3.5⭐️
3.5🌶️
🎵Golden - Harry Styles

📚As soon as I saw the blurb for this book I was totally hooked! A love square is something that you don’t see often in plot lines and I was immediately intrigued by the ex professional football player and librarian pairing.

🏈One of my favorite things about this book was the (somewhat) open communication between the two MCs and how it felt like they really wanted the best for each other at any given point throughout the story. Even if separation was necessary, they each put the other first.

📚In some areas, I felt like the plot was dragged out a little too much. Some of the moments between Marcela and Theo felt redundant and like we had already seen things happen before. There was a lot of spoon-feeding information, more telling than showing.

🏈Overall, this was a super cute, fluffy, rom-com book with plus size rep, grand romantic gestures, and tasteful spice.

💌Content Warnings: sexual content, abandonment (father), infidelity, miscommunication

❤️‍🔥Closed-Door Modifications: Chap. 18, Chap. 22, Chap. 31

Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central publishing, and Gabriella Gamez for the opportunity to enjoy this advanced reader copy!

Solid story and I was rooting for the couple. Definitely couldn’t find any redeeming qualities in Ben. The themes of mixed races and body confidence were a nice addition.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️/5

This book was messy y’all. So very messy. And I was here for the mess, but I wasn’t here for the self sabotaging behaviors. It was so fun, loved Theo and his big huge heart, and I wanted to just poke Marcela in the face repeatedly until she said three nice things about herself. It was a fun read, but definitely wasn’t the lightest of RomComs. The football date though? That was adorable.

Five Emojis to Describe This Book: 📚🫣🤡🏈😗

Honestly, I thought I was going to hate this love square but Theo 🥹 he was everything. I absolutely loved every second of his interactions with Marcela. I want more of them, hopefully we can get a glimpse of their future in the next book.

I honestly thought I reviewed this book so either I dreamt it or didn't send it. Either way, I'm having trouble recalling everything about the story coz it's been WEEKS! Apologies if I miss out something or my review isn't perfect!

So, jumping right in, this book's kind of a love square (not sure if that's what it's called) coz Marcela is in love with Theo's older brother though neither Theo nor his brother know, and Theo is in love with his brother's fiancée (Marcela knows) Basically, it's choas that doesn't make an ideal circumstance for Theo and Marcela to be in a relationship. Yet they are each other's rebounds.

Really sorry if I made the book sound stupid here, but I actually enjoyed it. I love confrontations SO MUCH (at least in books) and I'm so happy about how it went here. The MCs really understood each other, definitely not the red flag meets red flag scenario I was dreading. Theo turning up at Marcela's workplace to support her and Marcela listening to all of Theo's perspective, OMG that was so good!! The ending gave me the right closure and of course that's SO important!

As a book lover, it's always a delight to read characters who're not shy to show they love books too, so I'm super excited for the next book in the Librarians in Love series.

What a sweet, complicated love story. I loved the friendships that Marcela had with her coworkers (and am really hoping we get an Angela book next!). Theo was lovely, albeit flawed. I appreciated how the author kept him honest (I wish we got a little bit more from him but we did learn a lot either way).

Ben is the worst. Good luck to Alice in her adventures.

I liked this book but I didn't love it. The ending got really muddled and messy. I feel like nothing was fully wrapped up in the end.

This story was ok, not my favorite. I didn’t love the best friend’s brother aspect, felt a little bit like a revenge dating story. I had a hard time staying connected

I had a lot of fun with The Next Best Fling! I finished it in one sitting and it was an easy read. The male lead is likeable and it feels like a romcom a slight suspension of disbelief - I will say, Ben is definitely the type to post what happened on AITA.
What drew me to this book was that the female lead on the cover did not have "conventional" body type and it does come up but ultimately there are many more facets to Marcela's personality and it is not just about the body that she is in.

I really enjoyed this book. I see so much of my-self in Marcela being a YA librarian for one, and a beautiful, plus sized hopeless romantic with a big heart and still wanting love although it seems scary due to personal issues, kept me intrigued, I had to know how her story ended.
Marcela is in love with her best friend Ben, who is dating her college friend Alice. Then there’s Theo, Ben’s brother who is in love with Alice. He’s a very handsome, tall muscular ex-NFL player who all the women pine over when he’s in town ( I picture Reacher from the series on prime 😊).
Theo and Marcela meet in a very odd position that begets rumors they’re together. So, they pretend they are to keep Theo’s secret. Marcela, in her eyes and everyone else’s is not quite Theo’s type but under unnormal circumstances, he chooses her, lie or not, the woman that they all wouldn’t expect because she’s saved him from doing something horrible. This story is messy, maybe a bit overly examined or drawn out self-deflecting from Marcela but also has good thought out parts that brought pieces together Marcela has a lot of insecurities and fears about herself falling for someone that seem to stem from her father leaving her when she was a child (abandonment issues) and from Ben, her best friend/long time crush manipulating her and having hard opinions about her decisions when it comes to who she chooses to date and about almost everything. Her best girl-friend Angela is a great friend who is honest with her but still validates her feelings and helps her notice things without being mean; just the right amount of “tough love” she needed to get over her delusions when it came to Ben and seeing Theo for who he really is despite Ben’s warnings. Theo may have been bad for her in the beginning (based on everyone around her) and how they ended up in their situation but as the story goes on and their feelings begin to truly come to light and flourish, it gives me- a very hopeless romantic- hope. But of course Marcela has her doubts about the stability of a relationship with Theo especially after he confesses something else to her. There are funny and unsuspected twists and turns, and plenty of romance and grand gestures throughout the book. It was well written besides some overly dramatic drawn out thoughts from Marcela but they also help build her character and they die down as the story goes on and she starts to lose doubt and have faith in herself and Theo.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

