In Gabriella Gamez's captivating novel, "The Next Best Fling," librarian Marcela Ortiz finds herself entangled in a complex web of unrequited love and forbidden desire. Having harbored secret feelings for her best friend for years, Marcela is crushed when he becomes engaged. Desperate to move on, she encounters Theo Young, the ex-NFL player and older brother of her unrequited love. When Theo confides in Marcela his plans to confess his feelings for the bride-to-be, Marcela intervenes to prevent a scandal. As they spend the night together to avoid the confession, a fabricated cover story takes hold. To distract themselves from their unrequited yearnings, Theo and Marcela embark on a rebound relationship. Amidst stolen glances in library aisles and intimate nights, they discover a simmering chemistry that threatens to unravel their carefully constructed lies. As they grapple with complicated feelings, messy family dynamics, and hidden secrets, their rebound relationship becomes a lifeline. However, the risks of their charade loom over them, threatening to shatter the fragile connection they have built. Gamez skillfully weaves a tale of unrequited love, forbidden desire, and the unexpected consequences of a rebound fling. Marcela and Theo's characters are complex and relatable, their struggles and choices echoing the complexities of human relationships. The novel explores themes of self-acceptance, the boundaries of love, and the unexpected ways in which our hearts can lead us astray. With its captivating plot, vivid characters, and thought-provoking themes, "The Next Best Fling" is a testament to the power of love and the complexities of the human heart.

The Next Best Fling is a solid debut novel. I've been out of the dating game for quite awhile, so someone more entrenched may find a better connection to the story. Still, I appreciated the physical and emotional challenges faced by the characters and how they handled them. The characters are both relatable and likeable, with real problems.

This book was cheesy in all the right ways. It had humor and a realistic love story with not so common lead which we need more of! I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a romcom to read.

If you love fake dating, love squares and drama, this is the book for you! Theo and Marcella's story was full of laughs and heart and I loved the bookish aspects and representation of Marcella's character. I did think that some of the drama was a little much at times, but the relationship and growth of Theo and Marcella made up for it!

I was immediately obsessed with this book from the first few chapters. I quite literally devoured the entire thing in less than 24 hour, and I loved it all. It was messy, angsty, dramatic, and SPICY but also so so heartwarming. The messier and more dramatic parts just made the dialogue and plot seem that much more real. The characters each really felt like real, complicated people in their own right.

Librarian x NFL player is a combo I never knew I needed, but it was so good. Along with that, this book also has best friend's brother (with a fun twist from the typical), fake dating, and a love triangle (square?). It touched on trust/abandonment issues and very real relationship issues and insecurities that I think a lot of readers could relate to.

I absolutely loved Theo, he is just the most lovable but complicated teddy bear MMC. Marcela would truly take a bullet for any of her friends, and I related to her in a lot of ways. I also LOVED Angela, which is somewhat rare for me. Best friend characters in romance books can have a tendency to be overly tropey, unoriginal, or just annoying. But Angela was none of these at all. She was so supportive, but knew when to give Marcela the hard truth; and their friendship together was beautiful and so real.

I honestly wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting a physical copy once it releases to reread and annotate!

This is a debut author?! Seriously?

Marcela has been in love with her best friend Ben for the last 10 years and now he’s engaged to her former friend… Marcela is just waiting for him to open his eyes and see what’s in front of him.

Theo is in love with Alice, Ben’s fiancé. Yeah. It’s sticky. So Theo and Marcela decide the best way to get over their past is to have fun with each other. And well, we know where that’s gonna go.

I’m a hopeless romantic. We know that. And I LOVE when a man is detailed and puts careful thinking into things he does. Ahhhh Theo!!! Such a great guy. My heart hurt for him more often than not.

I loved this book! It was everything I didn't know I wanted from this book. It had two flawed characters who knew they were flawed and were working on themselves, not only for each other but for themselves. Marcela and Theo were beautiful together. I wanted to see them together forever. I also wasn't entirely expecting the ending which was refreshing. I also enjoyed the depiction of Marcela as a librarian and how it's not always a glamourous job.

There was a lot of things I really loved about this book! A girl obsessed with books? Absolutely! An NFL-player? OH YES PLEASE.

This was a complicated story, but the main characters really were adorable and perfect for each other.

When I say I devoured this uhhh it was so good! Marcela is a plus size librarian who has been secretly in love with her best friend for years(who is a walking red flag btw) who knows it’s time to move. She gets that opportunity in a way she never expected. In comes Theo Young a ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with she has only been around Theo a handful of times so when she discovers Theo's plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party she can’t let that happen even if a part of her thinks that would bring her closer to Ben so she convinces him to leave the party with her now the next morning everyone assumes they hooked up. To hide the reason they actually left together they let people think that which leads them to being each others rebound. Okay so the miscommunication trope I’m usually not the biggest fan, where there is poor communication, and the main characters feelings are being mixed around it can be a bit frustrating, but Theo literally wore his heart on his sleeve his honesty was so refreshing he was pretty much a open book about most things and his and Marcela’s relationship and how they were so good for each other and literally helped each other in many ways they didn’t even realize at the time and how much they each grew through to the very end was amazing to see. Speaking of the ending wow! So thankful I got to read this early it was incredible.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! I usually don't love the fate dating trope especially when the two leads are in love with other people, but wow! Gabriella Gamez did such a great job at making Marcela and Theo's connection feel genuine. It wasn't love at first sight which would have been so unbelievable for these characters. The way their unrequited love faded and their love for each other grew was perfectly paced and relatable! I look forward to more books by this author.

