This book is SO DANG GOOD. It’s the perfect balance of swoon worthy romance (I love a blonde MMC again—watch out Jack Smith-Turner, you have competition) and great plot. I think this book explores the insecurities of a woman existing in a large body while also not defining the FMC, which is a delicate balance. The FMC is very relatable in general without feeling like the author relied on clichés to develop a relationship with the reader. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book—from the pacing, to the plot, to the lovely and realistic romance, this is a great read.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and Forever @ReadForeverPub (Grand Central Publishing) for this gifted eARC. Pub date for this book is July 8th.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ahhh what a cute debut romance! 💗 there are some individuals who take the romance genre and elevate it. I definitely feel like this book could fall into that category. While the tropes used are fun and the spice is great there are so many layers to this story. I’ll keep specifics quiet because I don’t wanna spoil anything 🤫

I loved both Theo and Marcela!! This book dives deeper than a typical romance and both of these characters grow so much mentally and emotionally throughout this book. Our female main character Marisela is a Mexican American who is plus sized and a huge book lover! I absolutely adored her and honestly would read more books with her featured in it. Theo is a former professional football player who is quite the mysterious and swoon-worthy male lead.

Lastly, it is evident that the author is a fan of books and libraries. As someone who is a huge library fan I loved to see that reflected on the pages. So many bookish elements throughout the book (that again I won’t share for spoilers sake). Just know that as a reader I was eating everything up!


Read if you like
💗 Best friends brother
💗 Fake dating
💗 Bookish life - FMC is a librarian
💗 Spiiiice

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more by this author in the future!

When I saw the cover of this book, I immediately wanted to read it as a fellow fat girlie (Leni Kauffman's designs are always stunning!)

Admittedly, I was a tad apprehensive when I read the blurb as storylines that feature love triangles (or in this case a square) especially involving family can be tricky if not written with a certain amount of nuance. Having now read the story and given additional thought to how this particular love square turned out, while I did like the story, I do wonder if perhaps a different twist of the events leading to same outcome wouldn't have been a better choice.

That being said, there were some key themes which this book explored that I wish had been handled a bit differently. Notably among them, Marcela's self-perception and how this came out in her internal monologue. I am mindful that sometimes when a fat FMC is portrayed, some authors tend to skew to the FMC being hyper-confident and gloss over the challenges that that FMC would have had to overcome to develop that confidence (given societal pressures etc). I can appreciate the effort to not go this route and actually shed light on the aforementioned challenges with developing positive self-perception in this story, but there were a few places where I found Marcela's internal thoughts to be a bit off-putting.

However, all of the above notwithstanding. I liked the interaction between Theo and Marcela and how it blossomed even though it was a bit of an insta-love situation which all things considered may require a bit more suspension of disbelief than one may typically have to employ.

I am mindful that this is a debut novel and Gabriella Gamez has indeed done a commendable job (I should note if you like drama in your romances, this story *certainly* provided that). I look forward to reading Gamez's future work and seeing how her storytelling skills evolve.

Special thanks to Read Forever for providing a copy of the ARC.

Very cute easy going romance with interesting plot and character developments. While the bones of this book are all familiar, this romance has certain freshness to it. Set in San Antonio, it follows Marcela, a Latina YA librarian (never seen that profession in a book!) who is hopelessly in love with her just-a-friend guy Ben. Ben is about to marry Alice, Marcela's once close friend. Now, at their engagement party, Marcela overhears Ben's brother practicing a confession for Alice and saves him from himself. But the tangled web they weave is healing, romantic, fun, deep, and changes their lives. Really enjoyed this read and felt it was swoony, heart touching, healing, and deep.

