Apparently when I read one Mariana Zapata book, I must read MANY Mariana Zapata books. According to my StoryGraph stats, I did it last fall and I’m just finishing up another, more thorough, binge reading this year as I hinted at in my August stats. MZ’s books are so wonderful because of how well the stories and relationships build. These are long books, with amazing sloooooowwwww burn. This year I attempted to determine the best Mariana Zapata book order for tackling my next binge session.
I also love when authors resurrect characters and storylines in books that are not considered a series. MZ is great at this. From sly mentions that are hard to pick up to friendships that last across books. It sent me down quite the rabbit hole this month. I even had my own “crazy wall” with red string marking connections between books. Luckily it was in my digital reading journal, so my crazy was only visible to me… and now you, I guess.
Based on my best estimations pulled straight from my crazy wall, below are several ways to tackle the MZ book collection, connections I found between books, and my personal ranking of the MZ books I’ve read.
Note: I have not read When Gracie Met the Grump, so left it off all together.
Book Order
Only a few of MZ’s books reference actual years. I based the chronological order by comparing ages of the characters and when major events occur, such as marriages/births, between connected books. In cases where years are included in the book, they seem to conflict slightly with the method I used. For instance, I estimated that Jasmine aged by eight years between Dear Aaron and From Lukov With Love but the books take place in 2008 and 2018. All things considered, it’s amazing to me how closely it all works out since she wrote the books out of order.
I’m the least confident in where I placed Lingus and Rhythm, Chord, and Malykhin chronologically, but this is the order I’ll try next time I binge read her books.
Publication Date
- Lingus
- Under Locke
- Kulti
- Rhythm, Chord, and Malykhin
- The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
- Wait For It
- Dear Aaron
- Luna and the Lie
- From Lukov With Love
- The Best Thing
- Hands Down
- All Rhodes Lead Here
Chronological
- Dear Aaron
- Under Locke
- Lingus ???
- The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
- Luna and the Lie
- Rhythm, Chord, and Malykhin
- Kulti
- Wait For It
- The Best Thing
- From Lukov With Love
- Hands Down
- All Rhodes Lead Here
Book Connections
This is what kept me binge reading Mariana Zapata’s books this month. Some connections are obvious, such as a main character in one book can be a side character in another. Sometimes it’s as simple as a reference to the famous magazine cover of a main character in another book. These are so fun to pick out and I have no doubt I’ve missed some. I found the most connections for Kulti, which isn’t too surprising since it was written earlier than most.
My Ranking
I have two favorite things about MZ’s male leads; their hugs and use of nicknames. Maybe I should have included a section ranking hugs and a list of all the nicknames. 🤔
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Wait For It – The age gap trope is fairly common in MZ’s books, but this one is my favorite. Diana is such a strong character. Her relationship with her boys is so well-developed and Dallas is my favorite male lead in MZ’s books.
- From Lukov With Love – If enemies-to-lovers is more your speed, Jasmine and Ivan are a figure skating pair that can’t seem to tolerate each other. MZ’s humor and snark are pretty fantastic.
- All Rhodes Lead Here – Pretty sure Tobias, or Mr. Rhodes, is my second favorite male lead in MZ’s books. He may not have been thrilled to find Aurora in his garage apartment, but he turns out to be so steady and supportive.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Hands Down
- Kulti
- Dear Aaron
- The Best Thing
- Luna and the Lie
- The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
- Rhythm, Chord, and Malykhin
⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Under Locke
- Lingus
My Crazy Wall
For those of you who love a good rabbit hole exploration, here’s my digital reading journal page where I worked out the above details over the course of my binge reading.
This was so much fun! Which author should I binge/crazy wall next?