The Best Thing

2.5 stars

Never has an epilogue made me cry this much.

Gahhhhh. I relate to Lenny so much. She's so feisty and petty but stubborn and firm. I love that for her. I want to be her when I grow up.

Jonah... always rooting for you babe. What a hunk of rugby golden retriever man.

Reading the second time, it is still such a wonderful story about family, forgiveness, and being brave.

3.8

4.5/5

I borrowed The Best Thing by Mariana Zapata via Kindle Unlimited (KU) and I purchased the Audible version so I could utilize Whispersync to listen while I read this book. This was one of my favorite books by Mariana Zapata and it had some of my most favorite characters in it. They were very well developed. I could relate to the main character a lot. A warning to anyone who is sensitive about foul language that, if it really offends you, this might not be the right book for you but I loved the spicy main character so much! It had me tearing up in laughter, joy, and in sorrow. I loved the martial arts and fighting aspect, too. It was thrilling to read about the main character's achievements in the sport since she was female and still was a match for men larger than her. She was very skilled. I think I laughed more reading this book than any other. I would definitely recommend this book.

Re-read 1/13/23
Holy crap I cried so much AGAIN. Damn that ending.

First read 8/25/19
Don't think a book has ever made me cry or laugh (or both) so hard.

Mariana Zapata does it again. Another great book and more characters for me to love. I will admit it took me much too long to connect how these characters work with her other books. “Don't I know these names???” Yes, yes I did– from Luna and the Lie.

While I usually don't like slower moving books, for some reason these books just work for me. I get swept along with the characters, their problems, their day-to-day lives, and I'm happy to live there for hundreds of pages. These characters did take some time for me to connect with, perhaps because Lenny and crew are so different from the usual types of characters, but soon we clicked and I didn't want to put the book down.
I will say that I wish we got a little more romance out of the characters and it took me much longer to become a fan of Jonah.

That epilogue though... this book made me all kinds of emotional.

As always the hardest part about reading her books (writing reviews on them) is that I want to read more. As I'm reading this I'm battling the urge to re-read it or pick up Dear Aaron. If you like slow-burn romances and haven't read Mariana Zapata yet, you have great things waiting for you!

This was very sweet. I loved the family dynamic almost more than the actual romance.