The Next Best Fling is the story of two people who each believe themselves to be in love with one half of the same couple. A relationship between the two lonely hearts starts out as a farce, turns into a good distraction, and then ends up being the real thing. I obviously loved the representation of a librarian main character, particularly one living in a larger body. I can’t get enough of that. The male main character was likable enough, but not quite swoonworthy enough for me… I didn’t really get enough character development I don’t think. The book definitely had potential, but it got a little cheesy for me towards the end- however I do think that’s more of a personal preference, and some readers will love the “grand gestures.” I look forward to reading more in the series. This would probably be more of a 3.5 for me- easy to read and enjoyable, but I wish there was more depth to it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

"The Next Best Fling" by Gabriella Gamez is a Rom-com that you absolutely will want to put on your TBR list! This book has all your markers that you want in your next Rom-com-- a love...square?, fake dating, best friends brother, a messy situation-ship,and all the drama of your first time love. This book was a delight from the moment I received this ARC. I also loved to see librarianship represented by a younger person and not portrayed in a negative light, (the YA librarian in me is loving the book club scene!) I think Gamez nailed the feeling of loosing yourself to your first crush/love, that will be relatable no matter your age. Reader's will pick this up for the cover but stay for the character's they will fall in love with. Thank you Net Galley for my ARC!

Thank you to

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"If I could do everything about that night differently and still walk away with you at the end of it, I'd do it this second if it meant being worthy of you."

This story was a quick sweet read. It was full of light-hearted moments, but also very emotional ones. Marcela thought she loved Theo's brother Ben, and Theo thought he loved Ben's fiancé Alice. How twisty that was. However, you could tell from the moments that Marcela and Theo shared, that they were meant to be together. I did have a bit of agitation with Marcela. When she kept avoiding telling Theo her feelings, while he had been so honest with her, I wanted to shake her and say just tell him! I loved that Marcela was a librarian, and that there were little parts where we could see her love for books. The characters are so well written that I loved some and loathed others. If you want to binge a love story that feels relatable and leaves you with a swoon worthy ending, I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable read but I had a hard time suspending belief at the love square trope (which was a major part of the plot). There were so many tropes in this book that it’s sure to offer something for everyone: fake dating/rebound relationship, unrequited love, academic girl/athletic guy, in love with bride/groom. The sexual tension and eventual love between Theo and Marcela was palpable and kept me reading. I loved the Mexican-American, plus-size, and asexual representation in the book. All of the main characters showed considerable growth by the end of the novel and I’m glad that Marcela especially was able to work through some family trauma and see her own worth. I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves reading about books. Who can say no to a romance about a librarian? Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the eARC.

Librarian Marcela Ortiz is secretly in love with her best friend, Ben Young. But he gets engaged to someone else. Retired NFL player Theo Young is secretly in love with his brother’s bride. He needs a distraction to hide his feelings. When Marcela and Theo arrived to a brunch together, everyone assumes they hooked up. They decide to roll with the lie.

This is one of my most anticipated reads this spring book season. As soon as I saw that this is a romance with a librarian female lead, I knew I had to read it. Marcela is passionate about reading. Librarians and bookish people will relate to her character’s love of books-I know I did!

Books aren’t the only thing Marcela is passionate about. She’s also been in love with the same man for years. This man, Ben, is now engaged but keeps meddling in her love life. Honestly, I have so much to say about Ben’s character. Let’s just say, he isn’t the man I thought he’d be 😑 I hope he get some kind of redemption arc one day.

And then we have Theo who has a bad reputation when it comes to relationships but really he’s sort of a romantic cinnamon roll. He sees Marcela for who she is and doesn’t hesitate to show his appreciation of her 😉

What to expect:
✨ Fake dating and friends with benefits
✨ Complicated family dynamic
✨ Bookish references
✨ Drama, drama, drama!

This was one of the best books I’ve read. and it will now be considered a favorite of mine. After each chapter I needed to keep reading just to see what happened next! The only downside was the best friend’s plot twist about her sexuality. I didn’t think that was necessary to the plot. But altogether a great book. Will definitely be purchasing when it comes out. It took me 4 hrs to finish.