In Gabriella Gamez's captivating novel, "The Next Best Fling," librarian Marcela Ortiz finds herself entangled in a complex web of unrequited love and forbidden desire. Having harbored secret feelings for her best friend for years, Marcela is crushed when he becomes engaged. Desperate to move on, she encounters Theo Young, the ex-NFL player and older brother of her unrequited love. When Theo confides in Marcela his plans to confess his feelings for the bride-to-be, Marcela intervenes to prevent a scandal. As they spend the night together to avoid the confession, a fabricated cover story takes hold. To distract themselves from their unrequited yearnings, Theo and Marcela embark on a rebound relationship. Amidst stolen glances in library aisles and intimate nights, they discover a simmering chemistry that threatens to unravel their carefully constructed lies. As they grapple with complicated feelings, messy family dynamics, and hidden secrets, their rebound relationship becomes a lifeline. However, the risks of their charade loom over them, threatening to shatter the fragile connection they have built. Gamez skillfully weaves a tale of unrequited love, forbidden desire, and the unexpected consequences of a rebound fling. Marcela and Theo's characters are complex and relatable, their struggles and choices echoing the complexities of human relationships. The novel explores themes of self-acceptance, the boundaries of love, and the unexpected ways in which our hearts can lead us astray. With its captivating plot, vivid characters, and thought-provoking themes, "The Next Best Fling" is a testament to the power of love and the complexities of the human heart.

The Next Best Fling is a solid debut novel. I've been out of the dating game for quite awhile, so someone more entrenched may find a better connection to the story. Still, I appreciated the physical and emotional challenges faced by the characters and how they handled them. The characters are both relatable and likeable, with real problems.

This book was cheesy in all the right ways. It had humor and a realistic love story with not so common lead which we need more of! I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a romcom to read.

If you love fake dating, love squares and drama, this is the book for you! Theo and Marcella's story was full of laughs and heart and I loved the bookish aspects and representation of Marcella's character. I did think that some of the drama was a little much at times, but the relationship and growth of Theo and Marcella made up for it!

I was immediately obsessed with this book from the first few chapters. I quite literally devoured the entire thing in less than 24 hour, and I loved it all. It was messy, angsty, dramatic, and SPICY but also so so heartwarming. The messier and more dramatic parts just made the dialogue and plot seem that much more real. The characters each really felt like real, complicated people in their own right.

Librarian x NFL player is a combo I never knew I needed, but it was so good. Along with that, this book also has best friend's brother (with a fun twist from the typical), fake dating, and a love triangle (square?). It touched on trust/abandonment issues and very real relationship issues and insecurities that I think a lot of readers could relate to.

I absolutely loved Theo, he is just the most lovable but complicated teddy bear MMC. Marcela would truly take a bullet for any of her friends, and I related to her in a lot of ways. I also LOVED Angela, which is somewhat rare for me. Best friend characters in romance books can have a tendency to be overly tropey, unoriginal, or just annoying. But Angela was none of these at all. She was so supportive, but knew when to give Marcela the hard truth; and their friendship together was beautiful and so real.

I honestly wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting a physical copy once it releases to reread and annotate!

This is a debut author?! Seriously?

Marcela has been in love with her best friend Ben for the last 10 years and now he’s engaged to her former friend… Marcela is just waiting for him to open his eyes and see what’s in front of him.

Theo is in love with Alice, Ben’s fiancé. Yeah. It’s sticky. So Theo and Marcela decide the best way to get over their past is to have fun with each other. And well, we know where that’s gonna go.

I’m a hopeless romantic. We know that. And I LOVE when a man is detailed and puts careful thinking into things he does. Ahhhh Theo!!! Such a great guy. My heart hurt for him more often than not.

I loved this book! It was everything I didn't know I wanted from this book. It had two flawed characters who knew they were flawed and were working on themselves, not only for each other but for themselves. Marcela and Theo were beautiful together. I wanted to see them together forever. I also wasn't entirely expecting the ending which was refreshing. I also enjoyed the depiction of Marcela as a librarian and how it's not always a glamourous job.

There was a lot of things I really loved about this book! A girl obsessed with books? Absolutely! An NFL-player? OH YES PLEASE.

This was a complicated story, but the main characters really were adorable and perfect for each other.

