“Love to me was honesty. Being real. Knowing someone's best and worst. Love was a push that said someone believed in you when you didn't.”
Rating
Review
From Lukov With Love follows Jasmine, a 26-year-old ice skater that was just dumped by her pairs partner and has been unable to find another, thus unable to skate competitively. She has shifted her life semi away from ice skating towards her familiar and working instead, but her passion and dreams to win are still there. She’s given the chance to partner with her fiercest rival, but can the two ever learn how to work together?
One of my reading resolutions for 2019 is to read more contemporary and romance, as there are so many amazing novels in the genres that I’ve been missing out on with my focus on fantasy! From Lukov With Love is my first Zapata novel, an author that has been highly recommended by all of my friends in The Book Coven, and it proved that my new focused attention on romance was a good idea.
I freaking LOVED this book.
I mainly read it in the early morning hours, as a way to convince myself to fall back asleep, but we all know how well that works out when a book grips you and doesn’t let you go. If I wanted a book to lull myself back to sleep, I should’ve picked something way less exciting, interesting, and adorable.
More on that last adjective, Lukov was so cute most of the time, and so so wholesome. It’s not what I was expecting at all from an adult romance, especially not with a main character who always says what she’s thinking and curses almost every other line. It’s also not often what you expect from a haters to lovers/enemies to friends trope, as generally that progresses thanks to a whole lot of sexual tension. And while that exists here, sort of, the relationship mainly just progresses due to a whole lot of adoration, admiration, and straight up love for each other. It was just so cute and there were some points I just couldn’t handle it.
Jasmine’s story, on its own, is also extremely interesting to read. I don’t read a lot of sports books since I never really have interest in the sports as a whole, but for some reason, I always love the stories behind the athlete, whether it be as a movie, book, etc. Jasmine’s story was no different, as it was one of passion and determination, causing the reader to cheer her on. Lukov balances being an athlete’s story and a romance perfectly, meaning fans of either genre/trope can love the book.
I do have to be honest though, I did have a hard time getting into the book at first, and I kind of have to blame that on Jasmine. She’s a tough person to love right away, mainly due to how honest and direct she is, as well as her dislike of other people (which we do learn is extremely justified). While you grow to love these parts of her, it is hard to like her at first, especially when you don’t know her backstory. However, these worries only lasted 15-20%, and by a quarter in, I was entirely hooked.
From what I’ve heard, the rest of Zapata’s novels are all almost just as fantastic as this one, and while I may not be able to fit another one into my January TBR, you can definitely see me reading more of her work in the near future!
(A lot of Zapata’s works are available through Kindle Unlimited, including Lukov, and all the rest are incredibly cheap for kindle! If you love ice skating, cute romances, haters to lovers, or just a good book, I highly recommend giving this book a try! You won’t regret it)
