From Lukov with Love

From Lukov with Love Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 23,890 ratings

Price
New from Used from
Kindle
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
$0.99
$7.95 with discounted Audible membership
Audible Logo Your audiobook is waiting!
Limited-Time Offer
$0.99
  • Get Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 a month for the first 3 months.
  • You'll receive 1 credit a month to pick ANY title from our entire premium selection to keep forever (you'll use your first credit now).
  • You'll also get UNLIMITED listening to select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts.
  • $14.95 a month after 3 months. Cancel online anytime.
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
Audible Logo Your audiobook is waiting!
  • Click above for unlimited listening to select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts.
  • One credit a month to pick any title from our entire premium selection — yours to keep (you'll use your first credit now).
  • You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
  • $14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel online anytime.
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.

Product details

Listening Length 14 hours and 55 minutes
Author Mariana Zapata
Narrator Callie Dalton, Teddy Hamilton
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date May 11, 2018
Publisher Mariana Zapata
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07CZ4DX7Q
Best Sellers Rank #7,510 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#686 in Sports Romance (Books)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
23,890 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 7, 2023
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 11, 2018
Customer image
4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 almost perfect stars!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 11, 2018
There is no one who does slow burn better than Mariana Zapata. At this point I'm just stating facts, honestly.

I loved this book soooo much I feel like I can't even put into words how happy this book made me feel. Right now I have the biggest grin on my face and my heart feels full, like when you finish the best love story and you just know that they're going to be happy together for the rest of their lives. It's how I feel about Jasmine and Ivan. Because if there were ever two people who were meant to be, it's those two.

I love that this was a enemies to friends to lovers romance but I loved even more was how they pretty much weren't enemies at all but it was all foreplay to what everyone could see but Jasmine. I won't even say Ivan because it feels clear to me that from the very beginning, Ivan has been interested in Jasmine and she was the only one clueless to his affections towards her. And that fact that he's been waiting around for her for freaking YEARS makes me love him so much but also makes their romance feel that much more soulmate worthy.

I loved pretty much everything about this book but I especially loved Jasmine. I love how perfectly imperfect she is. I love how she is so unapologetically herself and how many would call her an unlikable heroine and she wouldn't give a hoot about it. She is who she is and she never apologizes for it and I loved that about her sooo much. She has worked so freaking hard for her dream, it honestly hurt me that she she kept failing while everyone else around her was succeeding. But what is so great about Jasmine is that she NEVER gives up, not on herself and not on the things that really matter. This book was very much centered on Jasmine's journey as a ice skater and as a person; I would even go as far as saying it was about her journey first, and the romance second.

Though as a side note, that one sex scene we got was SO. FREAKING. HOT.

Like seriously, hot.

Their chemistry was off the charts and that one scene alone made me wish on all the stars in the sky that Mariana would have more sexy times in her books because hot DAMN.

So if I loved this book so freaking much, why only 4 stars? Well there were a few things that bothered me:

1. I felt like the writing at certain points was a bit awkward and confusing. For example, many times throughout the book she would say things like "the woman standing next to me said," or "my mom's fourth husband said" and it was just so...weird? We know their names, she literally said them one line before so why did she have to keep referring to them through this characterization quirk? (I don't even know if that is a thing or if it makes sense but I'm going with it for now). It became annoying after a while because I just wanted to shout, "JUST CALL THEM BY THEIR DAMN NAME ALREADY" and at one point in the beginning when she'd done it with their Coach Lee I was genuinely confused when she'd refer to her as "the other woman standing next to me" because I thought maybe I'd missed something and there was more than one coach in the room and I had to keep rereading the paragraph or page over.

2. I feel like I complain about this all the time but while I love how she's so amazing at the slow burn, I feel like she forget that she needs to actually show us them as a couple. Don't get me wrong, I felt their connection and could feel that they'd be perfect together as a couple and they'd last for the long haul but once more it took until 95% for them to actually get together and that didn't really leave much room to show us them together as a couple. And I don't know if it's just a me thing, but while I want the slow burn, I also want the satisfaction of seeing them date and be a couple too. I feel like it gets tricky in this book because technically even though they weren't together and Jasmine was acting oblivious to what was in front of her, they were pretty much acting like a couple for the last quarter-ish of the book. I knew that Ivan was in love with her well before he admitted it and I knew that she had feelings for him too even if she hadn't realized it yet, but I wanted to see them be together longer than half a chapter. I'm not trying to be harsh or mean but it's clear that the author has a formula that has worked very well for her in the past. Hell, her next five books could follow the same formula of: slow burn to the max and then last five precent showing them finally admit their feelings and I'd still buy every single one of them. But at the same time, it's going to get old. And just because something has worked for you before doesn't mean you shouldn't grow as a writer and try new things. I'm not saying she needs to stop doing what she's doing because I love her for it so much but I'm saying maybe tweak it or throw in a curveball or two to keep us readers on our toes every once in a while.

3. And my final complaint would be that I felt like the writing was drawn out. It's not that I didn't love it and I wasn't completely hooked from beginning to end, because I was. But when I was reading, she would take three pages to say one thing and I got the distinct feeling she was just being wordy to be wordy. For example, I didn't need 3-4 pages of inner dialogue about how she was sad that her mom was sad, especially when it felt like it was in a constant loop of the same thing being said four different ways. This kind of ties into my point two where you could've used those extra words/pages or whatever to show us them as a couple instead of feeling like you needed to draw things out for the simple fact that it's kind of what you're known for. Again I don't mean this in a catty or nasty way because I genuinely love this author and her writing so freaking much it's not even funny. But it was just the impression I got a few times while reading.

But besides those three things, I absolutely loved this book and felt like I went through the best freaking journey with these characters. Mariana Zapata is easily one of my favorite authors and I love that I can count on her to make me fall so in love with her books, no matter what. I also want to point out that I love her immensely for always having diversity in her books; she is one of the few romance authors that I can say that has multiple books with WOC heroines and I love that she consistently gives it to us. Not only that but she gives diversity in so many other aspects to, like in the topics covered in her books. Her characters are not one dimensional and they very much feel like real people, people who I could know and be friends with. Overall, if you are a fan of this author's previous books you will 100% love this book so hardcore. And if you haven't read anything by her yet you need to jump on the Zapata train and pick up this book asap.
Images in this review
Customer image
Customer image
15 people found this helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

J.J
3.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on November 2, 2022
Kerry Kennedy Author
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 25, 2023
Shazzamattaz
3.0 out of 5 stars Lovely insight into the figure skating world with a touch of romance
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 28, 2023
RedReader
4.0 out of 5 stars Slow burn at its best
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 25, 2018
Cristina Alexandra Costea
5.0 out of 5 stars delightful and heart-throbbing slow burn romance
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 24, 2023