Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

111 reviews

garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

spellbindingtomes's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵, 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦, 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯. 𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.

Why are football romance stories so cute?! You know that feeling when you read the first few lines of a book and you just know you'll love it. That's how I feel every time I start a new Mariana Zapata book. And The Wall of Winnipeg and Me is no exception.

I loved Vanessa from Chapter 1. She's my favorite out of all of MZ's FMCs. I related to her so much. Aiden's character development was incredible. From being so closed off and dismissive towards Vanessa in the beginning, to taking her for granted, to finally realizing his faults, and showing up to support her was so endearing and heartwarming.

This was the first book that I thought did the marriage of convenience trope perfectly. The terms of this marriage between Vanessa and Aiden was totally believable and even after they got married, it took a long time for them to build a solid friendship and trust with each other.

𝘖𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦...𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘔𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴. 𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵. 𝘔𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.

I highly recommend the audiobook. Emma Wilder and Stephen Dexter did a fantastic job! They got me hooked immediately. Mariana Zapata's writing style is addictive and compelling. The burn is so slow that I HAD to keep reading until I was satisfied. And trust me, it was all worth it in the end.

𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 🩵

🏈marriage of convenience
🏈forced proximity
🏈workplace romance
🏈slooow burn
🏈football romance

Content Warnings

ireadtoescape_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

If you ask me, we could have started this book from about 60% in. Most of what came before was really drawn out! 😩

It was cute, though. I’m choosing not to over-think the other stuff 🙃

Content Warnings

michbrito's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a grumpy/sunshine, fake marriage, slow burn, sports romance novel. Both of the main characters have childhood trauma and trust issues to work through. I really enjoyed the transformation of Aiden, as he opened up and became more comfortable with Vanessa.

Content Warnings

khloereads86's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

sea_tea_books's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging hopeful lighthearted sad slow-paced

3.0

First off, the pros:
Happily Ever After. Spicy scenes (eventually).

And now, the cons:
Such a slow burn; like, too slow. The pacing was odd. It felt like the story was riding at 20mph through a school zone for 90% with a few bumps along the way, then suddenly floored it to two spicy scenes at the very end. The result was a clunky story that abruptly ended just as the story picked up steam. Was this why the author included not only an epilogue but also bonus content at the end, to compensate for the abrupt ending?

This book should come with trigger warnings due to themes of childhood trauma, parental alcoholism, and domestic violence within toxic families in both main character backstories.

Not a fan of the main character Vanessa continuously threatening violence against others. And the other main character Aiden being emotionally dysregulated on a daily basis. Let's not normalize these issues by excusing rage and threats as unavoidable consequences of her upbringing, or accepting rudeness and apathy as the norm because he's just a grumpy guy.

Finally, a small pet peeve (pun intended) of mine is when people claim being a pet owner is the same as or similar to being the parent of a human being. In the About the Author section, Mariana Zapata calls her dogs "her...oversized children" and she wrote "child" when referring to the dog Leo in the story. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one, Mariana.

Content Warnings

milovatsi's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Kinda painful. The story would have been better with some changes, like the whole drooling over this man in every chapter. And her guilt over anything and everything. Did not like the MMC. FMC was a doormat.
Don't leave your 8 wk old puppy alone!

Content Warnings

frantically's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Guys, I'm SO conflicted on this book!!

Was this book particularly good? No, not really. Was it absolutely addicting to listen to? Yes. Spent two days doing nothing else.

I love Aiden. What. A. Man. The quiet way he shows Van he loves her 😭😭 the way he stands up for her 😭😭 really had me sobbing ngl

Can't stand Van. She was so fun at first but then it just turned really pick-me and if there's one thing I HATE it's pick-me's.

Still, the relationship was so cute! Yes it was technically very slow burn but we all knew they were gonna end up together in the end and it made all the pre-relationship situations so much cuter for me.

Some other stuff I had issues with:
– Van's family gives major Cinderella vibes but not retelling vibes, Cinderella vibes straight out of the fairytale. Completely two-dimensional. Oh and why are they assholes? Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, of course
– Aiden is groped/sexually harassed in front of Van and she laughs about it for like ten minutes. Ew.
– Van gets into sports! Theoretically fun but she only does it after Aiden's manager says she's fat. And there's so much focus on her losing weight, it became a bit uncomfortable

So – why did I even like this? I don't know. I like Aiden. I like puppies. I like "I loved you from the start". The writing is good.

Will read more Zapata books, trying to find a book as great as Lukov was xoxo

Content Warnings

juliaaaaaa's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

great trope but badly executed. look, i love a slow burn, but i was expecting more chemistry tension and build up, it didn't give me butterflies until the last chapter

Content Warnings

More...