I am straight up begging all book lovers to read this, there are scenes that are written specifically to knock you off your feet by swooning.

I adored this. It was so earnest in its messiness, but also so steadfast in its promise to produce happiness. It's delightfully hilarious and adorably endearing, and at its heart are two people terrified of being hurt, of losing what and who they love, and how they hold themselves together through bad decisions and lots of kissing. It's so good.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this arc! This book was a fun, easy read! It kept me engaged, and I couldn’t put it down. I loved the library representation! Can’t wait for others to get their hands on it!

Marcela and Theo are both trying to get over people who don’t love them back. They cdecide to ‘Fake Date’ to help Theo after almost ruining a wedding. The best way to get over someone is to get under someone new, right? It can be, just make sure to not catch feelings in the process.

I devoured this book so fast😭 I love the characters, the raw and honest way we got to see them handle their past and insecurities. I loved how much we see them grow as people and develop feelings for each other. Truly amazing!

The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez is a delightful romantic comedy that offers readers a fun and entertaining escape. Gamez's witty dialogue and engaging characters keep the pages turning as we follow the adventures of the lovably flawed protagonist on her quest for love. While the plot may follow some familiar tropes, Gamez injects enough freshness and charm to keep readers invested until the very end. With its humor, heart, and steamy romance, The Next Best Fling is a thoroughly enjoyable read that earns its place on my bookshelf.

This book is one of the cutest debut romances I've read in a long time. The characters were unique and called out the tropes, which I always enjoy. Theo was a delight. I appreciated his honesty with Marcela and his cinnamon roll heart. His romantic gestures killed me!! Marcela has a lot of trauma and you see that reflected in her actions. I appreciated that things didn't get dragged out too long because of that. I hate when secrets cause huge issues later on and that was not the case here. I also appreciated that there was no woman on woman hate. Marcela and the bride aren't catty with one another and are very kind.
Ben was quite the character. I liked how you saw him the way Marcela did at the beginning but then as time goes on, you learn along with her what his real character is like.
As a librarian, it always makes me happy when main characters are librarians. Marcela being a teen librarian made me super squishy. I also appreciated her passion for the genre, the kids, diversity, and accessibility. She has the kind of attitude a lot of librarians have, which really fit.
This story is liker a delicious starbucks drink. Yeah, it tastes the same, but that's why I go back, every single time. I eagerly look forward to her next book in this series.
And I really really hope she picks one of Marcela's coworkers to be the main character....

You had me at librarian romance!

Now I’m not one for a love triangle (square?) trope, but I liked the characters in this book so much that that kind of made up for that. There were points throughout the book that I wondered whether Marcela would choose to be with Ben or Theo, but I was ultimately happy with the ending!

I am curious to see where this series goes when the second book gets released next year!

This book was really cute, and the angst was high! What could go wrong when one main character (Theo) is in love with his brother’s fiancée, and the other main character (Marcela) is in love with aforementioned fiancée’s betrothed, who has been her best friend for years?! They end up pretending to date and it gets messy af, but Marcela and Theo are undeniably adorable together.

There’s fake dating, familial drama, grand gestures, and some swoony chemistry! I will say that the will they/won’t they and miscommunication tropes made this feel a bit drawn out to me, but overall, the story was really sweet and I loved the emotional depth this book achieved.

I also just love a book with bookish moments (the female main character is a librarian and there are so many awesome things related to that)!

I’m looking forward to seeing where this series goes next!

3.75⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

the way i LITERALLY could not put this book down!

I absolutely adored Theo & Marcela. They had SO MUCH outstanding personal growth on both sides. I adored watching them grow separately and together. It was steamy, spicy, angsty, funny and heartwarming all at the same time. I loved that we got to see Alice, Theo and Marcela all make amends. I hate Ben. like with a passion, i was worried he would make a second come back and they’d make amends - i’m so glad we never saw him again 🙄


I so enjoyed the fact that our FMC was plus size and it wasn’t awkwardly and constantly thrown in your face. It was mentioned when she was having inner dialogue when she was uncomfortable about something or having self doubt which is normal. I related to her character so much and HATED Ben (again - hate him sm) when she realized he “sidelined” her because of the way she looked. like
boy bye.

loved this sm! I will absolutely be returning to this author for more stories!

What if the love of your life is getting married to your ex-best friend and you catch his brother rehearsing a speech to ruin the wedding?

Read The Next Best Fling to find out more. Marcela and Theo are both trying to get over people who don’t love them back. They come up with a plan to ‘Fake Date’ to take the suspicion off Theo for almost ruining the wedding. The best way to get over someone is to get under someone new, right? It can be, just make sure to not catch feelings in the process.

If you enjoy reality television or even just listening to drama while not being involved, this book is for you. This book is incredibly messy and entertaining. Gabriella Gamez knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote an ex-cowboy player love interest.

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Gabriella Gamez, you know how to write a story. And you know how to write a story where I felt SO seen. I too had a Ben, his name was Ben too, and an Alice. I alas, did NOT have a Theo. But I did see myself in the struggles that Marcela goes through and let me tell you, this book was a therapy session for my 20-something year old self. The growth between the Marcela and Theo of their own journeys and the one they take themselves was such a fun read. I specifically loved the realization Marcela makes, it gave Wendy realizing she needs to go home in Neverland and grow up. I know this is kind of all over the place but I just absolutely loved this book. 4.5 stars!

This was such a cute debut book! The tropes are so fun and the spice was well written. I love the dynamic of a librarian and a former football player. I ate this up! I can’t wait to read more by this author !!!

