
Mariana Zapata is a New York Times, USA Today, and a multiple No. Facebook: /marianazapatawrites Instagram: See more When she isn't writing, you can usually find her picking on her loved ones.

Mariana lives in a small town in Colorado with her husband and beloved Great Dane, Kaiser. Her novels have been published in thirteen languages. She is a five-time Goodreads Choice Awards nominee in the Romance category. “Do what you have to do to be happy, okay? No one else is going to do it for you.” – The Best Thing Content Warnings:Ĭursing and body humor (talking about poop is not at all uncommon), sometimes uncomfortable metaphors (going on a death march, noose around my neck, lots of ripping of new assholes), use of “girl” instead of “woman”.Mariana Zapata is a New York Times, USA Today, and a multiple No. You like polished writing OR fast-moving plots OR heroes who are not opaque OR quick, incendiary burns. This makes the declarations of love really pop. The POV means that the heroes are opaque, so we have to infer what they’re feeling, which means a great deal of showing rather than telling to demonstrate the development of the relationship. The protagonists never have insta-love, they both fall in love during the course of the novel, so there’s always emotional growth and change. The books are extremely long for romance, often 500 pages or more. The text itself is engaging but not particularly polished, with some incorrect word use and points of redundancy when the heroines are feeling particularly angsty. The perspective is always the heroine’s POV, so the style reflects the voice of a 20-something woman, usually from an economically disadvantaged or working class background. The burn is constant but extremely slow, with no acknowledgement of feelings or sex until the last quarter of the book.


She writes heroines with all the emotional angst who are somehow also relatable and reserved heroes who we just KNOW have caught feelings even though they haven’t said so. What She Writes:Ĭontemporary romance with the world’s slowest burns from the heroine’s 1st person POV. Looking for a new author? Here’s everything you need to know about Mariana Zapata, whose books include Kulti, Under Locke, and Dear Aaron.
