This was a great read! There are so many books in which poor communication, and not being true to your feelings can be a frustrating plot point, but Theo wore his heart on his sleeve without overdoing it and it made The Next Best Fling a delight to read! The openness and understanding in Marcela and Theo's relationship and their willingness to try hard things was inspiring.

As a woman who has struggled with my weight and body image, I loved how Gabriella Gamaz addressed Marcela's body issues without making it a central theme. I also liked how it touched on the different ways she was treated in the past, including how it may have been a factor in her relationship with Ben. There was one line in the book about how Theo wasn't attracted Marcela because of, or in spite of, her body, he just wanted her. That was really impactful.

I really enjoyed this book, it will make a great beach read with just a little spice.

I was very happy to receive a free ARC of this book, thank you to Netgalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and Gabriella Gamaz for the opportunity to provide my honest review!

This debut novel by Gabriella Gamez was absolutely delightful!

All of the characters were charming and there was a surprising depth to the story!

I related to Marcela so much! I grew up loving to read and calling fictional characters my best friends and this whole book was written for all book girls. She is a wonderful FMC who grows so much throughout the story and her representation regarding the ups and downs of what people experience/how they feel about their bodies was so well done. And Theo?! He captured me from the very beginning with his warmth and refreshing honesty. I’m pretty sure there is nothing I would not do for Theo Young.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that while Marcela and Theo had great chemistry from the beginning and their connection felt real, that isn’t the only thing driving their romance. Finding bravery to follow your heart, sharing insecurities, and embracing changes are all things the author addressed beautifully and made the main characters relationship stand out to me!

I would have liked to have seen a little more Spanish in the book and even more details from the Latino community. And there were some things I was questioning in the book like how Theo was part of an NFL team but had no friends or a coach reaching out to him or the confusing timeline. Like how did 6 months pass?!

Other than those little things, this read was so fun! I will definitely read more by this author in the future.

Thanks so much to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

- Points for plot, minus points for execution. Points for debut author. Double points for the cute cover. Points for easy writing. Minus points for a subpar romance.
- As inticing as the blurb made the book out to be, I didn't really enjoy this book. Yes. Some parts were cute
-adorable even, but other parts were cringey. And down right unsettling. (The sighs I sighed while reading this book)
- The FMC was insufferable and horribly insecure while the MMC was actually tolerable. (So points for Theo).
For once l'd like to to read a book where the FMC is plus sized and isn't shamed about her body. I know we all have our problem areas, but it's getting old.
- I won't harp about how there was a missed opportunity for Gamez to implement a dual POV so that the reader can actually care about the love story, because that's not the reality we got. Instead, we lived inside Marcella's insecure thoughts about her pining for a no good "best friend" she'd been pining after for the better part of a decade. I seriously grew not to care who she ended up with. also found this a bit wordy in parts that didn't need to be explained. (Why am I getting the recipe for empanadas?! Like I do not care).
- I skimmed thru the last 40% of the book because I truly feel like the characters had the same conversation every chapter. It was exhausting. Marcella, an almost thirty year old woman, couldn't make up her own mind about what she wanted in her life. Instead she turned to her friends to make the decisions for her and she'd finally have a "lightbulb" moment. The last part of the book was completely unnecessary, added drama for the benefit of a mediocre plot and vanilla characters from the start.
- I'm sad because I wanted to like this book. But they can't all be five star reads.
- Thank you to netgalley & Forever for an eARC in exchange

Where to even begin? The Next Best Fling is a book I read in one sitting. Like, started reading it in the afternoon and didn't emerge from it until well after midnight when I'd finished. Marcela and Theo on their own are complex and multi-faceted individuals, and thrown together by accidental circumstances causes them to help each other grow. If you've ever felt like a friend was breadcrumbing you, this book will help you think about that long and hard in the kindest way. I loved the representation, and the nods to the need for MORE representation in literature, without it being an overpowering plot element. Plus, the ending was absolutely adorable.

Marcela has been secretly in love with her best friend Ben for years. Ben's brother, Theo, has been secretly in love with Alice (Ben's fiance) for years. After a series of events, Marcela and Theo decide to let people think they have gotten together. Is that arrangement temporary or is it something more?