I LOVED this book. A librarian. Best friends brother (even though you’ve loved your best friend for years?). Fake dating. Misunderstood male main character. Beautiful grand gesture from both main characters? I loved it so much!

This book so easily got me out of a reading slump. It was straight to plot while also managing to build an authentic and swoon worthy relationship between Marcela and Theo. I was hooked on every characters impact in this story so much I would love a book on all of them. I gave 4/5 stars only because I would have liked to see Marcela interact with some other side characters like Alice (bc I think the relationship was quite important to the story) more but I would recommend this to anyone!!

I think this book is fine, it's probably just not for me. It started out interesting, but I found it hard to keep my interest up past the halfway point.

The premise of the book is interesting, and I liked the characters - Marcela, Angela, Ben, and Alice. Theo feels too much like the stereotypical "perfect boyfriend" to me - the only flaw he seems to have is that he doesn't get along with his brother. It's clearly explained why Ben has issues with Theo, but the explanation Theo gives for his side of the story doesn't seem to warrant the kind of falling out that's described. In addition, I liked the way Marcela continually looks back on her relationship with Ben and starts to realize things she'd ignored or brushed off in the past.

In general the style of writing was okay, but there were occasional sentences that confused me, either because the sentence itself made no sense or because the grammar sounded incorrect.

Overall, it's a fun, light-hearted read about unrequited love and complicated family and friend group dynamics that many will enjoy.

"The Next Best Fling" by Gabriella Gamez is a wild ride full of messy emotions and a whole lot of romance. The story is about a fling between two people who are on the rebound from their first loves, which isn't exactly a common concept in romance novels. And the author totally nailed this!

Theo, the love interest, is a breath of fresh air with his honesty. It's so refreshing to see a character be so open about their feelings. And watching Theo and Marcela's relationship develop was like watching a train wreck in slow motion—in a good way. I was constantly worried how that would end for them.

But let's talk about the messy relationships in this book. You'll be screaming at the characters to just figure it out already! I loved the concept and the way the author executed it, but there was one thing that didn't quite work for me. I just couldn't fully grasp why both Marcela and Theo were so hung up on their first loves. The author tells us why they loved them, but the interactions between them didn't quite convince me.

Also, I get that this was supposed to be a messy love story, but Marcela's constant doubts and fears started to grate on me after a while. Maybe it's just me, though. Even with all the ups and downs, the book ends with a satisfying conclusion. As Marcela says, "He wants the bride, she wants the groom. But what if all they really want... is each other?" If you enjoy some drama, this one is for you.

Thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book is exchange for an honest review.

This book was written for the book girls whose friends growing up were fictional characters and they now have grown up to appreciate the love of reading that much more. I related so hard to Marcela in her love of books, especially the YA genre. I really appreciated that although she was obsessed with books and reading as much as the rest of us she did not make it her whole personality.

Marcela is a great FMC who grows so much throughout this book. Bonus, we get some great plus size and Latina representation. We start off the book with Ben, Marcela's best friend and unrequited love telling her that he is planning on proposing to his girlfriend of 8 years. You immediately feel bad for Marcela, but I also right away felt that something fishy was up with Ben.

Flash forward to the engagement party where Marcela puts her feelings aside to make sure that the wedding is not sabotaged by yet another member of the unrequited love club, Theo, Ben's older and hotter ex-NFL player brother. In my opinion, the only negative of Theo is that he is blonde. Other than that I would love a Theo of my own. Theo is in love with his brother's finance and had plans to tell her at the engagement party. Due to Marcela's intervention, that did not happen.

Theo and Marcela immediately find a connection with one another, even though Marcela does not tell him about her feelings for Ben. They agree to be one another's rebound which leads to some steamy tension and spicy moments. It also leads to these two characters to develop a strong friendship which allows them to confide in one another.

Right away you can tell that Theo is going to fall, and hard. He is there for Marcela and is surprisingly open about his feelings. Honestly, his communication skills should be studied by men and then used because he seems to have mastered the skill. Marcela constantly second guesses his feelings and therefore her own, even after he fills out a library card and participates in book club.

While Theo and Marcela grow closer, Marcela starts to see Ben's true colors. She comes to realize that he always inserted himself into her relationships, including the fake one with his brother. Marcela takes off her rose colored glasses that she wears around Ben and starts to come to the realization that he is actually a crappy friend.

