This book hit me right in the feels in the best way possible! As a Latina from San Antonio, I was grinning from ear to ear with all the Tex-Mex vibes sprinkled throughout. It was like the story was winking at me, and I was here for it! Marcela and Theo's love story? Swoon City!

From the very start, I had my suspicions about Ben, and let me tell you, the ending had me screaming, "I KNEW IT!" 🤣 The emotional rollercoaster of watching them both navigate the grief of thinking they've lost the loves of their lives (LOLs for real) because their LOLs are marrying each other? Whew, what a ride!

Now, when I realized they'd been pining for these people for YEARS, I was like, "Babes, come on, it's time to move on!" But I totally get it moving on is easier said than done. The way this book captures that reality is spot-on, and I'm just so happy they finally found their HEA. ♥️

3.6 stars

I was unsure where to set my expectations going into this but was pleasantly surprised. The banter, the flirtation, and the slow-burning chemistry were fun to dig into. More than that, the study of family dynamics, self-confidence, and toxic relationships provided a real-life look at what love can be at times. While Marcella and Theo first bond in a less than conventional way, that grows into an empathetic, supportive relationship that I grew to love. Watching them slowly learn to trust themselves and one another with an eventual willingness to talk about their problems head-on felt like a breath of fresh air.

Toward the end, I found there was a lot of story going on with little to string it together but the desire to see Marcella and Theo’s relationship through to the end kept me interested enough to stick it out – and I’m glad I did

And as a book lover, what’s not to love about a librarian who is passionate about her job and cause?

If you want a body-positive fake dating romance about learning to love yourself and accepting the love of others, then this is a great start!

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really really enjoyed this book. I loved that it was a fake dating trope but not at the same time. They were basically dating the entire time and were very willing to admit that they had chemistry between them the entire time. I also loved that the two of them had great communication (minus one or two things but we'll let that slide). I hate bad communication in these books so the open communication was such a breath of fresh air.

4.5 stars

When librarian Marcela Ortiz and ex-NFL player Theo Young discover at an engagement party that they are each pining over members of the happy couple, they do the only logical thing and decide to use each other as a distraction to get over their unrequited loves. What starts as a no-strings-attached relationship, slowly simmers into something more complicated. Will Marcela and Theo be able to get over their past loves? Will they be able to get past messy family dynamics? Will they maybe, just maybe, be able to find something new together?

My heart hurt for both Marcela and Theo throughout this book. They were both such kind, thoughtful people, but both were so broken by past experiences with family and relationships that they constantly got in their own way. I was rooting for them the whole time, but sometimes their struggles were a little too real and hit a little to close to some of my own personal experiences. If you are into messy, complicated relationships and the challenges of people who are trying to learn from past mistakes, this is an excellent romance, but its simply and easy an easy rom-com.

I went into The Next Best Fling completely blind, knowing nothing about the book or synopsis. I requested this novel purely based upon the cover. I am all about representing all types of bodies in books and love to see a fat woman finding her joy.

The Next Best Fling is about two people still in love with their exes. Librarian Marcela Ortiz has been secretly pining for her best friend and ex, Ben Young, for years. Former NFL player Theo Young is in love with his younger brother (Ben)’s fiancé, Alex. At their engagement party, Theo is determined to finally tell Alex how he feels until Marcela interferes. After Marcela intervenes and takes Theo home to sleep of his drunken state, they show up at family brunch the next morning… together. Everyone assumes they hooked up. To get through the pending nuptials, Marcela and Theo decide to roll with the fake relationship… and embrace the rumors.

The beginning of The Next Best Fling surprised me… not in a good way. It was my mistake for not reading the synopsis. I found the entire set up with Theo trying to profess his feelings to his brother’s fiancé at their engagement party to be beyond cringey. (Do I doubt a grown man would do this? No, but I wanted no part in it.) It made me recoil so hard that I put the book down and debated whether to finish it for 3 months. Obviously, my guilt won out, and I decided to overlook the start. And when I did, I was pleasantly surprised.

I was blown away by Gabriella Gamez’s writing and found it hard to believe this is a debut novel. In fact, this is one of the best written romance novels I have read in ages. It is both a well-written and deep read. Gamez’s descriptions and narrative are emotionally evocative, allowing the romance to build over time. The chemistry sizzled and transcended the page. In addition, I appreciated the different representation that is included in the novel: fat, asexual, Latine, and more. It was addressed as one facet of a character and not made their entire personality, never feeling like tokenism.