I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy read and an excellent slow burn romance. Marcela and Theo have great chemistry and are both trying to work some difficult emotions. I would have liked a little more self awareness in our main protagonist but Gamez made the characters very relatable to anyone who has ever experienced an unrequited love.

Plus Marcela is a librarian with a love of books - what is not to love!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! Cannot wait to read the second one!

Deliciously angsty and steamy debut centering a curvy librarian cinnamon roll newly retired football player who explore a shared spark to heal from their respective unrequited loves.

I liked how messy this was and was impressed and surprised by the sweet romance that grew from the chaos the book started with.

This read like a debut with some clumsy moments but I’ll be excited to see the second in the series and would recommend to any romance reader.

Did I drop all other books I was reading to read The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez as soon as I got the eARC? Maybe - alright, the correct answer is YES. How could I not based on the premise of your best friend who you've had a crush on forever is getting engaged, and then you find out that his brother has had a crush on the friend's fiancée. Instead of letting the brother break up the engagement, you end up pretending to be dating each other. Hello, hooked.

As someone that loves friends to lovers, I'm usually rooting for the two friends to get together, but in this story, I was rooting for Marcela and Theo as soon as Theo walked on the page. Marcela deserves everything that is good in her life, and her friend Ben just isn't it. Theo, his brother, is it.

The build up of the fake relationship. How Theo gets Marcela, and understands her, and LISTENS to her. So wonderful. The angst, so good.

Then we get towards the end, when Marcela really sees Ben and how Ben isn't actually good for her, and I feel like the novel took a strange turn. Spoiler-ish: Ben becomes unredeemable. He's basically burned his bridges, and hopefully becomes estranged from everyone. As this is a series, hoping he doesn't return. Or it's going to need to be one hell of a good redemption arc.

As this series is titled Librarians in Love, it would be remiss of me to not mention that this is an appreciation novel to librarians and library workers that work with teens and teen programming, and YA books. I wish I had librarians near me that cared that much for teen programming.

Excited to see future books in this series and more from the author.

Marcela and Theo had me hooked from the beginning! As they navigated through their feelings I was right there with them. Giddy at their “first” date to their real first date.
I absolutely loved this romance. Gabriella Gamez did an amazing job writing about the insecurities that plus size women feel in a relationship. It allowed me to connect even deeper to a book, than I had done before.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for a copy of this book. This is the first time reading a book by this author and overall I thought this book was okay. The story was cute with a little bit of a best friend's brother with some jealous elements. There wasn't anything in this book that captured my attention and made me feel anything. I thought it was a cute romance and was a nice read.

3.5
Thank you @netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

**Also, I have to shout out the dedication page in this book because it made me tear up**

This book was addicting!! I loved the librarian aspect, the best friends brother aspect, the Latina aspect, ahhh! It was just *chefs kiss*.

If you're looking for a romance that you can't put down then I highly recommend "The Next Best Fling". I loved Theo and Marcello's HEALTHY relationship. Did it start off the best? No, but their communication made it healthy imo. The spice was the perfect amount and did not overpower the plot of the story and I just found myself smiling at so many things. I also loved the growth of Marcello's character and just to watch her blossom into the person that she was by the end of the story. I don't want to give too much away but I will say this is a really good book to add to your summer reads.

Some of the things I wish would've happened:
- DUAL POVS!!!!!!!! This book would've been a four star with me if it had this, I am pretty positive on that. ]
- A little more closure with one of the characters (but maybe we will get that in book 2?)

I will definitely be reading book 2 when that releases and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that I will get an ARC for that as well!

Keep your eye out for "The Next Best Fling" which releases on July 9, 2024. It is a perfect beach read!

This unputdownable, hot little romance!!!!!! Swept. Me. Away!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Excuse me, how does one pull off this magic!?!? Marcela and Theo are both pining for another person at the start of this novel and decide to have a fling to try to get over their long-term unrequited loves -- this should not have worked so well!!! It was so angsty and emotional. I can't remember a time where I was reading so fast, so immersed in this relationship, and so desperate for two imperfect characters to find happiness and peace together. I LOVE THEM.

