The Next Best Fling centers around Marcela and Theo. Marcela has secretly pinned after her best friend for years, hoping for a second chance for them. When Ben, the best friend, gets engaged to Alice, his brother Theo shows up for the engagement party. Marcela stumbles upon the fact that Theo has feelings for Alice and prevents Theo’s attempt to confess his love for Alice at the engagement party.

Through a series of events, Marcela and Theo end up in a fling, covering up their feelings for the people they shouldn’t want, and being each other's rebound as a way to move on.

Oh my goodness. This book!!! I’m flailing… it’s so good!!! The experience reading this… I adored the beginning and it just got better and better as the story progressed. By the end, I felt so spoiled… there were so many memorable scenes/moments that I’ll take with me from this book. You’re simply going to adore Marcela and Theo.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Forever for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The next best fling is about two characters who are secrtely in love with people that are engaged to be married. Marcela is in love with theo's brother and Theo is in love with his brother's fiancee. Marcela start a friendship with Theo that turns into more.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing was easy, to follow and still extremely entertaining. I ended up liking it even more than I expected to! The story was good, with a compelling plot that kept me engaged and wanting to finish the book!
My only complaint would be that I wish the Spanish parts were written in Spanish with footnotes or something. I love reading about other cultures and about people who don’t look like me so it always takes me out of the experience a little when the story is adjusted to make it easier for the reader. I don’t mind the extra work to make a more authentic story.
Thank you NetGalley for an e-arc of this book!

4.25⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I was a little nervous going into a story with not one but two characters with unrequited love but I really liked the way it was handled! Def gonna read more by this author in the future!

This book healed the parts of my soul that ever felt like a second choice and doubted by worthiness of a love that stays.

I loved so much about this book:
-The representation of a bookish and curvy FMC
-The unique plot of fake dating in face of unrequited love
-The forbidden aspect of brother’s brother
-The emotional journey of the FMC
-Resolutions that felt well developed

This was a heartwarming, emotionally healing and enjoyable read. Would definitely recommend checking this book out if you like a warm hug of a book with some spice. I’ll definitely be picking up a HC of this book when it releases in the summer and look forward to the rest of this author’s librarians in love series (how great is that concept btw).

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will be posted on my Goodreads.

ALL THE STARSS. I loved the representation here. I loved the romance. The chemistry. The growth and depth of these characters. Marcela and Theo are adorable.

I really enjoyed Gabriella Gamez's debut novel! I loved the romance between Marcela and Theo, although I wish the situation with Ben hadn't been so frustrating (although it was realistic). I am already looking forward to more by Gamez!

The Next Best Fling wasn't for me, unfortunately. I think this book had really great potential and had some cute moments but I couldn't follow the pacing and writing style. I felt like there were moments that were really slowed down and moments that sped up too fast and had big time jumps. I personally didn't enjoy the insta love between the two main characters either. I felt like there was potential to really work on their relationship and story but it was hit or miss. I don't think this was too much of the authors issue because a lot of people seem to enjoy the book. I think it's just my personal preference and interests that got missed when it comes to contemporary romance. I did enjoy some cute moments and it seems to be highly enjoyed by most people but it just wan't for me.

A "Librarians in Love" novel?! The cover art?! Fake dating/friends with benefits tropes?! Yes, yes, and yes. I was IMMEDIATELY sold on this book.

Marcela is in love with her best friend Ben who is engaged to another woman who Ben's brother Theo happens to be in love with. It's a love square? It sounds messy... and it is. When Marcela stops Theo from professing his love at his brother's engagement party, the two accidentally stumble upon a fake dating predicament and decide to roll with it.

Surprising absolutely no one, the two start to have genuine feelings for each other throughout their friends with benefits arrangement. Their chemistry is palpable and their love story felt so authentic!

Marcela, our youth librarian protagonist, has lived my dream in finding a swoonworthy man who buys her books. As a youth librarian myself, I feel as though my Theo is just around the corner. Right?

I'm so looking forward to Gabriella Gamez's next book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

this was an enjoyable read and easy to get through! the premise immediately pulled me in with both of our main characters being in love with other people and deciding to "fake date" to help each other get over the other person. i immediately noted the connection between marcela and theo; they both felt comfortable with each other and easily opened up to one another. i could really see the friendship forming before they decided to move to a friends with benefits arrangement. theo really helps marcela speak her mind and voice her concerns, which for a long time, marcela has avoided. i enjoyed seeing her open up and stand up for herself!

ben was a menace from the start and it was very obvious what he was doing to marcela the entire length of their friendship (not to mention the way he treated alice at that). it takes marcela some time to come to this realization, which i was glad when she finally did, but it was pretty frustrating watching ben talk to marcela the way that he did. on top of that, marcela could have worked on her own communication, especially with theo as we get to the last 35% of the book.

a little bit too bookish for me at times. marcela is a librarian so it makes sense; i just could have lived without some parts. overall, a really solid debut! i enjoyed the plus size rep and the diverse characters. thank you forever pub for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Pub for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review :)

Make sure to check out The Next Best Fling when it’s out July 9!

Marcela is a young adult librarian and Theo Young is a former football player, except Marcela has been pining for Ben Young—the groom, and Theo’s brother—and Theo has been in love with Alice, his brother’s fiancé.

