Hands Down
Grab your own Snack Pack and dive right into the slowest slow burn I’ve read in a while.
On the side note though, calling your significant other ‘kiddo’ isn’t cute. Just saying…
⭐⭐⭐
1. HANDS DOWN by Mariana Zapata
SYNOPSIS
Before he was Big Texas, he was Zac the Snack Pack.
Bianca Brannen knows time—mostly—heals all wounds. Including those your once loved ones might have unintentionally given you. (Those just take longer.)
She thinks she’s ready when a call has her walking back into her old friend’s life. Or at least as prepared as possible to see the starting quarterback in the National Football Organization. Before the lights, the fans, and the millions, he’d been a skinny kid with a heart of gold.
Waltzing out of Zac Travis’s life should be easy. Just as easy as he walked out of hers.
BOOK REVIEW
Mariana Zapata made all of the fans wait really long for Zac’s story (sometimes, I think that’s just her kink). And the wait was… worth it but not really?
Hands Down is a childhood-friends-to-lovers story between Bianca Brannen the ‘Lazy Baker’ and Zac Travis the NFO ‘Big Texas’.
I just wanted someone around. Or at least, someone who would come back. That sounds really ungrateful now that I hear it out loud, because I know how many people love me but have their own lives, and I can’t expect them to make me the center of the world.
Bianca Brennen was ANNOYING. Period.
Zac Travis was such a sweetheart, just like before. But unfortunately, I didn’t get a deeper understanding of his character because Hands Down was more Bianca’s book than anything else (and we already established that she was annoying). Besides Zac’s honesty, sincerity, and easygoingness, it was revealed that certain feeling of uncertainty and unfulfillment was a true dimensionless constant in his life. Aside from that? Nothing new, nothing changed, same old shit, same old fucking shit…
And my heart… my heart did some shit it had no business doing. It thumped. Again. With recognition. With a love so deep I knew it would crush me if I let it.
Now, in regards to actual romance and chemistry between the two… Every single element required for a good romance was definitely there but absent at the same time. I did understand where all the feelings were coming from, but the whole relationship seemed too sweet. It was like it never outgrew the childhood crush thing... Also, I felt there could have been something more to their story, something that touched deeper than just the surface level. Not going to lie, the main conflict, or rather a mystery behind their not-being-together was just stupid, I’m sorry (and I’m not going to spoil it to you, but know that it was bad).
In conclusion, Hands Down was an enjoyable read (for the most part), but it will most probably be enjoyed more by the fans of The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, where Zac was first introduced (that was definitely my case). The writing in the book was great as usual (there were plenty of cute and laugh-out-loud scenes), but the slow burn this time around was pure torture. I cannot even put into proper words the number of times I got dizzy spells whenever Bianca was being super annoying by going on and on about her insecurities in her relationships with people in general, as well as her trust issues and all the reasons behind them. I mean, I get it, girl. You were mistreated by some bitches in the past, but life continues, and Zac was insanely sweet and understanding. And it’s not like he kept silent about the way he felt… It was Bianca who kept putting words in his mouth… I don’t know…
“Didn’t you hear what I said? Worryin’ about you is like… lovin’ the goddamn sun on my face, kiddo. Like breathin’. It’s never not gonna happen.
PS. I’m curious… The nickname that Zac had for Bianca as a word of endearment kind of threw me off, to be completely honest. ‘Kiddo’ is not something I’m dying for a grown-up male character to use for his love interest in my romances. Is it just me? Let me know in the comments down below.
PPS. I loved the cameo of the Graves team. I think I’ll never love anyone more than Winnie. EVER!
PPPS. Trevor was a pleasant surprise in this book. Shocker!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mariana Zapata is a New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Amazon best-selling author of contemporary romance, and is known as THE Queen of slow burns.
According to her, she began writing love stories soon after she learned how to spell. She probably shouldn't admit that she started sneaking romance novels from her aunt's bookshelves way before she was old enough to even understand what it meant when a man flipped up a woman's skirt (her mother is not supposed to know, by the way).
Mariana Zapata is a native Texan living in a small town in Colorado with her husband and two beloved (and emotionally manipulative) Great Danes, Dorian and Kaiser. When she's not pretending to write, she's reading. You can usually find her burning somewhat edible experiments in the kitchen or cracking jokes at the expense of her family members.
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