As Long as You Love Me is a perfect college academic rivals to lovers and fake dating romance! Academic rivals romances are my JAM and I was so excited to see one set in college. Aside from the amazing banter and fierce competition that Catalina and Gabriel deliver in this novel, we also get a sweet fake dating romance as the two struggle to fight their growing feelings for one another. I loved their dynamic and how smart and ambitious Catalina was while Gabriel would often drop everything to support her whenever she needed it. I do wish we got to see a little more of their dynamic during their four years of college together instead of having the book pick up during their last semester of senior year, but all their scenes together were so sweet!

I also really just loved Catalina as a main character. I related to her so hard about being the eldest daughter in her family and always feeling the pressure to help her parents and support her family in general. The struggle of juggling that, especially as an immigrant student, while trying to do well in school and secure a job after graduation so she could get her visa sponsored was very accurately portrayed. Her character trait of not feeling particularly attached to romance, dating, and ultimately marriage because she was so preoccupied with supporting her family and focusing on school was all too real.

Speaking of family, I really loved the strong of theme of family in this book, which is a very big part of every first- and second-gen immigrant's lives. The subplot of this story following the political unrest in Venezuela, how it affected Catalina's family, and seeing how instances like these make so many folks seek asylum in other countries was heartbreaking. I think this story overall painted a very realistic picture of the reality of being an American immigrant in today's day and age. Nevertheless, I'm so happy Catalina and Gabriel still got a HEA after everything that was thrown at Catalina. Seeing Gabriel patiently wait for Catalina in the two months she went back home to Venezuela was so incredibly sweet and overall their story made me cry so many times! I can't wait to see what other stories Marianna Leal releases next. I'd rate this 4.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Cata, the FMC, is in college for engineering, trying to get a full-time position at the company she is currently interning for but has to compete against MMC Gabriel who she does not like. When Gabriel gets dumped right before his sibling's wedding, he asks Cata to be his plus one to annoy his mom and in return she says she wants the job.

I would say the romance in this book took a back seat and wasn't as well fleshed out as Cata's experience with her family and their life in Venezuela but I really enjoyed that aspect and felt like I learned a lot about what is going on there. Also, as a twin, I enjoyed that Cata had one also.

This was an enjoyable read and I definitely recommend it.

(2.75)

The fake dating romance As Long as You Love Me by Marianna Leal centers on Gabriel Cabrera and Catalina Diaz Solis.

Despite his initial dislike for Cat, Gabriel was always such a softie and showed a lot of interest in her. Cat was the same; she simply mistook her liking for disliking him, which lead to their amazing banter and tension. I also adored how much Gabriel cared for Cat, as though he would do anything to help her achieve her goals.

However, there were scenarios when I needed Gabriel's pov because certain details were ambiguous, particularly when it came to their romantic sentiments because it wasn't made clear whether they were still fake or not. I wasn't entirely clear on the purpose of them pretending to be dating because the whole situation with "pranking" their mother was so unclear and poorly articulated. Also, Cat kept dragging Gabriel along just to keep dumping him in the end, giving the impression that Gabriel was carrying the relationship the entire time. Gabriel was simply too good for Cat.

Overall, this book had amazing relatable characters at the beginning, but there was so much that was left unsaid that it became frustrating.

*Thank you to Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group and to the author, Marianna Leal, for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.*

Fake dating and marriage of convenience is my all time favourite trope, which made this a book I really wanted to read. The book is also about two rivals for the same job, which I always think is fun to read. I think the book was well written, and it was a very cute read with a sweet MMC, which is always great. In addition, the book contained a lot of important themes which I think was represented well. I really enjoyed this book.

— 3.5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

"Sometimes you just know that if you don’t make a bold leap, you can miss out on the best things in life. And I don’t want to miss out on a single second with you"

📖 | 320 pages
👤 | author Marianna Leal
🏢 | publisher Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group
📅 | release date 12 September 2023

What you can expect:

• Closed-door, new adult romance
• Fake dating/marriage
• Marriage of convenience
• Academic rivals/enemies-to-lovers
• Forced proximity

Trigger warnings: grief and loss, death of a family member, political unrest, immigration issues, troubled relationships with family members.

As Long as You Love Me is a first of mine from author Marianna Leal. This book follows the story of Cata, an immigrant from Venezuela as she is working on finishing her Engineering degree and in search of a permanent job to retain her rights to stay within the US. Cata has a full-time job potentially lined upon after graduation, however her long-time academic-nemesis is always vying for the job. Gabe is your typical male main character with his endless charm and good-looks, who is well-educated and the perfect rival for our female main character. With the pair battling for the same post-graduate job, how could they ever get along? This remains the case until Gabe approaches Cata with a deal. If Cata accompanies Gabe to his brother's wedding as his plus-one, then he will step aside and out of the running for the job that Cata so desperately needs. The plan is fool-proof. Cata gets the job, Gabe gets his family off of his back and then they can go about their lives without ever speaking again. And yet Cata is forced with the reality that there is more to Gabe than meets the eye, and the butterflies start to show.