While I initially was skeptical about the protagonists, they quickly endeared themselves. I think this says a lot about how well the characters are developed in The Next Best Fling. Beyond the protagonists, Gamez created depth with the side characters. This made it easy to hated who we were clearly supposed to and love those who we should. I also really enjoyed seeing the growth of the protagonists over the narrative’s course.

Overall, The Next Best Fling is a well-written, emotional romance novel despite a cringey start. I definitely recommend it. And I will be keeping an eye on Gabriella Gamez and picking up the next book she writes.

Thanks to NetGalley, Gabriella Gamez, and Forever Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book. I was hooked from the very first page with this one, and I love how fast-paced this book felt. I was in quite a reading slump, but I flew through this book and stopped everything else I was doing to keep reading. Theo and Marcela, our two main characters, are both incredibly likable, and I loved getting to watch them connect. They had great chemistry! But they also did genuinely seem to help each other work through their baggage. Their banter and their vulnerability with each other made me fall in love with them. Marcela's interactions with her friends, family and coworkers also really made me like her. She and Angela have the friendship we all aspire to have.

The only real negative to this book was how frustrating some of Marcela's decisions were. I don't want to get into too many specifics because I don't want to get spoilery, but there were a few moments that left me screeching at my Kindle. Most of these were simple situations (i.e. taking books home without checking them out and thinking that's cute???), but her choices and reasoning during the third act chaos killed me.

TLDR: Was this the most logical romance I've ever read? Absolutely not. Was this still an amazingly fun read? 100000%. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a romance with some great representation, vulnerability, and humor.

2.5 stars rounded up

This was messy, but I enjoyed the ride anyway. Plus size librarian heroines will always find a friend in me, and Theo was the correct amount of obsessed with Marcela. I think where this book lost me a little bit was the hemming and hawing inside Marcela's head. There was a lot of telling, not showing going on in there. Especially her feelings for Ben. I'm curious to see what Gamez writes next, and I will be tuning in.

I made it to about 10% before giving up. The two main characters acted like high school students instead of adults and I couldn't stand either one of them.

Loved this book! Thx to @readforeverpub for the eARC, one chapter in and I immediately went out to buy a physical copy 🤗 I was obsessed with Marcela and Theo the whole time, such great, complex characters.

This was such a perfect romance novel 💕 I lol’d, I swooned, I GASPED (🔥🔥🔥) and loved every minute of it. Highly recommend picking this book up and I hope we see more from @gabbywritesalot 👸🏻

I enjoyed this read but it was not my favorite. While I loved the plus size rep and it contains one of my favorite tropes, fake dating, I found most of the characters to be insufferable. There’s a lot of pining and delusion lol I loved the library aspect. Libraries don’t get the shine they deserve so loved that the main character is a librarian and that we can see some of the programs offered. I thought that was really cool. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

TITLE: THE NEXT BEST FLING
AUTHOR: Gabriella Gamez
PUB DATE: 07.09.2024 Now Available

So many tropes I love in this book

💓 Librarian and a plus sized FMC
💓 Unrequited love joins them together
💓 He falls first - She flirts back
💓 Mexican American rep
💓 Fake-dating no strings attached

This was such a surprising read - super sexy, fun, written so well with lots of heart and acceptance - easily relatable and so down to earth - I thought Gabriella Gamez normalizes the difficulties of falling in love and being rejected, and yet somehow hopeful enough to still find your even better HEA.

Synopsis:

Librarian Marcela Ortiz has been secretly in love with her best friend for years—and when he gets engaged, she knows it’s long past time to move on. But before she gets the chance, she has a bigger problem to contend with in the form of Theo Young, ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with. When she discovers Theo's plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party, Marcela is quick to stop him—despite how tempting it is to let him run away with the bride-to-be. She manages to convince Theo to sleep off his drunken almost-mistake at her place and when they arrive at a family brunch the next day together, everyone wrongly assumes they hooked up.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much that I'm going to buy the physical copy of it so I can read it again!

I really really enjoyed this book.

Fake dating normally isn’t my favorite trope, but the chemistry between these two wise so enjoyable. I love that they spotlighted quite a few different things, including race, ethnicity, and body image.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book to others, and I loved it

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC. So this was such a sweet, and quick read! I feel like this would be a great summer read for anyone, especially the book lovers and librarians out there! The story was emotionally vibrant, swoony, spicy, good banter, the right amount of character development that made sense and was not rushed. Kudos, Gabriella!

I really enjoyed this book and the story and the drama. I felt like Both Theo and Marcela were so adorable in their own ways. I only wished I could’ve had Theo’s POV! He’s such a sweet cinnamon roll, and I wish I could just take him with me forever. I also really loved all the book references, library lore, and the side characters that were so rich, I just kept wanting more from them.

