The Wall of Winnipeg stared down at the much smaller man, and in a voice that was as close to a cool, unattached statement as possible, he said, “Touch my wife again and I’ll break every bone in your goddamn body.”
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me is a perfect slow burn romance and I devoured every page of this book.
Vanessa Mazur knows she’s doing the right thing. She shouldn’t feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.
But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she’s beyond shocked.
For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn’t find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He’s asking for the unthinkable.
What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?
This book has been on my TBR list for a while now. Everyone from podcasters to bookstagramers rave about how much they love this book. When I saw that it was on sale in the Kobo store, I knew it was time to give this book a try. I am happy to say that The Wall of Winnipeg and Me lived up to all the hype it’s been getting. I found myself becoming obsessed with the story and characters that Mariana had created. The only thing that stopped me from giving this book a five-heart rating was the first few chapters. They drag on a bit, and there is too much internal dialogue to the point where I almost put this book down. Once you get past Vanessa’s internal dialogue and her humming and hawing about quitting her job, the story starts to pick up and becomes more interesting. There are other times throughout the story when I find Vanessa’s internal ramblings dragged on a bit, but I just skimmed over those parts.
Marianna has taken the trope slow burn and pushed it to its extreme. The relationship between Vanessa and Aiden is the slowest, slow-burn I have ever read. I always find it’s a dangerous thing to push tropes to an extreme because it can backfire in the worst possible way. In this case, it worked beautifully, and that is because anything other than the slowest of slow burns would not have worked for Aiden’s character. Aiden’s character is not an insta love/lust kind of guy. If he had taken Vanessa to bed right away or started acting lovely dovey to Vanessa, it would have felt out of character for him. He is careful with emotions and who he lets in. It takes most of the book for these two to break down all those walls and be together as a couple.
I love the fact that this book had a real The Proposal (think the movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds) feel to it. Vanessa is that bubbly and cheerful assistant, and Aiden is that all-work and no-play boss. After Vanessa quits, Aiden comes to her apartment and asks if they can enter a fake marriage so Aiden can stay in the country (he is Canadian). They would stay married for five years until Aiden became a permanent resident. I really enjoyed the dynamic between these two. It’s this wonderful blend of forced proximity, grumpy sunshine, and touch her and you’ll die vibes. There are a few moments in this book when that protective side of Aiden came out, and it had my heart racing in the best possible way.
Aiden doesn’t say much for the first part of this book. He is a man in a few words. He has a hard time expressing himself and doesn’t necessarily see that his abrupt actions negatively impact Vanessa and others around him. He comes across as an asshole. His sole focus at the beginning of this book is football. He is very driven, and nothing outside of football matters. This man is a mystery for most of this book, and I wanted to know what was going on underneath that gruff exterior. I wanted to peel back those layers. It was heartwarming to watch his world expand outside of football. Vanessa really rubs off on him in the best possible way. Watching as he slowly starts to open up to Vanessa and open his heart to the possibility of love just had me melting in the best possible way.
Vanessa was an interesting character. She is the wonderful blend of bubbling sunshine, but she also is fiercely protective of those she cares about. She is also very driven, which is one of the reasons why she understands Aiden so well. She knows that she wants to be her own boss and run her own business, and she has worked hard to achieve those goals. She didn’t have the greatest of childhoods, and her family is VERY toxic. Those toxic experiences have left their mark on her. As you spend more time with Vanessa, you realize there is so much more to her character than just a cheerful assistant. Vanessa grows and has multiple journeys in this book. Her journey with her relationship with Aiden and her work journey, but the journey that impacted me the most was her goal to run a marathon. I loved how real and raw her character became as she struggled with learning to run and how difficult it is to run a marathon. The ending had me at the edge of my seat and tugged at those heartstrings. Anyone who has worked hard to achieve something will be able to relate to her struggles and her triumphs.
The romance in this book doesn’t hit you in the face. The majority of this story doesn’t have spicy dialogue, or flirty behaviour, or grand gestures. What you get are quieter, smaller gestures or moments between Aiden and Vanessa. I ate up every single moment. I think it gave them more meaning because they were so quiet and often very thoughtful. There are plenty of miscommunications between these two, which is bound to happen with characters like Aiden, who doesn’t always understand the repercussions of his actions. As the story progresses, Aiden realizes that he truly doesn’t appreciate Vanessa and sets out to show her in his quiet way that she does mean the world to him. He knows that he was horrible to her and works hard to regain that trust. Their growing relationship was addictive, and I found myself becoming obsessed with these two.
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me is a satisfying romance I highly recommend to any bookworm.
