*SPOILERS AHEAD! DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS BOOK!

The Queen of slow burn romances is back at it again with a brand new story centered around a grumpy, superhero, and a woman who couldn’t believe said superhero had crashed landed in her yard. Gracie Castro was use to living her life as mundane and low profile as usual, until one night everything changed when, “The Defender”, a widely known and famous superhero literally landed in her yard. Unlike any of Mariana Zapata’s other books, this story was entirely unique, and with a sprinkle of romance, action, superhero elements to the plot, and more, this was a fun read.

This story was a different take in Mariana Zapata’s books, one that actually centered around superheroes being a real thing in this book. In this story, Gracie lived in a world that had superheroes and it wasn’t a shock as it was pretty normal for superheroes to be going around saving the world on a daily basis. The superheroes mentioned in this story had a group called, “The Trinity”, which in a way were similar to essentially superhero groups like “The Justice League” of “The Avengers”, just to give you an idea of the superhero group. The beginning named a few members of “The Trinity”, such as, “The Defender”, who later ends up being the one who crash landed on Gracie’s yard. One moment Gracie was just watching the news and contemplating her next move, and suddenly she found “The Defender” passed out and unconscious in front of her. 

With Gracie had to help The Defender due to his injuries, it seemed like not only was she questioning what happened to him, but she had secrets of her own. Right away from the beginning, I got the sense that Gracie was secretive in the way she mentioned she had to move around a lot, and couldn’t stay in one place for long. In a way, it seemed like Gracie was on the run and trying to hide herself from something or someone. Not to mention, the use of different wigs, false names, and maintaining secrecy while using the internet, Gracie made sure to cover her tracks. Until one day, a mysterious truck with a bunch of men dressed in black ambushed and knocked out Gracie, and took her as well as the Defender. The way the story went, I was in for quite an interesting ride, and honestly it was a new type of storyline for Mariana Zapata to write, but I loved the direction the story was headed with hints of danger, secrets, mystery, and of course the grumpiest superhero I had ever met in a book. 

As much as I love a grumpy male character, there’s usually the beginning that shows them in being not so nice before we get to the good stuff of falling for them. Alexander was so blunt and kind of harsh towards Gracie in the beginning that I was low key questioning, “when is he going to dial it back a notch and start being nice to her?” Granted, the way Alexander was, he believed in speaking his mind, essentially he didn’t sugar coat anything, and spoke when he felt it was necessary, whereas other times he would just grunt or make a facial expression to get his point across. I was in the same boat with Gracie in choosing the high road to be nice to him, but also wanting to ring him out due to his rudeness. Thankfully, once the drama and conflict arose with the Arenas gang kidnapping both Gracie and Alexander, that was when little tiny parts of the kindness Alexander was capable of started to show. Alexander didn’t completely stop with being a grumpy pants, but slowly he was able to show his compassion and ability to be nice to Gracie. 

I honestly couldn’t stop myself from zooming through the chapters, I was hooked! Despite some people not liking the pace that comes with slow burn romances, I love it because, with it you get more time to see the characters develop their relationship as well as other interesting things. In Gracie and Alexander’s case, they were faced with trying to survive and make sure they were safe from danger. This book went in a direction I was expecting, but it was so good. I originally thought this was just going to be a book about a superhero, but nope, it was much more than that with danger, adventure, and some action. 

Just when things couldn’t get crazier, turns out there was more to Gracie’s family and a big truth about herself she never knew. In a way, the big reveal in who and where Gracie’s family came from actually explained a lot of what she had experienced for a long time in terms of her being to feel when danger or something important was going to happen. Again, this story had me in an unexpected tailspin, but one that I was very much enjoyed reading about. 

I. Cannot. Stress. How. Much. I. Love. Slow. Burn. Romances. Mariana Zapata is the queen when it comes to building up all romance between her characters and with Gracie and Alex (Alexander) it was no different. The growing tension throughout the book was written in a way that LITERALLY almost to the halfway, if not almost towards the end of the book, Gracie and Alex FINALLY SHARED THEIR FIRST KISS. Something about slow burn romances is FREAKING PHENOMENAL TO ME! That and I probably just love to torture myself to see the main characters give me little, tiny bread crumbs of simply looking at each other, or saying the smallest yet significant words to each other that has me giddy. All throughout the story, Alex was very much crabby pants central, but in hindsight he slowly became more accustomed to Gracie’s feelings, and knowing her on such a deep level that spoke to how much he really cared for her. Towards the end, not only did Mariana give me more of Gracie and Alex, but EVEN MORE TRUTH BOMBS ABOUT THEM?! Like I wasn’t expecting the whole “mates” thing being a thing in this story, but looking back at the clues that Alex mentioned, it made sense, and also made me realize I was subconsciously thinking of that as a possible theory… WHICH ENDED UP BEING TRUE!! Yeah the romance towards the end was SOO GOOD! I was eating every morsel that happened between Gracie and Alex! Like also can we talk about the spicy scene towards the end?! AHHHHHHH BISH! GRACIE AND ALEX WERE DONE WAITING AROUND AND OFFICIALLY WERE NO LONGER PART OF THE V-CLUB! THE PASSION! THE STRAIGHT UP DIRTY TALK FROM THEM BOTH! AHHHHH! I WENT FERAL!!!

As I write this review, I cannot contain my smile, I’m smiling like an idiot, I’m so happy, and I’m in love with this book. Gracie and Alex were so much fun with their poking fun at each other, dishing it out on each other, and not holding back. Gracie and Alex challenged each other in a way they had never experienced, and as Gracie would say, she would call Alex out when he was being a grumpy, butthole. Overall the book was fantastic, I loved seeing how Gracie and Alex’s story ended, especially with the cute epilogue. A slow burn romance is always (in my opinion) worth that wait because, once you get to that moment, it becomes worth it with the crescendo of romance and passion coming to life before the pages. Gracie and Alex were funny, and their dynamic was unique to any I’ve read before, especially in Mariana’s other books. I feel like this kind of story was a step out of the normal kind of stories that Mariana has written before, but I genuinely loved everything about it. From the mix of action with the superheroes/ superhero family, the banter, little bit of conflict and danger to of course the grumpy/sunshine dynamic, and slow burn, this was everything I throughly enjoyed. I have nothing but good things to say about this story, and even when I wasn’t reading, my mind was constantly on this book wondering what would happen next or just thinking about Gracie and Alex in general.