Friends don’t let friends die. Everything is gonna be fine. You’ve got something better than that knife. You’ve got me.” My nod was so serious, even I almost bought it. “I’m sure.” He was gorgeous after all. “As long as you didn’t actually open your mouth.❞ We all know MZ loves her inner monologues, but this time they were especially repetitive, which made it feel like there was barely progression. Which leads me to my real problem with the book: I did not ship them together. Not even a little. As a strangers to best friends to lovers fanatic, it was quite a bummer.

And just so you know, the start of the book was a bit slow and cringey but it gets better as it goes on It hurts my feelings that I’m right here, that you’re right there, and you still think that you’re ever going to be alone again.” The Defender is one of three superheroes who protect Earth. They are literal super-beings that no one knows much about. Where did they come from? Why do they help us? One day The Defender is dropped on Gracie's front yard, in agony and barely able to move. So begins the story. And for those of you wondering about the age difference, she’s 29 about to be 30 and he is 35. You are welcomeeee :)She’s done it again! This book didn’t disappoint, I can buy any book by Mariana without reading anything about it and know I’ll love it!’ I stayed up all night to read it in one go. Worth every second of lost sleep. Just a perfect superhero slow burn romance’ But Gracie was okay. She got a lot better as the book went on because she stopped crying so damn much.

Which perhaps was a blessing as I went into this expecting it to be...less than a favorite MZ read. If I had to describe Gracie and ML’s (his name is a secret for a while so i’m not about to spoil) dynamic in a few sentences, it would be:

There was literally no hesitation in his response. The son of a bitch even shrugged a little bit. “You’re all right.”

Everything Mariana writes is pure gold . . . a true gift to romance readers everywhere’ Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author

Mariana Zapata can write no wrong, this story might just be my favourite of hers yet and I absolutely adore everything she has written!’⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review All the feels . . . Mariana Zapata is one of the best writers out there – to be cliché: the words come alive’ There is an entire portion of this story that felt completely out of place. I won't give anything away but it has to do with Gracie's secrets. It could have been left out of the story completely because once it's over, there was zero reason for it. (Except to horrifically traumatize Gracie.) yes, they did have some cute moments like them having a snowball fight and sledding, but it felt more like 2 best friends fooling around rather than 2 people falling in love. The grump in this will make your heart melt, especially for how he feels for Gracie. I would’ve loved so much more of this world. And man, I could’ve dealt with a longer epilogue but honestly MZ? This was magic. Pure sunshine. Pure joy. Devoured this.