When Marcela accidentally drunk texts her feelings to Ben instead of Theo, all facades are dropped. Ben basically admits that he kept Marcela on the hook as a "just in case," Alice realizes that she can do way better than Ben, and Theo and Marcela finally realize their true feelings for one another. I was so glad that Alice did not end up realizing she had feelings for Theo during this time because I am not sure I would have been able to deal with that heartache.

Along the way Marcela goes through a journey of growth. She becomes more comfortable in her own skin with Theo, who basically worships her. She also realizes that not everyone is going to leave her, and with the realization comes the trust bond between her and Theo.

Looking past the pining of Alice, Theo is every book girls dream. He appreciates and admires Marcela's passion for books and doesn't laugh at her library. He participates in her book club and even wants to read the books she loves. The cherry on top is her bought her the signed editions of the books she donated to the library!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see where this series goes!

I received this as an ARC & I’m so grateful I did. I am making an effort this year to diversify my authors & I think this is my first Latina author I’d read.

I was kind of on the fence about reading this book for two reasons. The first being as a mid size/plus size person myself, I don’t always like reading about plus size MCs. Not that I don’t appreciate the representation but simply because I don’t like when a character being plus size is their whole identity but this book certainly did not have this issue. I believed this author didn’t do that with the FMC, Marcel. Her representation was pretty relatable about the ups & downs people feel with their bodies. The second hesitancy came from the trope of ex’s brother. I’m not always the biggest fan of this but because Ben & Marcel’s relationship never went very far it definitely made it easier to digest.

The ebook formatting wasn’t the best & there were a few typos but again this was an ARC so I didn’t take too many points for this.

A few things that could have been improved with this storyline is being able to create a better timeline for this story. I was so confused when 6 months had passed because I truly didn’t know that much time had passed. I also would have liked Theo (MMC) to have more of an identity. He had a job that I didn’t even know he had started. He was on an NFL team but didn’t have a single friend? I don’t know it was very odd to me.

I loved the growth from both MCs

I can’t wait until the rest of the world gets to read this because it was great!

This book was just ok for me. I think it was trying to be too many things, the friend pining over their best friend, the brother situation, it just felt like too many storylines that none of them really had time to work for me. And I really wasn’t a fan of Ben.

WOW! A book with an FMC who is a plus size librarian?!?! As a plus size bookish girlie, I AM OBSESSED! 💖 AND also the plot movement of the book where Marcela and Theo are both in love with the people who make up the couple about to get MARRIED! Which only gets crazier once you add in the fact that Theo is Ben (the groom to be's) brother and in love with his brother's bride-to-be!
As Marcela kind of fake dates Theo and starts to try to have a fling with him so that she'll get over Ben, she starts to get more and more concerned for her feelings for Theo (which we kinda love)!
The sweet actions that Theo does (like library dates and being involved with the YA book club that Marce is in charge of) give him SUCH golden retriever energy and we love him for that!👀🥹
I enjoyed this book SO much and cannot wait to see, not only the next books in this series/collections, BUT also the other books by Gabriella Gamez. Thank you so much to Forever books for the AMAZING read and I cannot wait to tell everyone that they need to read this book!💛

