Marcela and Ben have been friends since college and even though Ben said they were better off friends; she has a crush on him. She is devastated when he proposes to Alice and she accepts. Marcela is asked to pick up Ben’s brother for the engagement party. Theo has always loved Alice and is drunk, threatening to ruin the engagement party when Marcela takes him home to her apartment. Their friends talk suspecting there is more to the relationship. Theo and Marcela decide to date to get over their love for Alice and Ben. This is a wonderful book with characters that really draw you in to their relationships. I loved seeing the trust issues both Theo and Marcela worked to dissolve. I marveled at the things Theo did for Marcela to help win her over.

The Next Best Fling was a delightful, fake dating, romantic love triangle story that would make a fun summer read. Marcella is a strong female lead who is the perfect match for sensitive football player Theo. They've got great chemistry, and Theo's thoughtfulness is such a nice compliment to brainy Marcella's independence.

Their love triangle (square?) gets a little tedious at times, with minor miscommunications becoming much bigger speed bumps in order to draw out the plot. I found myself hating toxic, narcissistic Ben from the beginning, and he never grew on me. Luckily, love and calmer heads prevail in the end.

Thank you Forever and Gabriella Gomez for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

A fun read, I enjoyed the drama between Marcela and her friend and that the abusive nature of his actions wasn't clear until later in the narrative, ensuring the conclusion didn't feel wrapped up early

There was so much going on with the relationships in this book (it starts off pretty messy), but ultimately I was rooting for Marcela and Theo from the start. This book really explored the dynamics of both friendships and romantic relationships. I really enjoyed the character growth throughout this book with both main characters learning how to trust and love both themselves and someone else. I found Marcela’s relationship with her body to be very relatable (content warning for fatphobia). Also you could tell this book was written about book lovers by a book lover for book lovers.

I really liked this one!!! had me laughing a few times! Definately recommend. it was cute, funny and spicy.

thank you for the ARC!

This was such a cute romance. I love the whole fake fling aspect and felt it was well done. I really appreciated the LatinX representation as well as the plus size rep that we get with our FMC. And I mean, she’s a librarian so of course us bookish gals are going to eat that up! I’m happy they fell for eachother after thinking they were in love with other people, because obviously fate had other plans 💕
I will post on my bookstagram @thatbookishteach on release day 😀

I didn’t want to put this down!! I loved the library elements (as a library assistant myself). I loved Marcela and Theo and their fake fling - to real fling - actually being together. This book was very messy but so fun!

I didn’t end up finishing this book, not very invested in the story once I started reading, but I really wanted to love it because I liked the description.

I really enjoyed this book! Marcela and Theo both have it bad because Marcela is in love with her best friend Ben, & Theo is in love with his brother Ben's (yup that ben) fiance, Alice. So after Marcela is seen stopping Theo from doing something he will absolutely regret, people just start assuming they are together!! So of course in any good romance book, they take this as a sign to start fake dating each other so they can hopefully get over their feelings.

One thing I really liked about this book was Marcela was a Plus size FMC, but that was not the whole focus on the book! As a plus size girl myself, I love when there is representation of it, but it doesn't take over the whole plot! The love, communication, and flirting these two share between each other is SWOON WORTHY. My man Theo here has such a big heart despite the reputation Marcela had for him based of the couple times she met him beforehand. And Marcela is a librarian so she shares the love for books I had which I really loved. Definitely recommend!

I loved this book. It was such a cute romance of fake fling to the real thing. A taboo of being in love with your best friend for years to only end up with his brother. When the best friend gets engaged and his brother is is also in love with the bride to be. With all the emotions and feelings and grand gestures of love.

The cover grabbed me, and the blurb sold me. It was cute, angsty, a bit messy, but I ate it up — right up my alley!!

As a Latina myself, I also appreciate representation in romance books. Can’t wait to read more from this author!

Wow this has me excited for more from Gabriella , this was Juicy book full of angsty tension and plenty of emotional moments. I was instantly hooked from the very beginning until the end and for the entirety I rooted for Theo and Marcela! I loved these characters so much! Also the plus size representation was beautiful in this

Marcela is a bookish Mexican librarian who's been in love with her best friend/ex for ten years but now he's engaged. On the day of his engagement party, she finds out his brother, Theo, is in love with the fiancée.

She stops Theo from drunkenly confessing his love and they leave the party together and everyone assumes they hooked up. Marcela and Theo play along and then decide to try and get over their feelings by hooking up for real and things get pretty steamy.

I loved the representation in The Next Best Fling and I also loved all the bookish things, the way Theo turns out to be way different than what Marcela first though, and how Marcela learns to be honest with and respect herself and open herself up to the real love she deserves.

I simply can’t express how much I’m in love with this book
It’s a sweet romance with lots of positivity
You are beautiful, you are unique in your own way. Don’t let other people tell you otherwise.

I typically don’t go for books with a love triangle or love square, but this story was so good. We have the main characters who despite their broken hearts, really connect with each other and realize there might be more to their fake relationship. I love Marcela and her love of books. Theo is a dream and not at all what his brother painted him out to be. They made sense to me from the beginning.

Cute, lighthearted romance where two keep each other from emotionally destroying an engagement. If you want a quick romance read, this is the book for you.

This was a really solid debut novel! If you love fake dating and books that talk about books then The Next Best Fling will be right up your alley!

I loved the premise of the book and thought it was a really interesting and new take on the fake dating trope. I loved Theo’s character growth and I definitely think he was my favorite character in the book. I actually even wish the book would have been dual pov so his background could have been even more fleshed out.

