in it together from the start and it was meant to be a rebound, not making the engaged couple jealous. It wasn’t a show, it was all real. A loooootttt of talk of trust and honesty here which I loved. Two people who make each other better and hold each other accountable! So swoony and sweet. I love Theo, need him in my life.

The Next Best Fling was a sweet and very readable romance. It took a few chapters for me to get into it, but I was hooked once I did. While I didn’t fall in love with this book, I will be am eagerly awaiting the next book in in the Librarians in Love series which is probably (hopefully!) about Angela.

✨️ ARC Review ✨️

Happy Monday, bellezas! I'm back with yet another review and this one might be the one responsible for the current heat wave.

"The Next Best Fling" by Gabriella Gamez is one of ny favorite debuts of the year, and it gives us the story of Marcela, a plus-size librarian with a heart of gold, a love for YA books, and hopeless romantic. And Theo Young, an retired NFL player, brother of the man she's been secretly in love with and, according to everyone, he's bad news. But they both have something in common, they are in love with people who are engaged to someone else. Theo is in love with his brother's fianceé and planning to confess on their engagement party. But when Marcela stops him she convinces him to sleep at her place, leaving evryone thinking that something more was happening.

Not clearing up the rumos becomes beneficial for both of them and soon they decide to become eachother's rebound in order to forget the people from their past. However, what starts as a fling soon grows into something deeper and what they have is not enough.

Well, how do I say this? I LOVED IT! This book is filled with drama, angst, banter, book references, and great spice! You can really see the characters change and grow, the romance bloom slowly, and it was a lot of fun. Also, Theo was such a great MMC, very caring and patient. It was perfection! I will totally continue with the series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

This book comes out TOMORROW, July 9, 2024. Make sure you pre-order this baby! Huge thanks to @netgalley and @readforeverpub for the ARC. All opinions are of my own.

This book was cute, but unfortunately not super memorable or a stand out read to me. I'm rating it a 3 star. I enjoyed the book, but overall I didn't just *love* it.

This book is a bit chaotic because there is a bit of a love square happening. Marcella is in love w/ her best friend Ben. Ben is marrying his long time girlfriend Alice. Ben's brother Theo is in love with Alice. Marcella and Theo "fake date" to get over Ben and Alice. It was MESSY.

Ben is actually a horrible character and I hated every single scene he was in (which is a lot of the book because he is a main character lol)

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I think this author has a bright future with her story writing! I will consider picking up her next books so long as there isn't a character like Ben lol

The Next Best Fling by Gabeiella Gamez is the quientiitial in love with your best friend and in serious need of healing story!! Marcella was so head over heels in love and Ben was so completely oblivious to what was right in front of his face. Although I loved this story , the mmc ( bestie ) was such an annoyance that Marcella definitely deserved more in the relationship, whether platonic or not

A quick and easy spicy read. Some of the plot was a bit messy and I would have like a bit more of an emotional connection to and between the characters. Overall it was an okay read. 2.5 stars

If you’re looking for a messy, drama filled, spicy, HEA romance, read this book!

The Next Best Fling 🌸 ARC Review
publish date: 7/9/2024

Marcella is a very strong and capable FMC despite her past struggles in life. Theo is our misunderstood golden retriever MMC. These two are perfect together and I loved how their pasts brought them together even if I was in a very messy way. The banter, the love, the tension, the SPICE! Lastly, I just love a man who figures out what they want and just goes for it, Theo is that man! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, would recommend!

🏷️debut novel | romance | netgalley | arc reader | bookstagram | book review | spicy romance

Thank you to @netgalley, @gabbywritesalot & @readforeverpub for this advanced reader copy!

The Next Best Thing is an affecting romance with good banter and interesting characters. Marcela is a plus size woman. Her experiences as such are well portrayed. She has confidence in herself, and Theo is attracted to her as a fat woman, but she has to deal with a world that sometimes is not accepting or kind. I thought it was a well-balanced portrayal of life today as a larger person.

Marcela’s love for her unavailable friend struck a true chord for me. While not being in the same situation, I had a lot of experience when I was younger accepting only crumbs from the wrong people instead of what I deserved. The depiction of the ongoing inner conflict in Marcela over her feelings for Ben was true to life for me.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Thank you so much to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC of this book via NetGalley. These are my honest thoughts!

I was HOOKED on this book from the very beginning! Marcela is such a strong female lead in this book, caught in a weak moment of loving her best friend of ten years, who gets engaged to his girlfriend right away. Enter best friend Ben's brother, Theo. There's some underlying family drama that Marcela isn't privy to, until the engagement party night, where we find out that she's in love with Ben, and Theo's in love with Ben's fiancé. Yikes. Marcela stops Theo from making a fool of himself, taking him back to her apartment to sleep it off, and then the fake dating scheme begins.

Theo and Marcela actual become friends, and the fake feelings don't feel so fake. Swoon.

Okay, so I was hooked on this book from the get-go, so you might be wondering why it only gets 3.75 stars? There were just a few things that bothered me as I read.
- lots of repetition; we know Marcela has abandonment issues, we know that she's been pining for Ben and that she needs to get over it... we heard it enough times that I couldn't forget. Ever.
- By the end of the book, we know that Theo was into Marcela nearly from the beginning of their fake dating. There just weren't enough HINTS ABOUT IT along the way. I was honestly just waiting for him to blow it up and do something terribly wrong. But it wasn't the good kind of tension building between them? It just didn't work for me.
- Marcela is incredibly insecure. As an insecure girlie myself, I get it. But I would've loved for us to move past it and/or for Theo to establish some trustworthiness so that Marcela had someone being confident for her.
- Too much internal drama. Found myself skipping some of the repetitive thoughts/actions/lines of thinking.
- Too much deceit or perceived deceit. Is Theo the bad guy? Is Ben? Is the fiancé? Is the fiancé's bff? Is Marcela the self-sabotaging one who will ruin it all? It felt very high school, but not in the Taylor Swift way ;)

This was a strong book, and I'll definitely pick up whatever Gabriella Gamez comes out with next. But I won't be buying a shelf copy of this one for my shelves... make sense?

Unfortunately, this is going to be a DNF at 30%.

There isn't anything troubling about it; it's pretty okay as far as debuts go... It's just sadly not working for me.
You can easily get into the story, and it has a fun plot, I guess, but I just feel that I'll ultimately end up rating it a 2.5/3 star read.

The premise of "she wanting the groom and him wanting the bride so they just fake with each other to get through it" is tricky to get emotionally invested in because it's always the question of "are they truly over the other?".
There's also a few other small nitpicks that started to annoy me...

What you can expect:
• librarian fmc
• ex nfl player mmc
• best friend/ex's older brother
• fake dating
• rebound/no-strings attached
• plus size/Mexican American fmc

*𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 (𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨) 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘪𝘯-𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸*

while the FMC trusted her secret crush/bff even though he had strung her along for years, it was nice to see that the actual plot didn't expect us to follow suit, instead providing the much better match of the family black sheep.