When I say I devoured this uhhh it was so good! Marcela is a plus size librarian who has been secretly in love with her best friend for years(who is a walking red flag btw) who knows it’s time to move. She gets that opportunity in a way she never expected. In comes Theo Young a ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with she has only been around Theo a handful of times so when she discovers Theo's plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party she can’t let that happen even if a part of her thinks that would bring her closer to Ben so she convinces him to leave the party with her now the next morning everyone assumes they hooked up. To hide the reason they actually left together they let people think that which leads them to being each others rebound. Okay so the miscommunication trope I’m usually not the biggest fan, where there is poor communication, and the main characters feelings are being mixed around it can be a bit frustrating, but Theo literally wore his heart on his sleeve his honesty was so refreshing he was pretty much a open book about most things and his and Marcela’s relationship and how they were so good for each other and literally helped each other in many ways they didn’t even realize at the time and how much they each grew through to the very end was amazing to see. Speaking of the ending wow! So thankful I got to read this early it was incredible.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! I usually don't love the fate dating trope especially when the two leads are in love with other people, but wow! Gabriella Gamez did such a great job at making Marcela and Theo's connection feel genuine. It wasn't love at first sight which would have been so unbelievable for these characters. The way their unrequited love faded and their love for each other grew was perfectly paced and relatable! I look forward to more books by this author.

This was a fast and cute read. I loved the character development of Theo, you get to see his family relationship problems and issues. It will be a cute add to a library's romcom collection. I would recommend to fans of Lessons in Chemistry and such.

This one follows a librarian Marcela, and ex NFL player Theo. Theo also happens to be the brother of Marcela’s best friend. The best friend that Marcela is secretly pining for, but cannot say anything because he is engaged to be married. While Theo is in love with the Bride to be. 🙀

It is a sweet romance, while also dealing with some heavier topics. I really enjoyed watching Marcela and Theo’s relationship from fake to real. Theo is the absolute sweetest and he is bound to be the next book boyfriend!

This book unfortunately fell a bit flat for me. I found myself having to essentially force myself to keep reading it. I need a book to grab my attention right away and this just didn’t do that for me. I loved seeing a plus size main female character for a change but in general the writing fell flat for me. Parts of the story were hard for me to believe as well. For example the fact that she fell instantly in love with Theo despite originally being a bit freighted by him just didn’t make sense to me. Overall the story was cute but it just wasn’t for me. The writer has so much potential though so I would certainly give her next book a try!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

irstly, thank you to @readforeverpub for this ARC

I really enjoyed this book; it was such a cute but messy read, which is right up my alley lol.

So get this: Marcela is in love with her bestie Ben, but Ben just got engaged to his girlfriend Alice. At their engagement party, Marcela overhears Ben’s older brother Theo (who happens to be an ex-NFL player 👀) about to confess his feelings for Alice. Marcela, being the selfless queen she is, stops him from ruining their engagement. With Marcela and Theo being in the same position, both in love with one half of this engaged couple, it’s only natural they would use each other as a fling. But of course, it’s never that simple/complicated 🤭

I really love that Marcela is a plus-size character, and sadly I haven’t read many books whose FMC reflects bodies like mine, so I loved being able to relate to Marcela on that level. I also loved the LatinX representation as well! Outside of Marcela, I also really liked Theo’s character; he’s just a giant teddy bear!! However, Ben can kick rocks with open-toed shoes (if you know you know 😂)

Definitely look out for this one on July 9th, 2024!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Next Best Fling was not for me. When I read a book, I want to be absorbed in it....unfortunately, there was nothing noteworthy about this book. I thought the whole premise of this story was unbelievable. It's hard to believe that Marcela and Theo were hung up on other people for years!! I didn't feel any chemistry between the main characters. I also didn't care for most of the side characters. The drama of the book was too much for me to follow/care about. Thank you to Forever for the ARC.

This book was absolutely everything and anything I love in a romance read! The characters were so relatable, but complex enough that you were left wanting to know more. The romance had an insane amount of chemistry that kept me smiling and reading throughout the night. I cannot recommend this book enough for those of you who enjoy reading heartwarming, funny, and beautiful love stories!