I love the conversations about Marcela’s struggle with her weight and body confidence. That was a very related part of the book and pulled at my heart strings because I have felt the same way many times in my life.

I will say I wasn’t crazy about the actual progression of the romance. It felt like too much too fast. I wanted more moments with Theo and Marcela that didn’t revolve around Ben and Alice. It felt like some scenes were a bit repetitive and the book could have been a bit shorter.

Overall, a solid book and I look forward to reading more form this author in the future. Thank you to Gabriella Gomez, Forever Publishing, and NetGalley for the arc.

Thanks to Netgalley & Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for access to this
E-ARC! So cute! Loved the characters & the plus-size rep. Definitely recommend!

Where to begin…. I loved this book! I found myself eager to continue reading and to follow Marcela’s journey through romantic relationships, self-love, and overcoming abandonment trauma.

I enjoyed the emotional depth of the characters throughout this book. The characters seemed well rounded and developed in the best way. I felt connected to multiple characters and found myself really rooting for Marcela and Theo.

They had many obstacles to overcome separately but did so in the comfort of each other - I found their story to be beautiful and wholesome.

The layers to the characters were interesting and realistic on a human level - they were full of good and bad qualities. I find that in a lot of books (especially romance) that the characters seem to fall in love and then all of their “bad” qualities or worries completely disappear.

Yet, I found with this book it did an amazing job with connecting to the reader about how Marcela was feeling emotionally and it made it very easy to either relate to her or understand it. Even with Theo, even though you don’t get his pov, the author did a great job as showcasing how he was feeling through Marcela.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves romance and who is looking for a good, fast read with depth.

I am happy I received an e-arc of this book. It was an amazing read. I’ll definitely be recommending this one to everyone!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley, Forever, and Gabriella Gamez for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Oh my gosh this has to be my favorite book of the year! I could not get enough of it, and I wish I could have called out of work to read it in one shot. Thank you so much for this opportunity again!

One of the things that appealed to me a lot about this book was that Marcela reminded me a bit of me. She has my dream job – being a librarian – and she was able to work on building a teen book club, something that I wanted to do while I was working at my local public library. The difference between us was that hers was actually successful, and I was super happy for her. She’s also more on the curvy side (re: fat, nothing is wrong with being fat and I’m hoping that I can also learn to not think of that word as always having a negative connotation) which so am I so it was nice to see a chubby girl getting some on the cover. Love it so much – oh also huge shout out to Leni Kauffman for such a bad ass cover job as always!

I was debating on whether I should put some of my favorite quotes in this review, but I think I’ll leave it out so that when people read it, they can enjoy it for the first time. So no more quotes in the review unless someone asks me for it directly!

Another thing that I personally really liked about this book was how Theo was really open and honest with Marcela and how even though he was really angry about something that Marcela lied about, he didn’t immediately turn her away and tell her he never wanted to see her again. He let her in and said that even though he was mad, they should still talk about it. I’ve been really liking the fact that more recently published romance novels have been showing their characters work on healthy communication with one another and showing that they are working on themselves and their relationships in a healthy way. Yes, I totally said “healthy” twice, but that’s how much I really appreciate it. There were so many moments in this book where – if this book was written maybe ten or so years ago – they would have had a major blow out, not talk to each other for a few days or even a couple of weeks, and then somehow come back together to talk about the miscommunication that happened with their argument. There wasn’t a moment where one character went “Wait! I can explain!” and then they don’t and the other one gets upsets and leaves before the first person can explain. That was honestly SO REFRESHING and it made me have hope that healthy communication between couples – regardless of status – is possible.

Another thing that I loved that I don’t know if I can say in this to avoid spoilers is what ends up happening between Marcela and Alice. Alice is the woman that Ben proposes to, and Ben is not only Theo’s brother but also the guy that Marcela was pining over for a decade. Marcela and Alice started off as friends but once Ben and Alice started dating, they drifted by the time the book starts. This fragile relationship could have gone in a number of ways, but the way that it did go was just stellar.

SHOUT OUT TO ANGELA! She is the best best friend that Marcela needs in her life. I hope that never changes, and I love that even though Angela doesn’t always agree with Marcela’s decisions, she still stands by her and supports her like a true friend. Honestly, Marcela and Angela have such a strong friendship throughout the course of this book that it’s beautiful to see. I love books that show positive and strong female friendships without any competition or pettiness.

Another way that I relate to Marcela is how hurt she is about her father abandoning her and her mother. That’s exactly how I feel about my own father and how he left my mother, and seeing my mother also single and being the independent boss she is but not finding another romantic love made Marcela’s situation feel pretty close to home. Marcela and her mom have such a close relationship too and it reminds me of my own with my mother. Marcela realizing that her reasons for not wanting to get into an official relationship with Theo because she’s still afraid of abandonment is so close to the chest for me, and I’m glad that she had a conversation with her mother about it.

Shout out to Theo for being one of the sweetest MMCs in a long time! While neither Marcela nor Theo start off perfect, they work together to make themselves better people, and also put in the effort to support each other. I really feel like Theo was one of the main driving forces to this growth with his honesty in a situation that he really didn’t need to be, and I think that Marcela was the reason why. She also held him accountable to change and while there were parts that she did that I didn’t agree with – but understood – knowing that she had Theo in her life to do this with helped her become a better person too. Basically they both worked together to become better, and even though I don’t know if they will show up somewhere in the sequel, I hope that we can continue to see this upward trend of positive change.

All in all, this is one of my all time favorite books that I’ve read, and it’s definitely my favorite book this year so far. It’s only March though, so we will see if it survives by the end of the year, but it was definitely amazing. I highly recommend this one to all the people that love to love love. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.