From Lukov with Love
Mariana Zapata
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- Publisher: Mariana Zapata
- Year Released: 2018
- Date Read: December 7, 2018
- Genre: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult, Adult, Sports
- Grade: 4.8/ A+
“You say nobody remembers second place, but no one remembers the girls that win once and disappear afterward either.”-Mariana Zapata
Jasmine has been skating for seventeen years, but those years are about to be over. Jasmine career in figure skating is about to come to a close with nothing but bad partnerships to show for it. She has worked hard, but because of her honesty no one wants to work with her, until Ivan, the star of figure skating, brings her an offer. Be his partner for a year to get the gold she wants, and afterwards he’ll help her find another partner. Only one problem, Jasmine and Ivan can’t stand each other. After years of insulting and jabbing at each other they will have to learn to get along enough to trust each other on the ice.
This book had me rolling in little fits of laughter. I loved it, every part of it. This is Mariana Zapata’s newest book, not counting the one that hasn’t been released yet. You can tell while reading it that her writing has most definitely improved along the years. The main character’s inner thoughts to herself were just as amusing as when she was speaking. There was little difference in it. I also noticed some little call backs or little traits Zapata puts in every book. Like how all her characters like the other character’s booty, she likes to talk about shanking people, and she even used a reference from Under Locke, which is comparing the main character and the love interests to oil and water to show that they don’t go together. The main reference that I caught and enjoyed was when Jasmine says she isn’t afraid of spiders, flying roaches, mice, the dark, clowns, and heights. I don’t know if the rest of them come from other books but I know the bugs were a mention of fear in Under Locke, and the dark and clowns were mentioned as fears in The Wall Of Winnipeg and Me. Zapata definitely has a style to her writing and puts her own love of things into a book, which isn’t always a good thing, but I enjoy in her case.
Pros
- Jasmine and Ivan. From their first interaction of each other I knew this was going to be good. The second they started flipping each other off and mouthing insults to each other I knew this was going to be a damn good read. They had me laughing. There’s also them hitting each other under the table and the little ways they challenged each other. Even when they were rivals, they went together very well. They acted like friends who bantered and teased each other even though they were rivals who didn’t like each other. There’s also their little insult nicknames they have for each other. Them mouthing or whispering insults at each other as if they were children trying to hide from their mom they were fighting.
- This is the first Zapata novel I read where the families didn’t have an asshole nature. There was Jasmine’s dad, which I will touch more on, but other then that, the families in this were sweet. I loved reading Jasmine interact with her family just as much as I loved reading her with Ivan. Jasmine’s interactions reminded me of how my family interacts. The way they all make fun of each other and are ready to call you out on things. You could see the love they all had for each other, that they were willing to do anything for each other. I also loved that we got to read her group text messages with families. They were never not funny.
- Jasmine’s relationship with her dad. It wasn’t as bad as the two other Zapata novels I read, but I really love how this one was handled. Throughout the novel it’s clear that Jasmine doesn’t have the best relationship with her dad and it shows that it’s because of her being a figure skater. Zapata is really good at writing things that people go through with their parents not being there. In The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, we see the relationship of a intoxicated mother who neglected her children and denied their other children abusive actions. In Under Locke, we see the relationship of a father never being there when he is needed and just being awful in general. In those two books it shows relationships that can’t be repaired. In this one, Zapata goes the other route and shows that a bad relationship between children and parents can be fixed, though generally it’s still toxic and will never be perfect. Zapata has said in all three of these novels how someone can love someone, but it’s a toxic love. That they know their parents think they love them, but what they really feel is this toxic kind of thing. Each book has its own quote about love and how it’s such a complex feeling that people just throw around. In this book, when Jasmine’s dad asks if she knows he loves her she thinks to herself, “Love is a weird word. What the hell was love? Everyone had such a different opinion on what it meant to them; it was hard to figure out how to use it.” If there’s something that Zapata can write as well as her slow burn romance, it’s character’s relationship with parents and how damaging it can be when it’s not a good one. Jasmine’s break down in this actually had me in a little bit of tears, especially since she was written as such a strong person. Zapata writes these moments very well and it makes the books more serious than just a book about a girl who is falling for a boy.
