Review: From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

Posted April 5, 2018 by Kim in Reviews / 1 Comment

From Lukov with Love

My Thoughts

It’s been ages since I finished reading From Lukov with Love and I still think about and swoon over the book. You know, as is pretty typical with Mariana’s books. When this one was released, I dropped everything and started reading it as soon as I could. (Read: once my work day was over.) If only I didn’t have adult responsibilities, I’d have read it cover to cover in one sitting but … you know, sleep. And work. Even still, I managed to read it in just a little over a day and fell utterly, head over heels in love.

The timing of From Lukov with Love’s release — right before the Winter Olympics — was absolutely perfect. I was already all geared up for the winter sports I love so much — with ice skating being at the very top — so that made the book all the more appealing. (Though let’s be perfectly honest, it’s an MZ book so there wasn’t a chance I wasn’t going to read it.) Regardless, it was the perfect lead-in to the Olympics and I’ll admit, it made me pay a little more attention to the couples while they were competing. I was imagining relationships all over the place. Ha!

I’m a sucker for a hate-to-love relationship and I love how MZ writes them. Combine the initial animosity and the relationship that develops along the way with her trademark slow burn and I’m totally hooked. That’s what happened with Jasmine and Ivan and their story. Typically, I find I connect with the heroine immediately and it takes a little while for me to get behind the hero. The opposite happened here. I wasn’t a huge Jasmine fan initially — though she absolutely grew on me and I came to love her. But Ivan? He was so kind and sweet that I loved him from the start. And I loved their partnership, with all the banter and everything that came with it. The whole book was borderline magical and I loved getting lost in it.

So yes, I totally loved From Lukov with Love. I mean, I love all of Mariana’s books, but this one is right up there with The Wall of Winnipeg and Me and Kulti. Which is to say, once it’s released on audio it’ll go into my rotation of regular rereads.

Favorite Quotes

I hadn’t known it was possible to feel like you could fly. To be so strong. To be so beautiful. To be good at something.

You are who you are in life, and you either live that time trying to bend yourself to make other people happy, or… you don’t. And I sure as hell had better things to do with my time.

“Jasmine, you’re not a loser. Not years ago, not last week, not today, not tomorrow. Not ever. Winning isn’t everything.”

And one of the best lessons I’d ever learned figure skating was that when you fell, you got right back up and acted like nothing had happened to begin with. You made things important, or you didn’t. And if you got up and smiled and held your head up high… you still had your dignity. And I was going to squeeze the shit out of my dignity with both hands.

“You’re enough. You will always be enough. Hear me?”

Love to me was honesty. Being real. Knowing someone’s best and worst. Love was a push that said someone believed in you when you didn’t.

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Review: From Lukov with Love by Mariana ZapataFrom Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Publication date: February 1, 2018
Publisher: Self-Published
Format: eBook
How I got it: I bought it!
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon
My rating:

If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one.

After seventeen years—and countless broken bones and broken promises—she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close.

But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she’s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything.

Including Ivan Lukov.

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Do you love Mariana’s books as much as I do?
Can you pick a favorite?

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