The wall of winnipeg and me wattpad

I picked this book up because it’s recommended so strongly on this sub and I don’t think I had ever read a “slow burn” before. I’ve seen it referred to as one of the best Romance books of all time so my expectations were high. Gosh , I was so disappointed and frustrated with this book. This is like a 1.5 star read for me - I finished it because I just had to know what was so great about it . About 3/4 of the way through I started making notes because I just had to get my thoughts off of my chest . If you’re a fan of this book , please let me know your thoughts , because I feel like I must be missing something .

Here are my notes (Spoilers Ahead):

• Aiden’s behaviour towards Vanessa at the beginning of the book is completely inexcusable , especially in the context of a workplace relationship . This almost made me DNF the book right away . He never apologizes sufficiently for it , and acts completely different the next time he appears ( at Vanessa’s apartment) . He’s still insensitive and couldn’t care less about her , but he’s much more articulate ( though not much more than a box of rocks) . His eventual friendliness towards her is sudden but incredibly awkward. I didn’t get romantic vibes from his behaviour , and I didn’t buy that he liked her all along ( as was implied at the end).

• He just demands that she marry him because he wants her to . This is toddler logic . Why should she care about him at all when he didn’t even react when she told him she was quitting. Even soulless corporate employers give you a “sad to see you go”.

• if the author wanted to portray the hero as socially awkward , this does not come through . Aiden is more like a robot than a person .

• Zapata’s writing is juvenile and reminiscent of fan fiction . It just seems poorly edited. For example , she introduces 3 new characters almost at the end of the book and they don’t do much of anything . What was the purpose of Vanessa having three sisters if only one them actually matters to the plot ? Same thing for Diana’s brother , who is also a non-character . This really felt like something you’d find on Wattpad.

• Speaking of Vanessa’s mother and sisters , they are comically evil towards her . It’s one thing to write about a dysfunctional family with mental illness and addiction issues , but it’s another thing to make them cartoon characters out to get the heroine at every chance they get . With how long this book is and how much this matters to the protagonist , you’d think we could have had a more in-depth discussion of this instead of hearing about how big Aiden is for the 30th time in a chapter.

• the “slow burn” is so slow that it hardly exists . I had to force myself to read the last 50 or so pages because I literally stopped caring . All of the reviews wax poetic about how amazing the end of the book is . I never felt any heat at all between the leads. Vanessa often talks about finding Aiden attractive , but all we get from Aiden’s side are a few gestures that any friend/decent person would have done anyways and a mention from Trevor that Aiden had been supporting Vanessa all this time ( gosh , it sure would have been great if Aiden was shown actually showing appreciation for her !)

-This feels like a book that would have a romantic sub-plot while mainly being about something else . The only problem is that there is nothing else to occupy the reader’s time , so we’re stuck with Vanessa’s endless monologue , the scattered side plots that go almost nowhere , and about 100 mentions of Aiden’s bigness per page .

• Seriously, Zapata hammers in how big this guy is so much that you’d think him to be comically oversized . This doesn’t make for a very attractive image . I just kept thinking of Kingpin from Into the Spiderverse.

• the leads have no chemistry . I could have believed them becoming friends at the end and parting amicably , but I cannot buy them being lovers . The sex scene at the end feels more like an emotionless hook up than the product of a romantic relationship. Aiden doesn’t seem like someone who would even be capable of feeling romantic love . The book could have benefited from his point of view because he gets so little character development that he feels like a secondary character . And no , him being solely focused on his career doesn’t excuse that he basically doesn’t exist outside of football . Characters can be determined and dedicated without being cardboard cutouts .

• Aiden is so socially inept that he doesn’t even bother with “hello” or “thank you” . He’s just a really unpleasant person all around and I really don’t understand what we’re supposed to see in him .

• is “slow burn” supposed to mean “they’re indifferent and distant to each other for 99% of the book , but the have sex once, so obviously it’s true love and they’ll be together forever?”

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