I really liked Cata as a main character. She was definitely flawed in her assumptions of Gabe and his character, and I really appreciated their ability to communicate with maturity and respect. The relationship progression was enjoyable to read, and the banter and wit between the pair had me chuckling at times. Gabe is absolutely not what you would expect. He's a complete sweetheart with a compelling and caring nature, which led to me really enjoying him as a love interest.

As Long as You Love Me introduces some heavy topics that I believe the author wrote well and with care. Cata left her home-country of Venezuela after her brother was killed in a political protest, and since has had a rocky and tumultuous relationship with her family. I admit that I knew next to nothing about the conditions in Venezuela and I greatly appreciate this book bringing more attention to the political unrest that the Venezuelan people have had to endure. The difficult relations between Cata and her family felt well-explored and I liked that Gabe was readily available to provide her with any support that she needed. The writing felt well-paced for the most part, however took a quick turn at the end in moments that I felt could've had a bit more time to better delve into the story. Overall I enjoyed this book by Marianna Leal as I found it very easy to read and I found myself quickly engaged with the story. This book is a closed-door romance with only one makeout scene, so don't go expecting any spice or erotic scenes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I want to say thank you for the ARC! Super grateful to receive so many ARCs sent to me 🤗 This story follows Catalina who is in the country on a student visa. She’s about to graduate and needs to lock in a work visa from her job! The only person standing in her way is Gabe. Gabe seems to have it all, seems to be successful without trying and is extremely good looking. When Gabe needs a plus one to his brother’s wedding, he strikes a deal with Cata so she’ll he his fake date. Of course as she spends more time with him, she discovers there’s more to him.
I want to say that this book was not my favorite. This book was a fake enemies to lovers, in the sense that while Gabe teases her, you can obviously tell that it was super lighthearted, but she takes everything he says so offensively. Most of the time, he’s just plain nice to her, and she responds rudely for over half of the book. Their relationship seemed to lack a lot of substance.
I do like reading about her experiences in Venezuela, and coming to the United States for a better life. I kind of wish this was more of a coming of age fiction verses a romance.
One thing I found kind of funny was the fact that there are full phrases in Spanish with no context clues as to what it means. Which as someone who understands Spanish is no big deal, but you’ll be stuck looking things up if you don’t speak it.
Overall, this kind of read like a Wattpad story, but not in a good way. I would skip this one 2.75 ⭐️s

I really liked the idea of this book and that it took place within a heavier context than is typical of romance, but I couldn’t get into the story. The characters never came to life for me. I’m hoping to go back at another time to see if this changes.

This was a sweet closed-door new adult/college-aged romance! This was my first time reading from this author, and I adored the care she put into the tough topics like grief, loss, political turmoil, international student status, and being a young woman in a STEM-related industry. I believe she started on Wattpad, and I would definitely read from her again!

I enjoyed Cata and Gabe's academic rivals, forced-proximity, fake-dating dynamic, and their banter especially was so much fun! I did think that it happened a bit fast, but I also believed them because I have experienced young love too.

I really felt for Cata when she either ruminated on or interacted with her family back home in Venezuela. Admittedly, I don't know much about the political climate in that country, so this book illuminated some of that for me, and it made me curious to do my own research to find out more.

This book was so cute! I love that Catalina is an engineering student and that the author didn’t shy away from mentioning the lack of women in engineering. Her tension with Gabe works really well for the story. Catalina has a lot of depth as a character, largely due to her family circumstances. However, everything is really well balanced in a way that she still feels 21/22 years old. When Gabe learns some truths about Catalina’s family, the way he treats her changed from teasing all the time to being so supportive of her. It seemed like a really turning point in their relationship that made the fake-dating change. Some parts were a little cheesy, but really enjoyable. There was a really authenticity to the book that I enjoyed and I can’t wait to read more from this author! 4.5⭐️, 1🌶

As a Latina I loved the representation in this book. I enjoyed it thoroughly and loved that it touched on subjects that need more attention. I highly recommend

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I found out that Wattpad was supporting authors and I have to say that it is really nice to find new authors coming into the publishing world and seeing their work being officially marketed.

'As Long As You Love Me' is a cute romance book but where we are able to get to know more about other topics about the female main character, such as emigration status, political points of view, visas, etc.

This book grabbed my attention from the very first moment as I found the writing super easy and fun to follow. I loved the characters, their thoughts, their evolution and their relationships. It is a fun read and I can see many people reading it in just one sitting.

The banter between the two characters was so funny and Gabe was a sweetheart, I absolutely loved him. Even when he was more 'annoying', that would disappear within moments and I would find myself laughing.

