Book Review: All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary romance
Length: 551 pages
Author: Mariana Zapata
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: April 1st, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Losing people you love is hard.

Aurora De La Torre knows moving back to a place that was once home isn’t going to be easy.

Starting your whole life over probably isn’t supposed to be.

But a small town in the mountains might be the perfect remedy for a broken heart.

Checking out her landlord across the driveway just might cure it too.

I GET IT NOW.

My first Zapata book was, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, and I thought it was…fine. I think it might have been over-hyped for me so I didn’t know how I would feel about another book. But decided, why not?

ENTER IN ALL RHODES LEAD HERE.

I get it all now. This is clearly the Zapata book for me and I LOOOOVED IT.

Oh my gosh, Rhodes is a new bookisk boyfriend forever favorite. I couldn’t get enough of his quiet, stoic ways. He was incredibly romantic in the best ways. I was wrapped up in every little (and big) way he showed Aurora he was falling for her hard. I don’t know how to better describe this other than it was some of the mest slow-burn romanticness I’ve ever read.

I thought Aurora was a great main character too. I cheered for her, wanted to hug her, she made me laugh and smile. Watching her work through her trials with a sense of hope that the next turn was going to be better was such a light. Aurora’s ability to smile and continue to love was fantastic.

All of these side characters had me wrapped around their fingers too. [Well, all of the positive characters — the terrible ones can go hide in a hole]. They all felt well built and had their own stories that wove well into the over-arching plot.

Even though some of these hikes went sideways, this book gave me major wanderlust. I would love to travel to some of these areas now and see them for myself.

What a gem of a book y’all. I will recommend this up and down if you’re looking to dive into a Zapata book.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary romance
Language: strong
Romance: kisses/make-outs to one open door scene
Violence: hiking mishaps (falling and getting injured)
Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a parent, emotional/verbal abuse, gaslighting and intense manipulation, depression