Slowest of all Slow Burns: A review of From Lukov With Love

I will preface this review by saying that I am huge reader of sports romances (and I live for my hockey and football players, alright!!!), but this is the first time I’ve read about ice skating – a fact which is both (a.) a very welcome experience; and (b.) quite an overwhelming sport to take in. What with all the raves I’ve been hearing about Lukov since 2018, I finally picked it up to see what the hype is all about.

Ivan Lukov is the golden-boy of ice skating. He’s a world champion, and everybody knows his name. In fact, he’s got a whole training center named after him, so I don’t really need to say more here. Jasmine Santos, on the other hand, is really struggling with her skating career. Having just been dumped by her previous partner, she’s as deflated as a pricked balloon can be. And since the dumping happened, she’s gone solo (technically, they call it singles but ya), and is actually having thoughts on her looming retirement. So our characters here are at the opposite poles of the earth – one is at the peak of his career, and the other, well let’s just say, she never really peaked.

The novel felt really looooong for a new adult romance. I don’t how many pages were there (I read in my Kindle!), but it sure felt like it was two books longer than your typical new adult. Although I kinda know why I “felt” this way: Mariana Zapata has been dubbed as the Queen of Slow Burn. And boy, was that a REAL slow burn. In fact, it was so slow the first kiss happened at the 82% mark (!!!). I know, can you believe it? Other new adult characters are already having babies at that time, but here we are, just getting the first kiss.

But alright. I concede.

I’m actually torn about this whole slow burn thing. I mean, I definitely loved the BUILD UP and all. But when all the build up is 80% of the book and everything was cramped at the 20% mark? Hmm. I don’t know. I’m not saying it was all bad. I liked it. I laughed so many times with all the banter between Ivan and Jasmine. I fell in love with Jasmine’s family’s dynamics. It got me hooked into the whole concept of ice skating. I mean, there are so many things to love about this book. It’s just that, I needed my slow burn to end a little bit earlier, you know what I mean? I found it a little too draggy at some point, and I found myself flipping and flipping the pages just so I could reach the end.

Would love to hear your thoughts about From Lukov, With Love. I definitely feel like the odd one out here, ‘coz a lot of you loved it! Hit up the comments so we can discuss! 🙂