Dear Aaron

I FLOVE Mariana Zapata but I had a hard time getting into this book. I love the slow burn but I am starting to hate that as soon as the characters become a couple then BOOM book over. It makes it hard for me to see them connect because I don't feel the connection as a couple. I will always one click this author because she is amazing but this was not the book for me.

OK. I am a huge fan of Mariana Zapata. Her style is S-L-O-W B-U-R-N and I love it. Don't get me wrong, I often enjoy a down and dirty insta-love but with Mariana, you need to kick your shoes off, get comfy, make sure there are frozen dinners available for the family and have dvd's ready to entertain the kids. There's always a huge pay-off with her books, it's just going to take a while to get there.In her latest book, Dear Aaron, she doesn't deviate. Mariana gives readers the opportunity to know the main characters individually before they are romantically involved with each other. While you don't know 'everything' about the characters before they connect, you get to know them gradually, just as they get to know each other. Ruby writes to Aaron through a program that pairs soldiers and civilians as pen pals during deployment. Their friendship grows from their interactions, eventually leading to meeting face to face after Aaron returns home.Ruby is probably one of the least-confident female leads Mariana has written. That said, she can stand up and speak out when pushed far enough, but for the most part she lives to keep the peace and limit risks. Aaron is coming out of a breakup via "dear John" letter when Ruby begins writing to him and he is cautiously friendly. He actually doesn't reply for weeks to her emails. Ruby is charmingly goofy, genuinely sweet, and refreshingly open. Aaron is able to relax and let down his guard within the structure of their relationship and they both begin to open up to each other about personal issues, and they begin to like each other within this safe space. The family life (strife) of both Aaron and Ruby color their views on relationships and both have to work to overcome the self-imposed restrictions to open their hearts to the possibility of a different, more fulfilling relationship possibility for themselves.Mariana is a wonderful author because she writes books that you read over and over, and each time you glean something new you never noticed before. She doesn't give you EVERY thought the lead female thinks (all her books are written from the female protagonists' perspective) so you do have to work for some of the details. This is what gives her work 'legs'...the ability to hang around in your thoughts for a long, long time after you finish a book.Here's where my review will go sideways for some of you. This is not my favorite MZ book. And yes, I still gave it 5 stars. It deserves 5 stars because I enjoyed the book so very much and because she creates the types of books I really enjoy down to my bones. But, it does fall short for me in comparison to her other works. I didn't feel the same connection to Ruby as I have to her other leading females. I think one reason is that Ruby doesn't have a true confidant other than Aaron. Each of her other characters had someone they could lean on and talk to, which in turn gave the reader more depth regarding the story line. Sal had her dad, Iris had Sonny, Vanny had Diana and Zack - and Diana had Vanny and the boys, Gabby had Eli...they all had their 'person'. Another reason this falls short for me is that towards the end, we have an intense portion of the book before Aaron and Ruby acknowledge their feelings towards each other, and then BAM we're given an epilogue that left me feeling unsatisfied. When loving slow-burn romances like I do, a really good epilogue is the 'reward' for all the work I've done being patient! I was reading it and I kept looking at the progress indicator in my kindle and kept thinking "it can't really be at 99%...there's SO MUCH MORE I WANT, NO NEED TO KNOW!".All that aside, if you love Mariana, you will love this book. Her humor and perspective are so unique and you feel the love she pours into every one of her novels. I mean even Mozart didn't turn out a perfect musical composition every time he put pen to paper...wait...that's not the best example...he kinda did. I'll try again...even Charlie Hunnam has days where he may not look his best, but damn, it's Charlie Hunnam and he is a 9.9 at his worst. Dear Aaron isn't my favorite book of hers, but damn, it's Mariana Zapata, and she's still a 4.9 out of 5 on a bad day. Get this book and take your time to enjoy it. If this is your first MZ experience, I insist you read her other books as well. Then you'll understand the genius that she really is.

I adore love stories where an exchange of letters turns to love. I love the verbal witticisms; the slow uncovering of qualities to admire and then adore; the tentative awareness that morphs to more - and, finally, the awakening of lust, love and romance.However, reading the letters, emails, transcripts of Skype and phone exchanges in Dear Aaron wasn't, to my mind, romantic. Instead, I found it excruciating. Credible only if the couple had been in their early teens - as evidenced by the butt jokes alone.Why, why include the butt / constipation jokes? Beats me.I agree with a number of other reviewers - when the couple finally meet, this story actually puts some meat on its bones and there are a few sweet scenes.And then the story ends.And ends with a final couple of pages that are a total fizzer - totally an anti-climax.Don't take my word for it with this story. I'm obviously not the author's target audience and she clearly has devoted fans who loved Dear Aaron. My guess is that I'm too old for this one.