- In these last three books Zapata has also had something that the main characters hated or tried to hide about themselves. One was student debt and her sister abusing her, one was her arm from cancer treatments, and this one was a learning disability. Jasmine has a learning disability that she is sensitive about. She had trouble with school because of it and doesn’t like others to find out about it because they will assume she is stupid. Throughout the book Jasmine talks about it and the problems she has faced with people and school. It’s not something that is mentioned and then thrown away because it was only used for a scene. It’s a part of Jasmine.
- I also really loved how the author talked about perverts on the internet, because that is a real gross problem. How people, especially those with fame, get disgusting messages and comments sent to them and how degrading it makes them feel. We see it in people’s comments all the time, about how someone wishes they could screw the person who is in the picture or video. It’s disgusting and not flattering to think that someone out there is getting off on something you didn’t want them too, or you sending them picture or videos of it. It’s something that is gross and needs to stop, and she talked about it, letting us see through the stars point of view of how it makes them feel. This doesn’t just go for men doing it either. I’ve heard plenty of women degrade men in a way they wouldn’t want to be talked about. Zapata talks on this also. In the women’s locker room, Ivan gets talked about in that way, by teenage girls of all people. It’s not cute, it’s not funny, it’s gross and if not something you would say to the person to their face you shouldn’t say it at all, maybe not even if you would say it to there face. If it something about their body, keep that shit to yourself.
- Ivan and his farm, because the image of him holding a bunny all day and talking to his animals is honestly the cutest thing in this book.
Cons
- I wished there would of been more skating. They were always practicing, and the author did use figure skating terms, but when they were practicing it never went into depth about the practice, just that they practiced and they did this move or tried to get in sync with each other. It was always just, oh we practiced but now we’re done. There was moments of when Jasmine would skate and we would see her fail over and over when she was stressed out, and those were the most in depth scenes of them skating. But I can also understand that figure skating is probably very hard to write about compared to other sports. This one is more artistic and to describe it would probably be very hard and take a lot of length up of a story that is already very long.
“I was honestly worried you were going to do some John Wick shit with the comb I left on the counter.”
― Mariana Zapata
I can’t choose if I prefer this one or Winnipeg. They were both very good, though I will say this one was a lot more funny, but Winnipeg’s characters were more serious acting so that makes sense. I honestly want to see this book though as a movie(Yes I know there is an old movie that is just like this. But I want to see THIS story as a movie.), even though generally I think book to movie adaptations are awful. It reminds me of a romance version of the comedy movie, Blades of Glory(Though it’s not the movie I was talking about above. I actually have not seen that movie). Out of the three of her novels I’ve read, I would want this one to be a movie. Winnipeg was a lot slower in getting things going also, while From Lukov with Love, while still having that slow burn romance, was a lot faster at getting the plot and ball rolling. It had more things happen in it and was fun. I have so far enjoyed all the Zapata novels I have read. I would one hundred percent recommend this one to people. Ivan and Jasmine are the ultimate enemies that care for each other and are there to comfort each other in their times of need. Their chemistry is there from the moment Jasmine sees him in the office. The way she walks into the room and he just stares at her blankly, as if he doesn’t care that she’s there and he doesn’t want any part in it. They were the perfect match and made this story amazing. I’ve always loved the artistic side of figure skating. I know that people think the guys are all frilly or whatever they think about it, but Ivan shows that they aren’t. They are just someone who really loves the sport and that makes them in no way girly. It’s an artistic sport and it’s beautiful and takes talent. I’m glad Zapata wrote a novel about it and I read it
I blinked. “I hope you get abducted by aliens.”
Ivan laughed, and the sound of it made me smile. “You would miss me.”
All I said, while shrugging was, “Meh. I know I’d get to see you again someday—”
He smiled.
“—in hell.”-Mariana Zapata