The love square in this book was insane and unexpected when I first went into it and let me tell you, I was hooked. I loved Marcela as our main character and loved reading about her love of being a librarian and how she came to be one. I also enjoyed reading about Marcela’s relationship with her body, it definitely wasn’t the focal point but when it was discussed it felt so carefully done. The romance that ensued between Marcela and Theo was also enjoyable and I found myself smiling and laughing multiple times throughout the story.

I think my main issues with this story are that Marcela and Theo seem to only revolve around the fact that they are both into other people, which I understand that it’s hard to separate from that, but I just wish we could have gotten more Marcela and Theo that wasn’t centered around Ben and Alice. For example, there’s a scene in the book where Marcela has an event at the library and Theo shows up—I wish we could have had more moments like those. I think this could have helped with their relationship not feeling so “insta-love.”

One of my other issues was how much book talk there was. I understand that Marcela is a young adult librarian but the time spent talking about what books she liked and authors she admired could have been used to develop characters and relationships a little better.

That being said this was still a fun read and I truly was hooked—I needed to know how this love square would resolve itself immediately. I look forward to reading the next book in this series as I enjoyed Gamez’ writing in her debut and can see the potential for the next one to come.

final rating: 3.5/5

This was soo cute! And the cover art?!??

Marcela is in love with her best friend Ben. The problem is, he just got engaged to his long time gf.

When Ben’s brother gets hammered at the engagement party, Marcela stops him from confessing his love to the bride. She gets him out of there, and everyone at the party assumes they hooked up. Fake dating and complicated feelings ensue.

I thought Alice (the bride) was a great side character. Her part in the chaos was very mature. Marcela's bestie was also great. I hope we get a story for either of these women!! Would love to see more about them.

This is such a sweet book. It’s:
Single POV
Diverse characters
Plus size rep
Fake dating
Best friends’ brother
FMC is a librarian
MMC is retired from the NFL

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for my advanced digital copy!

Funny and witty and overall messy, this book was something I didn’t want to put down! (And I didn’t… I finished it in one sitting.) If you’ve ever been through a breakup, this story will feel like a big hug and you’ll be rooting for these characters throughout the situations that end up happening because of their choices. Loved it.

What to expect:

🩷 Fake Dating
🩷Ex-NFL player X Librarian
🩷Best Friends Brother
🩷Curvy Latina Rep
🩷Love Square

Review: I absolutely ADORED this book. I haven’t related to a character as much as i did Marcela in this book. She was not only Latina but also had insecurities about her weight, not wanting to be someone’s second choice as well as abandonment fears. She’s watching her very best friend she’s in love with get engaged and is struggling bad.
Theo had issues with his family and his brother of course marrying the only girl he ever loved (hence the love square). I loved how Theo and Marcela navigated through this together. All of the pining after eachother, and kind of miscommunication (without it being annoying). I just adored this romance and recommend preordering for sure!
Thank you @netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

A perfect quick read to get you out of a reading slump! Gorgeous cover and a flirty story! I read this one quickly since it was easy to get into. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Thanks net galley!

This was such a cute and enjoyable read. I’m so glad I took my time reading this. I really loved the ending of the book, where everyone just hates on Ben. The relationship everyone had at the end was good. I’m glad Alice got to move on and accomplish more in her career.

This book had me hooked. First of all, I would love nothing more than to be a librarian. I identified with Marcela in her love for books, how she related to books from the time she was a kid, how she felt about her body at times, and just kind of that feeling of being a backup or second choice. Maybe that makes me biased. Maybe that bias also carries over into fantasizing about the football star sweeping you off your feet. Either way, I loved this book. Theo and Marcela's chemistry was amazing. I kept rooting for them the whole way through. While I'm not typically a fan of the miscommunication trope, the way the author tackled this trope was refreshing and I found myself really enjoying it. It gave the book just the right amount of angst. I highly recommend this book.

I LOVED this book! I really identified with Marcella as a plus size woman. It's nice to see us be included. Theo was so dreamy!

Tropes:
Fake dating
He falls first
Friends to lovers

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a quick read that I didn’t want to put down. I liked that it didn’t take itself too seriously — making fun of the tropes within the book for being cliche. I really fell for Marcela and Theo as I read and wish I knew even more about their story already.

I was hesitant with this book because at some level I was concerned that this was going to have a plot where the FML and the ML would team up to ruin the wedding while the synopsis wasn’t pointing to that I didn’t want a surprise turn of events, it’s not my cup of tea and I think it takes away from the building of the relationship of the FML and ML, but I was pleased to know this isn’t that kind of book while the leads do struggle with their feelings for the bride and groom they're both committed  to completely let go of the feelings that they have for them and lean on each other to move on. The FML and ML lead had a natural progression from strangers to friends to lover that just worked well with the story.  


I liked this book, I liked the characters (with the exception of one iykyk), I love to see representation of a Hispanic plus size main character as the lead instead of the funny best friend,  the pacing of the story was well done, everything in the story was believable to the point that I never felt taken out of the story due to the characters doing unbelievable/ cringy things.


This did have some 2/5 level of spice, nothing crazy.


Really enjoyed this book my only comment is we can do without that Taylor Swift “joke” its 2024 let not.
 

Solid 4 stars 



Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.