Gosh. I’m struggling with this review right now. I have so many emotions running through me it’s hard to get them down exactly the way I’m feeling them. I guess I should start by saying that Mariana Zapata is by far one of my favourite story tellers ever. Her books are an instant one-click for me, every single time. And I didn’t waste a second picking up Dear Aaron. And you know what? I loved it. I really really loved it. But sometimes, authors write such amazing books that our expectations sky rocket. I don’t want to take away from Mariana’s incredible talent. This book was great. But for me, and I absolutely hate to say this, this wasn’t my favourite of hers. And I’m almost crying as I write that. Because this book, the first 70-80%, OMG! A solid 5 stars. I read it faster than I’ve ever read before. I couldn’t put it down. The whole premise had me screaming for this book from the second the author announced it.Ruby Santos knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she signed up to write a soldier overseas.The guidelines were simple: one letter or email a week for the length of his or her deployment. Care packages were optional.Been there, done that. She thought she knew what to expect.What she didn’t count on was falling in love with the guy.I mean, come on! That blurb sent me swooning already and I didn’t even have the book yet! I guess for me, I wanted more of the book as a whole. For anyone new to Mariana Zapata, she’s literally the queen of slow burn romances. And they are EPIC. It’s the reason I love her writing. She really tells a story. You learn to love and appreciate the characters as individuals before they begin any kind of romance, and the build up is amazing. Dear Aaron did exactly that. The letters to and from were building up emotions inside of me, making me feel anxious as to where the story was heading. Mariana’s writing style was a little different this time around, but her signature style was never far. But I think what fell a little flat for me was when they eventually did meet up, and the week that they spent together, I think I wanted more from them as a ‘couple’. It’s hard for me to say this without sounding like I didn’t like the book. What the author gave us was great, but I really felt like we could have had so much more of ‘them’. And I felt a little let down by the epilogue. I think the author missed an opportunity to really bring these characters and their relationship to another level, and it just didn’t make it there for me. Aaron and Ruby have this epic romance building throughout the time that Aaron is deployed, and I’m so excited for them to finally meet and ‘see’ their connection grow, and we did, but only just a little. And for that, the last 20% was 3.5-4 stars. I enjoyed it, just didn’t love it.There was also the back story of the characters pasts that kept being brought up in small doses, but never really touched on fully, and I think I wanted to know more about that side of each of them. Although Mariana’s books are never overloaded with drama, I think this book could have done with just a little more.Mariana’s writing is always amazing though. It’s something that I have always just loved about her books, even if I didn’t connect a lot with the story or the characters. I still end up finishing the books because of how easy the words flow. This one just fell a little short in terms of story. I would still absolutely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys those sweet, lighthearted romances. It was a really lovely read. I really enjoyed it, just didn’t love it as much as I was hoping I would.Rating: 4 stars

I am a super big fan of Mariana Zapata but this book fell a little flat for me. I can think of two reasons: (1) the email string back and forth between main characters for numerous chapters, and (2) I thought the two main characters came across as lacking maturity.The email back and forth got so monotonous that I actually started flipping pages without reading and I don't generally do that.

I loved Aaron and Ruby's story so much!Ruby is writing letters to an unknown soldier. It is part of a program which encourages civilians to connect with soldiers and help them through the time they are abroad.Ruby didn't expect this time to be any different. But with each letter and email, she gets to know Aaron better while also sharing parts of herself.The romance is a slow burn which makes sense giving the distance. This book has so much built up, the tension was so intense at points.Letter exchange is always very interesting to see. I liked the way they got to know each other and how much they shared from the beginning.Even though it is a 500 pages book I read very fairly quickly because a big part of the book is in letters and dialogues format, which I enjoyed very much.

Loved this book. Format different with the emails back and forth but get to know the characters well in their own words and see the relationship slowly building. Realistic, likeable characters with depths and their own issues. Love the change in the middle of the book and the end is such a page turner to find out what happens... But feels realistic and not deliberately protracted or artifical complications. Will be reading more by this author.

So, fate brings two helpless souls together. Very cliché but I AM a woman, a good love story is always enjoyable.I positively fell in love with Aaron’s calm, cool mysterious demeanour. Ruby’s personality also hit a nerve in me, she was the awkward other side of the track UNrebelious girl who saw the world through a computer screen and her own imagination. She was shy and good and slowly through the end of the book you was able to see how Aaron took the little kitten and turned her into the adventurous cat she should have been.The story line was good. I wished there was a little more involvement of her family characters, it may have helped shed Some light on why she out of all her siblings was deemed as the “good girl” when her brothers and sisters were clearly the boisterous out of the bunch. But hey ho.As far as Aaron, the same stands. There wasn’t much information about him other than his word. No involvement of his dad or his siblings and not enough drama involving his wayward money grabbing mother. Some more information on HIS background would have help tremendously.The book also ended rather abruptly with a short epilogue that literally left me wanting to know more. What happened!???Is there going to be another? Perhaps 2 years ahead of time, how did they get to living with each other? DO THEY live together? I am just assuming here. When did kids become an option? What happened with his mother after Ruby spoke to her? In a possible second book, can we get some if these answers? Way too many strings have been left untied, was this on purpose?As I said, story line as good, I loved the email approach, I loved the personalities, they really spoke to me. And I ALWAYS love the solider backline. A little “Nicolas Sparks Dear John” but it’s far to difficult to write something that hasn’t been written before so kudos for writing it in a different way. I got so much enjoyment out of this, and I’d love to read more.Recommended to many friends too.

The best kind of different, I’d say. I loved the format of the letters, the romance, and the main characters. Could have done with a longer ending but that’s just because I loved the story so much.I also didn’t realise until a third of the way through that this is literally linked to ‘With Love From Lukov’. I’m stupid. It made me love this book even more since I could put a face to the names in the emails. I would actually recommend reading this one second, even though it happens in the timeline before WLFL.I definitely recommend. Zapata’s books get better each time I read one !!

I buy every book by Mariana Zapata so when I find one that I don't care for I think I must be mistaken. I read this book some months ago and didn't review it because I could not believe how little I enjoyed it. Now I have read it a second time and I feel the same.I never liked those 18th century novels that took the form of letters and the first half of this novel is a modern day version. I thought that once that part ended the book would get better for me but I was irritated by Ruby and her whining and crying.