For ten years Bianca Brannen has stayed away from professional football player, Zac Travis. Even though they had once been best friends, and to Bianca, something more, they had lost touch and had gone on with their lives. Bianca not only works at a local gym, but she also has established a cooking show on Watchtube, a youtube clone. An emergency with Zac's grandfather brings Bianca and Zac together again, but they are both at major crossroads in their lives, muddying an already complicated and painful relationship.

Hands Down is the first book I've read by Mariana Zapata, and I'm a little disappointed. The story is enjoyable and the characters, well developed, but Bianca is a bit annoying because she repeatedly explains why she isn't good enough for Zac. Also, the length of the book is definitely slow burn, but it is so slow and plagued by a lack of conflict and angst, that by the end, it's tough to care anymore about their romance. Overall, this book did not live up to my expectations, but I will try again with another Mariana Zapata book. ( )

Good but not great. My main gripe is that Zac was waaay to beta for me. There's slow burn and then there's kinda ridiculous. If he was such a player why didn't he make a move on her once he decided he loved her? Didn't love the heroine either. And seriously that thing about we can't get together because Boogie (hate the name) might not like it was seriously out of left field. There had been no indication that he would have cared at all. Suddenly they were all so worried about it.

And as another reviewer said, what's with all the nose booping? That was just odd. Too many nicknames also. Did warm up to Trevor this time around.

Decent read but won't be a reread. ( )

4.6 stars

Whenever I read this author I know it is going to be good. Diving into her world and words is an experience. There is an sth and layer to her stories. Nothing goes at the last pace. It seems like it takes forever to get to the end. Yet, before I know it, I wonder how it is over so quickly.

Bianca and Zac. Perfect. They prove that there might be truth to the best-friend theory. When the pivotal steamy moment happened, I'm not sure who was more excited--me or them. The anticipation, as it always does, almost killed me. Well worth it, hands down. ( )

The slowest of the slow burns... ( )

It's basically best friends little sister troupe, except it's the heroines cousins best friend but they are like brother and sister.
It's well written and has some very funny moments.
I did feel at the start it was a bit rambling, loads of ins and outs about her situation, job, family and connections and history.
It gets going after the Hero and heroine reconnect.

The heroine has a cousin who is in it alot and referred to alot and his name is Boogie. I didn't like the name or its variations. Irritating names. Peewee. Snack pack, maybe it's me, I know they were childhood plus friends but it was annoying.


For the safety gang.
10 year separation.

When they meet again there is a bit of mystery concerning how they lost touch.
She felt she was in love with him but as far as she is aware he didn't know.

"And really, more than any other question, so what if he hadn’t responded to any of my calls or texts for years? I was over that, and I had been for a long time. I didn’t resent him for being busy."
In some ways this works, people start careers and live in different places and make new friends so they loose touch, but there is more to it.



'So what if one of the last times I’d seen him in person, his girlfriend at the time had crushed my precious, fragile self-esteem into tiny little pieces with her fake-ass smile and harsh words? I wasn’t seventeen anymore. I didn’t weigh my self-value against other people’s opinions.'

So I assume as he is a bit older he dated and she witnessed it which is later confirmed.
I will say there is no details about him with other girls or women just that he was.

When they meet he is having a party, she has arrived after work to pass on a message from his family about a sick relative.
Zac is sitting between two women, chatting and basically charming them, no real detail.
Later in a conversation with the blonde woman she tells the heroine he has gone to his bedroom to make a phone call and points to where so the heroine assumes she knows where his bedroom is.
Heroine finds his phone for him and looks at the screen
'NEW TEXT MESSAGES
AMY BLONDEWAITRESS OKC: [picture message]
And below that, there were older notifications.
KEISHA BLDIVORCELAWYER OKC: [picture message]
STACY BROWNBANKER OKC: Just heard about…
VANESSA: [two new messages]
AIDEN: Call me.
TREVOR: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING. CALL ME BACK
Amy. Blonde Waitress. OKC.
Keisha. Blonde? Divorce attorney. OKC.
Stacy. Brunette banker. OKC.'

So are we assuming the pic messages are nudes?? Not sure but these are some of the women who have given him their number to contact him should he feel the need and it's later confirmed that he did.
They are identified by area they live as he doesn't really know them and there are so many.


Then later referring to the time during separation.
"Back in March. “They said you were in the Bahamas.” That and I’d seen the pictures he’d posted on his Picturegram account. There was one of him on a yacht surrounded by greenish blue water with two teammates and five women."

And
"
But I’d still scrolled and lingered over some of his pictures, especially the ones where he carefully cropped out whatever woman was sitting beside him. It was always obvious."


So I think it's implied he's a bit of a player, though no details.

Spoiler.......

After they meet towards the end.
"“Some girl posted a picture of them together, okay, nosey? She was sitting on his lap. It hurt my feelings, but we aren’t together. At all. He doesn’t even like me like that. I told him, and he started to say something about how he wished I wasn’t your cousin, Boog. So there. He didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t want to stop being friends with him. If anything, I just need to remember what kind of friends we are, and that’s platonic, and I’ll be fine in no time. ”"

But it's an old picture. Not a recent event.

His reply concerning other women is His frown got even more fierce. “Not since before you showed up. Longer than that.”

He is sweet and a bit lost.
The heroine has learnt to stand up for herself so she has a backbone.

No intimate scenes other than the Hero and heroine.
We don't witness any flirting or intimate touching on his part past or present though he has a smile and charm for everyone as part of his professional persona.

Secondary characters introduced that could have stories of their own.
Previous characters from previous books by this author appear esp Van and Aiden and Trevor.

HEA.
Epilogue. ( )