Wait for It

Diana is doing the best she can raising her brothers children, everything is looking up as she has found a home for them to have a fresh start. What Diana didn’t expect was a broody neighbor with a jerk of a brother who seems to have a knack for causing problems. Diana forms a friendship with her neighbor Dallas after a rough start when he becomes the coach to her oldest boy’s new baseball team. When the friendship becomes one of the most important relationships in her life, she worries she will have her heart broken because Dallas is married, separated for years, but still married and both agree that nothing can come of their relationship. Dallas has some tough decisions to make and when he does hold on.

This was a slow burn type sorry. Had some really funny moments but also some realistic moments. I felt for Diana she is mama bear where her boys are concerned. You weren’t sure of Dallas’s feelings for awhile because he was off putting in his response but as the story unfolds you understand why. Another fantastic read from Mariana Zapata.

This was an awesome story! If you haven’t read Under Locke, Kulti, or the Wall of Winnipeg, I strongly encourage you to read them first. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a series but they are definitely connected. You’ll get a taste of those characters in this book. Diana is such a strong personality whose recently had to go through heartbreak that no one should! She’s raising her two nephews and has moved to a new city for her job. Their new house is right across the street from Dallas. He’s an ex Navy guy, hot, sweet, and ends up being Diana’s nephews baseball coach. They have a rocky start but become best friends. This is a slow burn but so worth it! Mariana knows how to build great characters and just sucks you into their lives. I highly recommend this book.

Love this book.

I never thought I would love a book more than Wall of Winnipeg and Me, but Wait for It has managed to do the impossible: it’s replaced Wall as my new favorite. It’s thoughtful, funny, sweet, more than a little emotional, and so real that it gets me right in the gut and the heart. I can’t tell you how many times I teared up reading Diana, Dallas, Josh and Louie’s story, but I also laughed and loved along with them.

Diana is the guardian and aunt of 2 adorable boys who just happen to be her nephews. Their father (her brother) died and left his boys to her in both his and his wife’s wills. When his wife was unable to cope after Rodrigo (the boys’ father) passed, Diana became more than just their aunt, she became their mother and their guardian. Now, two years later, she’s moved into a new house in a new city with a new job. When she meets her neighbor one night after she rescues his brother, it isn’t love at first sight, or even lust at first sight. It’s more of hm, notice at first sight. Their journey from barely noticing each other’s existence is the slow burn I expect from Mariana, but that didn’t bother me at all. Usually I would be complaining about lack of heat, but here I didn’t notice or care that they didn’t hop into bed shortly after meeting each other. What they did is circle around each other for awhile, becoming friends slowly but surely, weaving themselves into each other’s hearts seamlessly, beautifully.

All the characters in Wait for It are real, with imperfections and quirks, that make them all the more interesting. There are no tortured playboys or shy, spineless virgins here. No cackling villains, impossibly sexy GQ models, or unrealistically beautiful women. Just real, normal, ordinary people who manage to insert themselves into your heart.

This is another strong antagonists-to-lovers book by Zapata along the lines of “Under Locke”, “Wall of Winnipeg and Me” & “Kulti”.
But, “Wait For It” is definitely its own story. I like how this book started with a few jerky attractive guys, to add a bit of mystery without being an annoying triangle. A different kind of complexity in this story, versus others of Zapata, was the kind of history both the main characters had that made them wary of their feelings.

After reading it a second time, I realized even more how wonderful this book is. It’s a classic example of a “slow burn” romance. “Enemies”-to-friends-to-lovers. Diane & Dallas, have a great arc together, and both their characters are given a chance to evolve over the course off the book. Great character-building scenes show who they are, and how they can’t help but be perfect for each other. What I enjoy most about Zapata’s writing is picking out the clues of the main characters getting over their initial dislike-to-friendship-to-love. Things aren’t explained, but they are shown with intentional subtlety that feels unique.
What I end up doing with her work is reading it the first time just for the joy of it, and then subsequent readings I can pick up, and enjoy all the tiny details characters give to show what is brewing under the surface, but not revealed obviously until much later.

“Wait For It” has such great humor. It treats parenting with respect, and not just a bit of character detail. The family dynamics are beautifully crafted, and unique for each character. Diana’s nephews were great characters — not convenient, adorable props that kids often become in books. The little cameos by the leads from Wall of Winnipeg & Kulti were also fun reunions from characters I enjoy.
I look forward to whatever Zapata is working on next.

I’m a big, big fan of Mariana Zapata her books and ‘Wait for it’ was another hit for me. Mariana Zapata books are really slow burners, through and through and she really makes you wait for it. But not once did I have the feeling that I wanted the story to go any faster. Mariana Zapata had me so hooked in this story (like all her other stories) that I suddenly came at the end of the book without realizing it. The book has almost 400 pages and even after reading the whole book I still wanted to read more!

So, to the new readers of Mariana Zapata’s books, what do you have to know about this book. Like I said before, it’s a really slow burn story. If you are looking for many hot steamy sex scenes => don’t read this book, if you don’t like grumpy, silent men => don’t read this book, if you don’t want your heroine to be this crazy, sassy woman => don’t read this book but if you love all the above, just try and read this book!!

Diana Casillas never thought that at the age of 29 years old she would be responsible for the care off her two nephews. Or that she would have to deal with the loss of her brother at such a young age but that’s life. The only thing that she can do, is do her best and Diana really tries to do that. She loves her nephews Josh and Louie very much but it isn’t always easy to take care of two young children, even with the help of their grandparents.

One of the big decisions she makes, is to move to a house. Her apartment is too small for three people. After a long search she finds a nice house in a good neighborhood, but after awaking up in the middle of the night to see a street fight happening at her neighbors front law, makes Diana thinking that maybe she has choosing the wrong neighborhood after all. Luckily, her other neighbors are good people and after meeting the brother of the ‘street fighter’ Diana is hopeful that she has made the right decision to move there.

And when she later on discovers that the brother of the ‘street fighter’ is her new neighbor and he is also one of the coaches of her nephew Josh new baseball team, she is more positive about everything. But her plan to become friends with him isn’t that easy to fulfill because the more she tries to make friends with her new neighbor Dallas, the more distant he becomes. Diana doesn’t understand why until she discovers that he has taken her friendliness the wrong way. After clearing the air with him (in her own special way), Diana and Dallas become friends. And with everything that is going on, she can really use a friend or two. Slowly, Dallas and Diana and the boys are growing closer together. Slowly, feelings are growing but there’s the small detail of Dallas being a married man. He may live separate from his wife but for Diana this is a big NO.

Can Dallas open his heart to Diana and her boys? Or was it never meant to be?

I really, really loved this book. Although this story is a standalone, you will find subtle reverence to her other books/characters. I just loved that. This book is told from Diana’s POV.
In this story you didn’t only have the couple Diana and Dallas but you also had Diana’s nephews Josh and Louie. The boys really touched my heart.

One of the things that I enjoy in Mariana Zapata’s stories is that she makes you search for the little details, the little signs that tells you that feelings are growing between the woman and man. The love in her books is a deep one but a very slow one! But I just enjoy that in her books.

I can’t wait for the next one.