From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

Overall Rating: 5 Stars

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

[eBook Purchased from Amazon]

If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one.

After seventeen years—and countless broken bones and broken promises—she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close.

But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she’s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything.

Including Ivan Lukov.

Synopsis from Goodreads

 

Review

The Hating Game… I mean… From Lukov with Love was so hard for me to rate. I seriously deleted and rewrote 4 and 5 continuously until I finally landed on 5 stars.

There were a few reasons why I thought about subtracting a star despite really enjoying this book, but one of them surprisingly WAS NOT all the similarities this book had to The Hating Game.

I haven’t read many reviews for this book yet, but I’m curious to see if any other readers are raising their eyebrows at all the similarities between the two. Aside from the hate-to-love trope, there were spoilery things that I won’t mention here, but also the sick scene and the name-calling, in particular, were very Hating Game-ish.

Like I said, this did not bother me at all because A) I love The Hating Game – GIMME MORE and B) this book was Mariana Zapata through and through. It was 100% her slow burn and her sense of humor. It was almost like an MZ version of The Hating Game except she swapped a reflective office space with an ice rink.

And I am SO ok with that.

I was absolutely in this book the entire time. Guys… I read this book in one night. I was up until 4am with no regrets.

I will say, the #1 thing that had me hesitating with the 5-star review was that I felt a little let down at the end. The build-up was epic – as it always is with her books – but for some reason that I truly could not pinpoint if you asked me to, I felt let down at the end despite the happily ever after.

I want to say that maybe it was because the slow burn was so good… MZ almost shot herself in the foot because that final sigh of relief at the end couldn’t live up to the burn.

But, at the end of the day, I did go with 5 solid stars for this one and I think the tipping point (aside from the multitude of other great things about this book) was the hilarious banter. MZ’s books are always funny, but this one might be the most hilarious of them all.

Epic. Banter.

Also, try not to be obsessed with these two after reading this book:

 

Butterfly Rating: 5 Stars

There were so many swoony moments!

 

Re-read Worthiness: Yes

I need the audiobook STAT

 

Bookshelf Placement: Yes

Add it to the MZ Shrine!

 

Book Boyfriend Rating: 4 stars

I freaking love Ivan! There are a couple spoilery things that I love about him that I don’t want to give away, but just take my word for it. He’s pretty great.

 

”Free” Reading Availability

✔ Kindle Unlimited
✘ Prime Reading
✘ Audible Romance Package
(As of 02.15.18)