As a reader, and as a woman, I don’t like and can’t accept that the male MC in a romance novel needs to treat the female MC like dogshit in order to get across how rugged and stoic and broody he is. Most of that is due to the fact it took me a long, long time to come around to Kulti’s character. But Sal and Kulti left me feeling a little cold, I can’t lie. I would for From Lukov, With Love, because of how those characters interact with each other, and maybe to some extent I’d say the same for The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. But would I describe them as ‘hot,’ since there’s typically only one ~spicy~ scene between the main characters per book? Well, it depends. On a scale of 1-10, how hot would you rate the relationship in ‘Kulti’?Įh, maybe a 6? The thing about Zapata’s books is that the enemies-to-lovers relationships she builds between her main characters are usually really fun to read, with all the top-tier banter and the chemistry and the sexual tension.

He helps her with her soccer skills, and she isn’t afraid to give him some tough love about his heinous personality, something he’s missed due to being an über-famous star surrounded by ‘yes men’ for years.īut when their friendship is uncovered by the press and some of Sal’s baggage comes back to bite her, the two of them realize that their friendly dynamic - and growing attraction to each other - isn’t going to be easy.

The only person who can seem to get through to him, just a little, is Sal - surprise, surprise - and they start to forge a tremulous friendship in secret. One who treats the team and pretty much everyone else around him like shit. He’s 12 years her senior, but as soon as she lays eyes on him, all the feelings of love an admiration she felt for him as a fan come flooding back.

And then her coach makes an announcement: Kulti, now two years into retirement, is coming on board the Pipers as an assistant coach. Thanks to an off-the-field scandal with a former teammate that led to her getting booted from the national team, and the general manager of the Pipers’ not-so-thinly-veiled disdain for her, Sal has been unable to evolve as an athlete in the way she dreamed. Now in her late 20s and playing soccer professionally for a team called the Pipers, her athletic career has started to plateau. Houston-based Sal and her family grew up worshipping soccer superstar Reiner Kulti - think: David Beckham, but German - to the point that Sal was inspired to take up the sport herself as a kid.

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata