This novel was so unique in so many ways. Firstly, the famous football is not a playboy. Secondly, the protagonist is not in love with him in the beginning. Thirdly, the novel is full of emotionally satisfying scenes that leave you believing the ending.
The premise of the novel is simple. Vanessa Mazur is the beleaguered PA of famous footballer Aiden The Wall of Winnipeg Graves. She prepares his (vegan) meals, keeps his social media sites up to date and even washes his extra-large underpants! While doing all of this she works on her business designing websites for Aiden's teammates, taking photographs and saving for the day she no longer has to be the slave to the "Big Guy". When she finally manages to save enough to quit her day job she is in for a surprise...
Aiden's character was what made this novel special for me. He is a bit of a socially challenged mega star athlete who doesn't even know how to say "hi" back to Vanessa, his PA of two years. Preferring to focus on his sport, he's depicted as having few friends and living for the love of the game of football. When he finds out that she is leaving him, he starts to treat her even more anti-socially than usual prompting her to walk out in a blaze of glory. That's when he realises he needs her back!
When Vanessa sees Aiden on her front doorstep she wonders what he's doing there, especially since there is no chance she'll take her old job back. When he reveals why he wants her back and what he's willing to do for her to make that happen...she has to decide whether she can live the rest of her life knowing what she could have had and didn't choose to take.
The love between these two characters is slow to grow and well worth the challenges they have to face. Much of the difficulty comes from Aiden's failure to understand emotional cues and while he's not as awkward as I'm sure my two mentions of his difficulty make him sound, he definitely missed some red flags here and there. Vanessa also has to deal with her past and her difficult family upbringing and it's when the two reach a place where they are comfortable to communicate with one another that the relationship develops to its full potential.
This was a standalone novel which I devoured from start to finish!
It was written by author Marianna Zapata whose website can be found here.
She has other novels out that I'm keen to try.
Any recommendations of where I should go first?
TK MAJ
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