With its engaging characters and a plot full of unexpected twists, this book delivers a fresh take on the classic rebound romance trope, making it a must-read for fans of contemporary romance.

Marcela Ortiz, a librarian with a heart full of unrequited love, is a character that many will find relatable. Her years-long crush on her best friend reaches a painful climax when he gets engaged, forcing her to confront the reality that it’s time to let go. But Marcela’s journey to healing takes an unexpected turn when Theo Young, an ex-NFL player and the older brother of her best friend, enters the picture with his own set of complicated emotions.

Theo is a fascinating character, struggling with his forbidden feelings for his brother’s fiancée. When Marcela intervenes to stop him from making a drunken mistake at the engagement party, it sets off a chain of events that neither of them could have predicted. The two decide to lean into the misunderstanding that they hooked up, using it as a cover to navigate their own heartbreaks. But as they spend more time together, what starts as a no-strings-attached fling quickly evolves into something deeper and far more complicated.

This book is an emotional rollercoaster with a perfect blend of swoon-worthy moments and spice. It strikes just the right balance of angst, showcasing significant personal growth for both main characters. They enhance each other's lives, offering patience and support through their struggles. I found myself rooting for them effortlessly and was thoroughly invested in their journey to a well-deserved happily ever after

"The Next Best Fling" by Gabriella Gamez is a delightful blend of humor and romance, capturing the essence of modern dating with a refreshing twist. The characters are well-developed and relatable, making the journey through their romantic escapades both engaging and heartwarming. Gamez's witty dialogue and unexpected plot turns keep the reader hooked from start to finish.

Fun, and honestly the type of representation we need!
I had a lot of fun reading this one, and it was nice to be able to see my culture in a romance book setting done so well.

A swoon worthy romance that felt real and true in so many parts. Marcella being hung up on her college boyfriend Ben for years is cringy but real. Her shared connection with Theo of wanting people that are unavailable is relatable. There were so many times I just wanted Marcella and Theo to talk their feelings out and realizing they were the ones holding themselves back. But they get there eventually. I love Marcela and her love of books and Theo's swoon worthy grand gesture. Talk about a keeper.

I absolutely adored this book. I loved that our FMC is a curvy girl and also that her job is being a librarian because honestly that’s my dream job.

The spice was really good and there was just enough to enhance the plot. I loved the chemistry between the two and how they developed their relationship.

I am so ready for the next book.

Did not finish

DNF 15% I put this down in March and have never picked it back up again so I think I'm throwing in the towel. I was super excited about a librarian romance but I should have looked into the plot more because I find the set up super cringe 😬 the MMC is in love with his brother's fiancee and the FMC is in love with the brother. The MMC actually contemplates breaking them up at their engagement party 🤢 nothing about this is appealing to me.

I really wanted to love this but it wasn't a super strong read for me. I found myself skimming through it as I got to the end and I didn't love that. The characters were just ok and the story line was just ok for me. I feel like some people will really enjoy this one, but for me, it just wasn't what I was looking for. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

MESSY. This book was MESSY.

But wow did Gamez capture how messy and complicated and real emotions can be, especially when it comes to love and relationships.

Marcella has never gotten over a man she casually dated from college who friendzoned her and has been her close friend for almost 9 years. As friends, she's been Ben's emotional rock and he's stayed by her side all this time which has deepened her feelings so she has loved him silently for years as he's been in a relationship with another. She's never attempted anything to take him away or cross boundaries, but she does yearn for him to finally see her and leave his girlfriend which she is incredibly guilty and ashamed of. These feelings have weighed her down for years as he keeps her close (even when she tries to distance herself) until his engagement makes her know she needs to move on from these heartbreaking, lonely and shameful feelings.

Theo is Ben's older brother who Marcella has seen at his worst and knows from Ben's stories. She's still surprised to see him at Ben and Alice's engagement party drunkenly rehearsing a speech to tell Alice (his childhood best friend) he's never stopped loving her and ask if she has any feelings for him, ever. Marcella takes him home, preventing him from giving his speech as she knows he'll regret it and she would too.

When they show up together at brunch the next day, everyone assumes they're hooking up. After seeing Theo's face around Alice and worrying about her own, Marcella lets them think it.

Theo is open book and Marcella confides she has unrequited feelings she is trying to get over too (though leaves out they're for his brother). They become friends and their attraction pushes them to move on with each other, knowing they're both in love with others. Even though they go in as casual it quickly shows that will be difficult.

I really enjoyed how open their communication was. Even when they didn't tell each other everything, and Marcella especially shut down, they could be so honest with each other. They pushed each other to be better without realizing it and understood each other in a way no one else could, even if it wasn't pretty.

The story is from Marcella's POV and her thoughts are messy and up and down and back and forth as she tries to figure out how to change, what her feelings are, who to trust, and how to trust and accept fear. I enjoyed how complicated it was because it felt real. If I got real romantic feelings for my rebound who is also my love's brother he doesn't say flattering things about and is trying to keep me away from, who also is in love with the woman already chosen instead of me before, I too would have trouble wrapping my head around everything and know what was going on in my head and heart and if I could even trust it when it's led me into toxic and heartbreaking situations before. And it may mean the relationships go forward then backward then forward then sideways and may take a while to get to the typical "happy ending" as I work my way to that point, as Gamez writes.

I'm so impressed by what Gamez has captured here and I couldn't put the book down. She allowed the story to be full of big and complicated and messy feelings to tell the story of these relationships of complicated and messy humans. The story felt complete at the end as she didn't hold back exploring their feelings and the complexity of the situation.

This definitely isn't a story of clear black-and-white anything, but that makes the happy ending all the happier for this hard-fought couple 💕

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Feat: love-square, friends-to-rebound-to-lovers, MESSY MESSINESS, plus-size FMC

TW: fatphobia, abandonment issues

4 stars
2 spice

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.