Thing I did not like – one word, BEN! He can kick rocks. How selfish can one man be, but I commend Gabriella (the author) for writing him so well that he gave me the literal ick. I will say the pacing towards the end was a little fast for me, but I still enjoyed it! This book was such a fun read for me, I was literally telling my friends about it, as I was reading.

I so wanted to love this book but after repeated pop culture references that made me physically cringe, dialogue that read like a teenager was speaking- rather than an adult, and just zero chemistry between the characters I didn’t enjoy it.

The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez follows librarian Marcela Ortiz and Ex football player Theo Spencer. She’s in love with her best friend Ben who is engaged to Alice. Theo happens to be Bens older brother and he’s also in love with Alice. While at their rehearsal dinner Marcela discovers and stops Theo from telling Alice how he feels. They leave together which causes rumors to spread that they have something going on and they go with it. They start a fling to get over Ben and Alice and they truly get to know each other along the way. This was such a sweet and fun romance, Theo was such a sweetheart and very honest with Marcela. Marcela was very relatable and watching her confidence and self worth grow was beautiful to see. I love the way their relationship progressed. I dislike Ben with a passion and I love the way Marcela handled him at the end. We love heroes who support the FMCS love of reading so if you do too, run 🏃🏻‍♀️ and read this book! I can’t wait to read more from this author. 4.25⭐️

This book had me on the struggle bus. I will never forgive Marcela for ruining dinner (IYKYK).

Loved Theo’s ability to communicate well. He almost made up for Marcela’s complete inability to do so.

Theo’s gesture… 🥹🫠

I have a really hard time enjoying a book if I don’t like the FMC in it… and I really didn’t like the FMC in this one. I feel like her constant lying was frustrating and irrational. Additionally, Ben was absolute trash and her inability to see that elicited no sympathy from me.

It’s never a good sign when I’m spending more time hoping the two main characters DON’T end up together. 🙃 Theo absolutely deserved better.

What would you do if you were in love with your best friend who is engaged to another friend? What if the best friend's brother is in love with the bride? What could go wrong? In 'The Next Best Fling' by Gabriella Gamez, you're in for a rollercoaster of emotions and unexpected twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Marcela is in love with her best friend, who will soon be engaged. Heartbroken and unsure how to deal with the pain, she attends the engagement party, where she crosses paths with Theo, Ben's older brother. Marcela stops Theo from making a big mistake, only to accidentally start a rumor that she and Theo hooked up.

Theo is in love with Alice, the soon-to-be bride. He plans to break her and his brother up when he attends her engagement party. Marcela thankfully saves him from the pain of being rejected, but now everyone thinks they hooked up and are a thing. Can two people with broken hearts handle pretending to be together? Will they survive watching the people they love be happy together?

When I say, I sat down and read this book in one sitting…. I totally did! Theo and Marcela are such great characters. I love the growth they both go through in this book. I seriously couldn't get enough of them! I think they only thought that Theo also had a point of view. I would have loved to read about his side of things. I know he is an open book regarding his feelings, but seeing a little into his head would have been nice. Seriously, though, this book is super cute and fun to read! The writing style is engaging, and the plot keeps me hooked from start to finish.

Marcela Ortiz has always had a crush on her best friend, but when he gets engaged, she knows it’s time to move on. Things take a surprising turn when she finds out his brother, Theo Young, is planning to confess his feelings to the bride-to-be. Marcela steps in, leading to a pretend romance that quickly turns into something real. As sparks fly, Marcela and Theo find themselves dealing with complicated feelings and tricky family dynamics. I loved how Marcela’s insecurities were portrayed with such honesty—it’s something many women with similar body concerns can relate to. And Theo? He made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, which was so heartwarming. There were a few frustrating moments of miscommunication that had me wanting to shake some sense into the characters, but in the end, they all showed great personal growth. A big thanks to NetGalley, the author, and @ReadForeverPub for this sweet read!

He's in love with the bride, and she's in love with the groom, but will they fall for each other? The angst, the spice, the longing, the banter. Theo and Marcela did make each other better. Also, I need a dinner date at a library, STAT. The way that both of them have begun to trust in love again made me race through this novel until the end. This is a must-read for anyone who loves fake dating, no-strings-attached tropes.

Tropes:
-Librarian x Former Athlete
-Fake Dating / No Strings Attached
-Rebounds
-Personal Growth
-They make each other better
-Best Friends Brother
-Crushing on the Wrong Person
-Curvy Rep
-Latine Rep