The Next Best Fling is a debut book for author Gabriella Gamez, and I received it as an ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion. I really enjoyed The Next Best Fling! The title and the cover are really fun and are what drew me to read it. It has some great tropes: best friend's brother; unrequited love; longtime friends-to-(will they?) love; faking it, and Gabriella Gamez does a great job of weaving and twisting these tropes to the book's benefit and to keep the readers on their toes. Oh, and librarians?!?! That is a book-lovers dream, she got me there!
Marcela, our FMC, has been in love with her best friend Ben since they were in college and briefly dated. He friend-zoned her and started dating her good friend Alice, and they've been best friends and had a great connection in the 8-ish years since. Marcela and Alice haven't had much of a relationship since, though. Ben is newly engaged to Alice, the same woman he friend-zoned Marcela for, much to Marcela's disappointment. Right before Ben and Alice's engagement party, Alice asks Marcela to pick up Ben's brother Theo from the airport. Ben's brother is a NFL player, and Marcela has never had a great impression of him. Ben and Theo aren't very close, either.
At the engagement party, Marcela finds Theo practicing a speech to Alice, where he is professing his undying love for her. Realizing how this will affect Ben and his happiness and although this could be the solution to Marcela's unrequited love problems, Marcela gets Theo out of the party. The next day, everyone thinks Theo and Marcela are together.
Marcela and Theo decide to pretend date so neither Alice or Ben or anyone else suspect their feelings for them. Hijinks, drama and a lot of emotions ensue. The author does a great job with the story, the dialogue and moving the plot along beautifully. I personally did not like Marcela-- she was supposed to be 28 and she had the emotional range of a 17 year old, which drove me crazy and made me dislike the FMC. I adored Theo, but was a little confused about his mess of feelings for everyone he had relationships with. Maybe that is part of the book, but Marcela's infantile behavior just drove me up the wall. Without giving anything away, I love how in the end you see a surprising bit of manipulation and understanding from the characters, that is done amazingly well!
I really enjoyed The Next Best Fling and I'm looking forward to more from Gabriella Gamez, this is a great first book and can't wait for more!

rating: 4/5

quick synopsis: the story follows our main character Marcela who’s had feelings for her best friend (former ex-boyfriend) Ben since they called it quits years ago and he began dating a mutual friend. just when she thought it couldn’t get worse, ben proposes to his gf and she has to continue pretending that none of it affects her. enter Ben’s, older, taller, Chris-Hemsworth-esque brother Theo who also happens to harbor feelings for his brothers fiancé. in an effort to not ruin the wedding, Marcela and Theo set up a plan to keep each other in check and keep other people from questioning their true feelings. A classic fake dating scheme begins and before they know it, lines begin to blur…

my thoughts: i can’t thank dana from forever enough for recommending this book! just from the first chapter I knew that it was gonna hurt, as most unrequited love stories usually do but im so proud of marcela and her journey. ben is a little weasel and never deserved her and theo was exactly the sort of person who does deserve her. Marcela’s struggle with her body and self-worth was so incredibly relatable and seeing that representation in a character is important to me. i also just loved that all the things that made her insecure with ben, were all appreciated by theo and he went above and beyond to make her not only feel loved but to show her that he listened. i personally loved how messy/complicated the relationships in this story were and it only made me want to keep reading. i did in fact finish this in one sitting 😗

thank you to the discover forever team for this arc!

Marcela and Theo agree to be each other’s rebound. Marcela needs to let go of Ben, her best friend/ Theo’s younger brother and Theo needs to move on from Alice, his childhood friend/ Ben’s fiancé. This messy love square had all the drama I anticipated and delivered it all so well. I loved being in Marcela’s mind during this story, she learns to put faith and trust in her relationship, something she hasn’t felt able to do until now.

Can we start by talking about the writing. and the fact that this is a debut😮. Gabriella had to have out crack in this or something because it was just ughhhh so good. It was so easy to get sucked into this book, & the characters.

Now let’s talk about Marcela. She’s such a strong but vulnerable character. I relate to her so much, she instantly became one of my all time favorite characters ever! I wanna give her a giant hug.

Theo was so sweet & so patient and he deserves the absolute world. New book boyfriend!!!

Now Marcela & Theo as a whole. Their relationship was the cutest ever!!!! They had me giggling, screaming, kicking my feet the whole book.

One character we never have to talk about is Ben. Ugh that dude, i wanted to just go into this book and set him straight.

I can’t wait to have the physical copy in my hands in July!!!

This book was definitely not my favourite. I just couldn’t finish the last 40% so I won’t be giving a full review

The book description is what really got me to read this book. This book gave exactly what the description promised. I very much enjoyed Theo and Marcelas relationship. At the end of everything Marcela is finally able to except who she is and goes through a lot of growth. I wish we had some of Theo's POV in this book that would have been very entertaining.

As far as relationships and dynamics with other characters I had a hard time believing in Angela and Marcelas friendship. At around the 50% mark I understood it a tiny bit better but this relationship I didn't really believe. You don't get very much from other characters in the book it very much centers around Marcela and then Theo and Marcela.

I would say this book was more of a 3.5 stars for me. Still very much enjoyed it. An amazing debut and I can't wait to see from from the author.