I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 9, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Women
Pages: 352
Format: ARC, eBook, Paperback
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Two broken hearts decide that the best way to get over their first loves is with a no-strings-attached relationship in this spicy and charming debut romance.
Librarian Marcela Ortiz has been secretly in love with her best friend for years—and when he gets engaged, she knows it’s long past time to move on. But before she gets the chance, she has a bigger problem to contend with in the form of Theo Young, ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with. When she discovers Theo's plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party, Marcela is quick to stop him—despite how tempting it is to let him run away with the bride-to-be. She manages to convince Theo to sleep off his drunken almost-mistake at her place and when they arrive at a family brunch the next day together, everyone wrongly assumes they hooked up.
Since Theo needs a cover for his feelings for the bride and Marcela needs a distraction from her unrequited feelings for the groom, they decide to roll with the lie. Until one late night at a bar, they take it a step further and discover a layer of attraction neither realized existed. Soon, they find themselves exploring the simmering chemistry between them, whether in library aisles or Marcela's bed. There are no boundaries for the rebound relationship they form—just a host of complicated feelings, messy familial dynamics, and uncovered secrets that threaten to tear them apart before they can even admit to themselves that their rebound is working. Maybe a little too well.
The Next Best Fling was an okay book, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either however, the author has a good voice and in time I think she will grow to be an outstanding author. ~ Sharon – Simply Love Books
The synopsis of this book drew me to it and I try to read a number of new to me authors every year, so I jumped at the chance to read this book. I believe this is Gabriella Gamez’s debut novel and it is a decent first effort, but not without some problems. I see promise in her writing and am willing to read more from her in the future. The best way for me to describe The Next Best Fling is messy and angst filled and neither one of those really worked for me.
Marcela is a librarian in charge of teen services and she loves her job and loves books. She spent a great deal of time as a child in the library, it was her safe space and she’s turned it into a career and that is never a bad thing. Her best friend who she has secretly been crushing on after they briefly dated (no intimacy, he broke up with her, and she hasn’t dated seriously since) just told her he’s asking his girlfriend to marry him. Marcela has curves for days and believes her weight was an issue for Ben, but as she wants the best for him she’ll swallow her hurt and be there for him. At the engagement party, she stops Ben’s brother, Theo, from telling the bride that he is in love with her and has been since they were teens yet they never dated. When they arrive the next day together after she allows Theo to sleep it off on her couch everyone believes they had s*x and they begin fake dating. Theo has no idea that Marcela is still pining over his brother and this was an issue for me because Theo held nothing back about his issues with his family especially his brother or his “love” for Alice. Honestly I wasn’t overly thrilled with them both having feelings for other people and then deciding to get over them by having a fling and Theo fell hard and Marcela had guilt because she didn’t tell him she wanted his brother and it was so much unnecessary angst, these adults were written more like teenagers.
The thing is I loved Marcela and Theo together, but I felt we got cheated out of seeing them develop real and deep feelings because they kept rehashing the past and their feelings for other people. I adored their dates and their conversations and I wanted more of them getting to know each other and falling in love, sure the s*x was hot and all, but I craved those moments outside of the bedroom where their feelings for one another developed.
I debated about saying this, but as a native of San Antonio had I known this book was set there I might not have read it. There were some things in this book that just didn’t ring true for anyone who has resided in the city for any length of time. I’m not going to name specifics but three things really stuck out as just not right and that truly lessened by enjoyment of the book.
The Next Best Fling was an okay book, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either however, the author has a good voice and in time I think she will grow to be an outstanding author.
About Gabriella Gamez
Gabriella Gamez is a Mexican American author from South Texas. She is a former library assistant and has a bachelor’s degree in English from UTSA. When not writing, she can be found drinking copious amounts of coffee, wasting time playing video games, and obsessing over books.