This is a spoiler-free review! Trigger warnings include physical and emotional parental abuse, child neglect and abandonment, and intimate partner abuse. You can also read my review of From Lukov with Love on my blog, here.
Once again, I had been putting off reading this book for a little over a year, but I am back and in the mood for a sports romance to add to my 2022 reads before the year comes to an end. I honestly did not know much about this book before I started it, besides the few excerpts I had seen on TikTok videos that kept reminding me that I needed to read this book.
To my very happy surprise, the main trope of The Wall of Winnipeg and Me had me absolutely thrilled. I love a grumpy and sunshine relationship, and with Vanessa and Aiden, we get to see Aiden as this total grump that slowly shows his soft side while Vanessa is always nice until she decides to stand up for herself and switches over to being more confrontational. I am an absolute sucker for fake-relationship or marriage-of-convenience books, and Zapata really knocked it out of the park with this one.
The way that Vanessa and Aiden defend each other from other people, especially when the other is not around, was so great to see because you could literally feel the tension on the pages. In the beginning of the book, Aiden barely speaks to anyone or Vanessa unless it's a head nod or three-word sentences, but then we get to see him give these long backstories about his past and speeches of him defending her to anyone that looks at Vanessa the wrong way.
Trevor and Christian are so incredibly annoying that every time that their names showed up on the page, I had to force myself to stop rolling my eyes into the back of my head. The only thing they brought to the story was a number of problems or arguments and insults that left me more agitated than before the popped up again. And do not even get me started on Vanessa's sister, Susie, and Vanessa's mother -- probably some of the most despicable characters I have ever come across, and I have read a lot of mafia romance books with some truly nasty characters.
This woman LOVES her food-themed nicknames, I simply cannot escape them in both of the books I have read by her so far. Meatball. Muffin. Dinner Roll. The list is never-ending. There are a ton of fun little moments between Vanessa and Aiden, and the friendship that Vanessa and Zac has really adds to the story, because you see the effortlessness of joking they have with each other compared to the build up that Vanessa and Aiden have to work toward to get to that level.
The modern day references were kept to a minimum in this book, and I was so grateful for it. Zapata used a decent amount of references in From Lukov with Love, and I was glad to see that this was much more toned down. I really did enjoy the dynamics between everyone in the book, and how Zapata was able to depict various types of relationships without dragging out certain aspects or turning them into major cliches.
If you are looking for a slow-burn, sports romance, this is definitely the book for you. Fans of The Deal by Elle Kennedy will graduate to Zapata's books and a more cohesive storyline following adults instead of college students. It is always so refreshing to see sports romance books following people in their twenties and thirties instead of being a nineteen-year-old hockey player in their first year of college.
You can add The Wall of Winnipeg and Me on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.
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