• former NFL player hero 🤝 librarian heroine 🥰
• A 5 star debut!!! Ooh, that has me so excited about what's next for this author. This is book 1 in a series "Librarians in Love" (😱sign me up I cannot wait for the next!!)
• Marcela is a geeky librarian. She loves YA! She found solace in books during a tumultuous adolescence. (One of us! One of us!) You are going to absolutely collapse over the book related romance scenes in this book. The swoon is unreal.
• Excellent chemistry and the perfect slow burn pace.
• If you're like me and you're sort of sensitive/unsure when characters are pining for another in a romance, please rest assured that this one becomes sooooo convincing and everything is as it should be in the end! The missteps and angst are beyond worth it!
• Brace yourself for some messy starting ground...and a bit of an oncoming train wreck feeling, but know that I would never lead you astray--the HEA is just 🤌👩‍🍳💋
• In general, I love having both character's pov in a romance but this time I enjoyed the mystery of Theo's inner thoughts.
• Ridiculously hot on page steam, yes, of course, but also...... he signs up to get a library card on page and is there anything hotter than that???!

It's a new favorite and I already want to read it again. Thanks so much Netgalley and Forever

This book unfortunately has wasn’t for me!
I did love the plus size rep in here, but the 2 main characters together I did not
Love

There were depths to the plot that could have been explored more, but I felt like each plot line had a satisfactory ending with no major plot holes.
I loved this book. I loved the very raw and honest way Marcela was presented. Only having Marcela's POV A throughout the book might have added to some of my confusion. It would have been great to get some from Theo or maybe even Alice as well.
I'm going to recommend this to my library, and I will probably buy my own copy after it's released. My personal library isn't as big as Marcela's but I do have a couple of favorites' shelves.

When Marcela’s long-time crush and best friend announces that he is proposing to his girlfriend, she has to figure out how she’s gonna move on. As she begins sorting out her own feelings, her best friend’s brother, Theo confesses his feelings about his brother’s fiancée. Marcela & Theo start their relationship as a cover, but the unlikely pair find that they have more in common than they think. I really enjoyed this fake relationship, best friend’s brother, contemporary romance novel. The banter between the MCs is so pure and makes the reader vote for them. I definitely recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and forever for the e-Arc my opinions are my own. This was a fabulous debut. Loved the spice and the characters were well developed. I loved the representation in the book. I find miscommunication in books frustrating and find myself yelling at the eReader and the characters. Excited for the next book in the series.

Suggest pickingnit up.

Perfectly cute rom com. Not quite enemies to lovers, little love quadrilateral happening. Good spice. Their relationship didn't always feel totally healthy to me to be totally honest, so I had a tough time sometimes during a lot of their talks with how the conversations went. I think I liked the MMC more than the FMC. But cute overall. 4/5

This had the potential to be super messy and angsty in the best way and while it was a little bit, it wasn’t enough of what I was expecting.

I liked the FMC and I liked how she progressed and was able to realize certain aspects of herself and her friendship and what she should/shouldn’t stand for.

The MMC? I literally did not care. I don’t really mind whether something is dual POV or single or multiple, but this book felt incomplete being single POV. I think this is a case where it would’ve been beneficial to get his POV and his thoughts and feelings.

There’s a fun playfulness between the MCs that I really enjoyed and we do see them become friends and let that grow into something more, and there’s so many cute, swoony moments.

I liked the side characters and I think the story progressed well. I don’t want to spoil anything so all I’ll say is certain reveals/realizations felt disappointing but I do like how the FMC handles things a lot.

So I think this is the case of great idea, not my favourite execution but it was still fun and an easy read!

4.25 stars. This is such a fun debut! Messy, but fun. The MCs are both in love with a part of a recently engaged couple, and, after some misunderstandings, decide to have a fling as a distraction. They end up with some pretty intense chemistry. I loved the grace they give each other with their mistakes, both past and present. And there’s a love letter! I always love a love letter.

I liked the premise of The Next Best Fling, but I found some of the characters fairly draining to read and felt like the end stages of the book dragged along. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.

There seemed to be some kind of disconnect here for me and this one. The chemistry just wasn't present and there didn't seem to be enough plot-wise to keep me interested. Still well written and great for representation, just wasn't for me.