Catalina had the same effect on me up to 60%-70%. That was when the 3rd act started to grow and, after a while, I started to dislike her attitude. Not towards her family and friends or what she was fighting so hard for but towards Gabe. Not only that, but at 80%-85% until the end, I started skipping some paragraphs because that part of the story didn't make much sense to me, it was something that could had been removed because it didn't add to the romance.

I was SO close to giving it 4 stars but the last few pages left me a bit disappointed so I give it a 3,75 star rating!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of As Long As You Love Me by Marianna Leal!

3.5 ⭐️
Right from the start, the book delves into weighty topics like political unrest, loss, and poverty. We follow Catalina, who is nearing the end of her college journey, as she receives devastating news: her visa extension has been denied. She finds unlikely company with her sworn enemy: Gabe. a charismatic classmate who proposes a plan to sabotage a wedding in exchange for removing himself from a highly competitive internship-turned-full-time job competition between the two of them. As the stakes rise, Catalina finds herself caught between her growing attraction to Gabe, the challenges of her family's situation in Venezuela, and her uncertain path ahead.

Not gonna lie, I really thought it was going to be a relatively simple fake-dating, enemies-to-lovers read. Wow it was SO much more than that.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group, W by Wattpad Books & Marianna Leal for an ARC copy of As Long As You Love Me in exchange for my honest review.

I was immediately drawn into As Long As You Love Me - as a Latina who's always excited to read more Latiné authors, this very well-written, enemies/rivals-to-lovers & relationship of convenience rom-com had me laughing, swooning and being invested in Cata & Gabe from the start. 

I love the Venezuelan female MC rep, the Puerto Rican male MC rep, and how well Mariana fleshed out the characters, both main & supporting. The banter between the MCs was great, and the heavy moments within the book that dealt with Cata's trauma were so delicately balanced with moments of triumph and happiness. Spanish being naturally woven throughout the entire book was a cherry on top. (And who doesn't love a 90s BSB song as the title of this book?!) 

On the pepper scale, I'd give it 0.5/5 peppers (though, my friends who like open-door can enjoy it alike because of the writing), and 4/5 stars overall. I look forward to reading more of Marianna's books in the future! 

#AsLongAsYouLoveMe #NetGalley

i love the fake dating trope, and this is a good example

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

I definitely recommend this book! Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes so I already knew I would enjoy the book but didn’t expect to love it this much. I also love a Latina protagonist, the representation is amazing. All in all the writing was great, the story was amazing, and I loved being given the opportunity to enjoy this gem.

As Long As You Love Me by Marianna Leal is a contemporary romance with elements of Fake Dating, Fake Engagement, Enemies To Lovers, and Work Place Romance. Cata and Gabe are studying at the same university and niche STEM field. Cata can't stand Gabe, or so she thinks. Gabe is a pretty boy, a womanizer, and he's her biggest competition in their department and in their future industry. When Cata learns that she no longer has a viable chance to get a work visa to remain in Florida and work, she and Gabe come to an amicable agreement—pretend to date so she can accept a job offer she knows will go to Gabe. Gabe needs a date to a family wedding. His mother has already ruined enough weddings to last their family a life time. There's nothing like bringing a new girlfriend home on a student visa to ruffle up his Puerto Rican mother's feathers. Yet, when these two realize they have more sparks than the welding they make in their class, they heat up things in this romance. There were parts of this story that I enjoyed. There was quite a bit of humor and charm. I liked Cata's crush on her roommate's brother and almost wished that were explored, but I'm not the writer of this story. Gabe was a hot character, not gonna lie, but I didn't really buy that he had been pining for Cata for as long as they'd been attending classes together. While he was a fantastic gentleman, paying for Cata to return to her home country to take care of a family issue in her politically challenged Venezuela, I felt there were a lot more sacrifices being made by Gabe than Cata gave in return. While there were some really love scenes together, I couldn't suspend my feelings that they weren't exactly right for each other. Yet, the writing was wonderful. The author can spin a tale. I love the injection of real issues on Cata's part. But I didn't have a sense that Gabe suffered from anything—other than having a really racist and nationalistic mother. All in all, I enjoyed the story.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into the storyline, but once I did, I was hooked! I’m a fan of this author and hope she continues to write great stories.

I loved it!! I loved the trope, the story, the characters and the banter💗🥹 This book had me blushing and wishing to be the mc so many times!!

As Long As You Love Me is a sweet faking dating to lovers story. Catalina has been though a lot and is desperate to finish her Engineering degree in America. The only problem is she has serious competition for her much needed scholarship. Gabe is charming and annoyingly good looking and worst of all he's seriously good in school. When Gabe needs a date for his brothers wedding, he makes Cata and offer she can't refuse. If she goes to the wedding with him then he will step out of the running for the job she wants. As these two get closer things heat up and sparks fly! It's heavy at times then that trauma will just be brushed aside for romance. I wish there was a better mix of the heavy topics and the romance but I enjoyed it!