After loving “The Wall of Winnipeg and Me,” I was incredibly excited to pick up this title from early in Mariana Zapata’s career that I’ve seen all over Booktok. Much to my disappointment though, I didn’t quite love this book from the first page and it was a struggle to keep reading past the first chapter.
The use of epithets in dialogue tags was what really bothered me the most because I felt like it only dragged the story down. Every scene felt like it was stretched to the point of breaking until it read more like The Eavesdropping Tales of Jasmine instead of actual exposition that drove the plot forward.
Despite the slow start, I truly did end up liking the book, much to my own surprise. While there were some clunky parts in the writing, Ivan won me over with his care for Jasmine and his dedication to figure skating and their team’s success. The more Jasmine and Ivan opened up to each other, I fell in love with their relationship. I just wish there had been more of them actually being together. This book was undeniably the slowest slow burn I have ever read, and while the angst was top-tier, I wanted more of them competing and being adorable together.
This book blew me away with how much I ended up enjoying it (and how much my sides hurt from laughing at Jasmine and Ivan’s shenanigans). Honestly, it’s my new favourite book in the figure skating trope and I’m super excited to read Mariana Zapata’s followup All Rhodes Lead Here
Four out of five stars!
Paging Kait 