2.5 stars rounded up

I applaud anyone who becomes a published author. I think this had a lot of missed potential. I wish we'd gotten Theo's POV. It got to be repetitive so could have been shorter - at the 60% point I couldn't believe I had that much more to go. I wish the miscommunication trope wasn't rampant throughout the entire story - basically any time Marcela could have had an honest conversation with Theo, she resorted to sex instead. I loved Theo but couldn't quite connect with them as a couple and I'm not sure what exactly he saw in her once the fake dating was underway. She mentioned multiple times that she didn't deserve him - no kidding. Ben was an absolute tool and, c'mon, who pines for someone for 10 YEARS? Well, that would be both Marcela and Theo. I thought that part was completely unrealistic. I did like the book talk and library book club scenes.

Gabriella Gamez' debut novel was fantastic!! I was invested from the first page and could not put it down! I loved the relationship between Marcela and Theo, the plus size and Mexican-American rep, and of course the fact that she's a librarian! this shit was MESSSY and I was SAT!

from beginning to end, the author was able to convey incredible depth of feeling with this novel and that is sometimes hard to do in "standard rom-coms". we see Marcela grow so much in relationship with Ben, her body, and her relationship/ commitment issues that stemmed from her absent father. so many times throughout the book i was laughing, gasping, or talking hella shit on Ben. when miss girl sent that text to Ben instead of Theo I slammed my kindle down so fast in FEAR and secondhand embarrassment. and then ALICE SHOWED UP!!???? I think I would have passed out in mortification if this had been me. Ben's a bitch fr but I do hope for everyone's sake that he learns a valuable lesson from this and grows from his mistakes. we saw him fall from the pedestal that Marcela placed him on through her romantic love for him in the beginning, to his inevitable fall and their resolution by the end. we felt everything right alongside her and it was an incredible experience! I'm intrigued to see how the next book in the series plays out bc the ending of this book didn't make it clear on who the main couple would be.

while I had trouble with some of aspects of her career as a librarian (if someone EVER takes me to my place of work aka the library for a date after hours, I might just sue), I really tried to come at it from a perspective of someone who doesn't have this job, but some of the details were just incredibly farfetched. I'm sorry but your fling showing up to your YA book discussion and kissing you (cheek or not) is INSANE to me. her love for An Ember in the Ashes series though reminded me of my bestie and I loved that. the dedication at the beginning of the book was also incredibly sweet and is going down in my list of beloved dedications.

what a FANTASTIC starting point for this author and I'm super excited to read more from her in the future!

This was a really cute romance from 2 characters that had their hearts broken in similar ways. The FMC was very relatable. She constantly overthought every little detail which I have caught myself doing too many times. This story was full of romance, friendships and focused on a librarian obsessed with reading just like many of us!!

This book hooked me in from the first chapter. I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

This book was so different from what I normally read & I do not regret it one bit! Loved the chemistry. I can’t wait to tell my friends about this book when it releases.

This book had a fast-paced plot and I really enjoyed it! I loved relating to the FMC and the tension was PERFECT!!! I wish there was a little bit more of these characters because it fell a little flat at the end BUT I still would highly recommend this fun read.

Marcela Ortiz has been in love with her best friend Ben Young, who also happens to be her ex boyfriend, for 10 years. Marcela is devastated when Ben gets engaged, but she decides to ignore her feelings and play the role of the supportive best friend like she has year after year for Ben. However, that plan changes when Marcela stops Ben's brother Theo from confessing his feelings to Ben's finance Alice at their engagement party. After that, Marcela and Theo decide to start a friends with benefits relationship. When real feeling start to grow for Marcela and Theo, will they be

I really enjoyed The Next Best Fling. Marcela and Theo were so well rounded and were so well developed that it made it so easy to understand their motivations and why they reacted the way they did throughout the book. Marcela and Theo were so easy to root for, and I was so sad when the book was over. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend this to anyone that loves a cute romance book.

The Next Best Fling was a cute fake dating story. Marcela has been in love with her best friend Ben for 10 years but when he gets engaged she isn't excited to go to the party. At the party she meets Ben's brother Theo right before he's about to go in and ruin the party. They decide to fake date. You really need to read this book to see what happens.

I had a great time reading it! I'm about to start school to become a librarian so I enjoyed the fact Marcela is a librarian.

I enjoyed the slow burn romance of this one - as well as the slow move both the characters make towards choosing a new person to love. I like the growth experienced by Marcela, and that she learns to love and accept who she is. I also appreciate that the main character is a curvy one who doesn't shy away from the nature of her body. This story was a quick read for me and I enjoyed it in one sitting.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this as much as i had hoped. The mmc really rubbed me the wrong way for the first chunk and I couldn’t quite get over it no matter how much I liked the fmc. I would absolutely read this author again, but this book specifically wasn’t for me.