Meh. Things felt like a collection of other books to me, so much of it felt vaguely recycled. I loved the body positivity and the struggles that Marcela goes through, but the best friend subplot just didn’t work, I didn’t feel like she would have put up with that shitty behavior from Ben for so long. And I didn’t care for or relate to the resolution.

Let’s see…. The Next Best Fling has romance, spice, and ex-NFL player, forbidden love- what more could you ask for? Gabriella Gomez writes a fast paced, easy, fun read & the main character Marcella is so dang lovable! Gomez knocks it out of the park with her debut work - You’ll want to read this one!

Thank you NetGalley & Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC copy of this book.

DNF, This book was not for me unfortunately. I started it because it was recommended, but it has too much spice for me personally.

***Definitely Spoilers ahead***


This was so fun and easy to read. It moved along at a fast clip without being rushed or poorly done. I really liked Marcela and Theo's relationship, which springs from their separate pining for the two halves of an engaged couple. Marcela is pining after Ben, her college best friend who gave her the better off as friends speech. Theo is pining after Alice, his childhood best friend who is engaged to Ben. Marcela finds Theo hyping himself up to confess to Alice at the engagement party and manages to convince him to reconsider and sleep it off on her couch. When they arrive at the next day's engagement event, everyone assumes that they're together and they decide to let the rumor thrive with the logic that the best way to get over someone is to get under someone. From there they embark on a rebound in which the boundaries blur quickly, and the feeling get real fast.

I liked this book a lot. As I stated above, it's fun, easy to get through and engaging. Theo and Marcela are a great couple. Theo is the epitome of book boyfriend: he's rugged and manly without fear of his feelings. What lost it the star was Ben and Alice and some of the timeline issues.

I simply couldn't have empathy for Ben and Alice because they were such terrible people. Ben clearly was keeping Marcela around in an 'if I can't have you, no one else will' way in that he bad mouths all of her relationships to sabotage them. Ben makes sure to try and bomb Marcela and Theo's relationship by painting his brother as a womanizing whore who will hurt her. He doesn't find her attractive but keeps her around under the guise of 'best friends' while carrying on behind his fiancee's back to hang with her after fights. I'm not sure that Ben didn't initially begin dating Alice to kick Theo when he was at his worst due to their already poor relationship. It seemed too coincidental that he told Theo about asking her out right when he'd received bad career news...

Alice is no better. Alice began dating Ben knowing that someone who called her 'friend' was dating him and saddened by his rejection as well as knowing that Theo, Ben's brother believed that he was in love with her. She gave out Marcela's number to Theo and then immediately told her friends, one of whom thinks that she has 'dibs' on Theo to go and spy and talk shit about their date. Alice even admits to knowing that what she did was shitty and that she should have either not dated Ben or found a way to deal with the fact that she knew Marcela still had feelings for him while he insisted that she stay in his life. I know that Marcela should be considered a bad friend for being in love with a taken man for a decade, but Alice somehow manages to be worse.

The rest of the star comes from the timeline. It's stated that Marcela and Alice met in college and became good friends before Ben rejected a serious relationship with Marcela and began dating him, yet on a date with Theo, Marcela tells him that she ditched the one high school football game she attended with a friend, but doesn't tell him that the friend was Alice. How does that work if Alice and Marcela met in college?

All in all, a good book, but man did I hate the secondary couple.

rating: 3.5

i am so here for bringing back love squares. they’re iconic and they make for the absolute best angst.

here’s the set-up: marcela is in love her best friend, ben. ben is getting married to their semi-mutual friend, alice. ben’s brother theo, is in love with alice. theo and marcela decide to fake a relationship in an effort to win their one true loves and the betrothed couple, ben & alice.

what this book did really well? it let theo be kind of an ahole without revealing too soon his reasons for being said ahole and therefore making us feel empathy for him. for a good part of this book i was kind of like, dude what is your PROBLEM? you know, besides being in love with your brother’s fiancé. we really had to peel this man open like an onion and then he did performed a gesture that made my book-loving heart cry.

this worked so well because we *only* get marcela’s POV. marcela is a librarian and she will speak to every book girlie’s soul. i felt so bad for her, but i also wanted to SCREAM at her because ben really was hot trash using her. alas, she wanted him anyways (we’ve all been there girl).

the chemistry between marcela and theo is immediate, angsty, and pulled so taut it could make you sweat. he picks up on so many of her little loves and quirks and then uses them to win her over and it’s so sweet to follow marcela as she realizes that the things she loves and the woman she is IS beautiful and should be celebrated and appreciated in the way theo says.

recommend this book for a cute lil palate cleanser and for anyone who loves a broody ex-nfl player and ate up love triangles circa 2012

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book had me from the get go! Our FMC (Marcela) is in love with her best friend who just proposed to his girl friend of 8 years -- she's pining. At the engagement party, the groom's brother MMC (Theo) is acting weird, is drunk, and it turns out he is in love with the bride-to-be. We get a friendship to rebound situationship with a lot of emotion, trauma, and spice. The grand gestures they make were chef's kiss!

DNF @ 50%

Big thanks to the author and publisher. I liked the writing style and I found the prose engaging. Unfortunately, I found myself continually frustrated with our main heroine and how she's allowed a singular man to manipulate her for well over 8 years and emotionally control her for his own selfish reasons. If any of you have anyone even minutely resembling Ben in your life, get rid of him now.

I'm not sure how the book ends, but I couldn't get past my frustrations with the Ben/Marcella dynamic and had to put it down.

I would definitely read more by the author, but this story just left me frustrated.