The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Basics

💡 Genre: romance, sports, contemporary

🔍 Rating: 3/5

📣 Goodreads: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Review

A Unique, Inspiring Lead

I’ve read many romance novels in the past several years and yet, none had a female lead as unique (and real) as this novel. Zapata writes a female lead who embodies authenticity—she is creative, witty, and charismatic. She has goals to be active, successful in her career, and overcome her childhood trauma. It is so relatable and refreshing. 

A Story with Humour

I find myself quite literally laughing out loud several times throughout the book. The main lead’s inner monologue is just so real and relatable—it is hilarious. For example, there was a line about the attractive male lead and her ovaries reacting in response. How fun!

Things I wasn’t a fan of…

Zapata is known for her 5-star slow-burn romances and that is exactly what this novel encompasses. However, through this novel, I have also learned that I don’t enjoy slow-burn romances. I prefer something more fast-paced with clear romantic moments throughout the entirety of the story. 

There was quite a bit of inner monologue, too! This slowed things further and I wanted to skim through the pages to get to the scenes between the characters. 

I also noticed how certain scenes aren’t actually written in dialogue but rather described in monologue, which I am not a fan of. Instead of reading about how the characters interacted with each other during these vital scenes (eg. the Hospital scene with Diana), I am only given the key takeaways. It felt like the Zapata was telling me what happened versus showing me.  

Overall, Zapata's writing style and type of romance are personally not for me!