This was a fast and cute read. I loved the character development of Theo, you get to see his family relationship problems and issues. It will be a cute add to a library's romcom collection. I would recommend to fans of Lessons in Chemistry and such.

This one follows a librarian Marcela, and ex NFL player Theo. Theo also happens to be the brother of Marcela’s best friend. The best friend that Marcela is secretly pining for, but cannot say anything because he is engaged to be married. While Theo is in love with the Bride to be. 🙀

It is a sweet romance, while also dealing with some heavier topics. I really enjoyed watching Marcela and Theo’s relationship from fake to real. Theo is the absolute sweetest and he is bound to be the next book boyfriend!

This book unfortunately fell a bit flat for me. I found myself having to essentially force myself to keep reading it. I need a book to grab my attention right away and this just didn’t do that for me. I loved seeing a plus size main female character for a change but in general the writing fell flat for me. Parts of the story were hard for me to believe as well. For example the fact that she fell instantly in love with Theo despite originally being a bit freighted by him just didn’t make sense to me. Overall the story was cute but it just wasn’t for me. The writer has so much potential though so I would certainly give her next book a try!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

irstly, thank you to @readforeverpub for this ARC

I really enjoyed this book; it was such a cute but messy read, which is right up my alley lol.

So get this: Marcela is in love with her bestie Ben, but Ben just got engaged to his girlfriend Alice. At their engagement party, Marcela overhears Ben’s older brother Theo (who happens to be an ex-NFL player 👀) about to confess his feelings for Alice. Marcela, being the selfless queen she is, stops him from ruining their engagement. With Marcela and Theo being in the same position, both in love with one half of this engaged couple, it’s only natural they would use each other as a fling. But of course, it’s never that simple/complicated 🤭

I really love that Marcela is a plus-size character, and sadly I haven’t read many books whose FMC reflects bodies like mine, so I loved being able to relate to Marcela on that level. I also loved the LatinX representation as well! Outside of Marcela, I also really liked Theo’s character; he’s just a giant teddy bear!! However, Ben can kick rocks with open-toed shoes (if you know you know 😂)

Definitely look out for this one on July 9th, 2024!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Next Best Fling was not for me. When I read a book, I want to be absorbed in it....unfortunately, there was nothing noteworthy about this book. I thought the whole premise of this story was unbelievable. It's hard to believe that Marcela and Theo were hung up on other people for years!! I didn't feel any chemistry between the main characters. I also didn't care for most of the side characters. The drama of the book was too much for me to follow/care about. Thank you to Forever for the ARC.

This book was absolutely everything and anything I love in a romance read! The characters were so relatable, but complex enough that you were left wanting to know more. The romance had an insane amount of chemistry that kept me smiling and reading throughout the night. I cannot recommend this book enough for those of you who enjoy reading heartwarming, funny, and beautiful love stories!

Overall, a very easy, enjoyable read. I would recommend it to patrons that enjoy rom-coms and fiction books concerning family dynamics. I would read work by this author again!

This was SO GOOD! An absolutely interesting troupe as I’ve never really read anything like it! We love the “get under to get over someone” but the dynamic / family dynamic with these two was SO GOOD! Such an enjoyable read & I can’t wait for everyone to get to read it!

I was able to read an ARC of this story through NetGalley courtesy of Forever Publishing! This book will be released July 9, 2024.
I really enjoyed this book! Immediately I was engrossed in the character that is Marcela Ortiz. I saw so much of myself in her and her personality was so fun. Gabriella did such a great job writing Theo Young! She made me fall in love with him from the very beginning.

Throughout the book, I would catch myself being upset with Marcela's indecisiveness but I think that is real life haha! We all have those friends who ask us for advice and do the opposite or they can never make up their mind. That put a real world aspect into this story and what it is like being in a sisterhood. All that to say it may have taken "Marce" a long time to make up her mind but I am so happy she chose the right brother in the end. I give this book a 3.75 (rounded up).

This really pains me to write but unfortunately this book put me in a slump and was really hard to finish. The premise was so creative and I loved the plus size representation and diversity but the writing ultimately fell flat. I will say I absolutely loved the background of the story. It was so cool to see Gabriela and her passion for work at the library (as I feel like sometimes women in romance novels have the same types of jobs). That was great to see.

A couple of things made this hard for me to finish. I wish the main character had stronger boundaries with the bullying and meddling from Alice and Ben. It was just so much to get through in the beginning and middle. I also thought her connection with Theo was a bit too insta-love for me considering how she was genuinely scared of him at first. I had to flip back a few pages to see if I missed something in their connection. I think the author fell into the trap of telling us instead of showing us the journey. This is Gabriella Gamez's debut novel and she has so much potential as a writer!

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!