The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

He didn’t have pictures of family or friends anywhere in the house. His entire life revolved around football. It was the center of his universe.

For the last two years, Vanessa has been the personal assistant for Aiden “The Wall of Winnipeg” Graves, a professional defensive football player. Finally saving up enough money to make a go at her personal graphic design business, she works up the courage to tell Aiden she's quitting. Aiden's never been a very communicative guy, if at all, but she expected a little disappoint and asking for her to stay on for how well she's gotten his life running and stayed out of his way. However, a few weeks later he shows up and asks her to come back to work and when she refuses, he claims he needs her help to even stay in the country, as he's Canadian and his visa is expiring.

“Marry me.”

At almost five hundred pages, this was a bit longer than typical contemporary romances but even told all from Vanessa's point-of-view and spending a lot of time in her head, this had that devour quickly readability. There's a few things you're going to have to go along with, the whole marriage of convenience trope usage, because there were no later reveals as to a different reasoning or sly maneuvering by Aiden, after I finished the story it was pretty hard to think back on this professional football player needing to marry to stay in the country. He's coming off an injury that tries to make it seem like his career could be in jeopardy but that never really materializes into any felt danger for him. For the main plot point to keep these two together, it felt like it held up as well as cotton candy does in the rain. The other main thing you're going to have to not get too worked up about is Aiden's character. He comes off as a jerk, explained away by his singular focus on his football career and with this all from Vanessa's pov, well, he's a bit of cardboard cutout depth. The latter second half had him wising up to how to invest more energy into treating Vanessa better and we get some background on how his childhood shaped him (abusive father, later raised by grandparents) but while the focus on Vanessa's side of the romance is always throughout, Aiden's character was pretty shallow.

Everything I thought I knew seemed to spiral out of control. He was messing with me. Flirting with me. Aiden Graves. What was this?

While I missed some depth from Aiden's character, there were a couple serotonin hits from this couple, Aiden obviously wanting Vanessa in his jersey instead of his roommate and became Vanessa's friend, Zac, two times he showed up big for her, and when he said “wife”. These were pure sugary goodness that make you want to squeal in delight but, again, like cotton candy, after I finished, I couldn't help wondering where the substance was. This almost had a women's fiction vibe with how much we get of Vanessa and life and struggles. How horrible her home life was growing up, the accident that left her with knee issues, the bullying she endured from her sisters, and how she eventually went to live in foster care. Her younger brother makes an appearance and her bestfriend from childhood, Diana, adds an emotional storyline dealing with domestic abuse to help fill out the longer page count.

“I pay attention,” the Wall of Winnipeg stated. I was starting to think he was right.

I really enjoyed the friendship Vanessa had with Zac and for awhile there, I almost thought they were going to end up in the romance but before the halfway mark, Vanessa and Aiden are in their marriage of convenience. This was a very slow burn romance, it wasn't until the latter second half that they really start to come together and we get more little touches that finally evolved into an open door ending scene, which ended up kind of feeling tagged on to me. The epilogue jumped a couple years into the future and delivered more of that sugary sweet. If there had been more of a revealing or acknowledging that Aiden manipulated the need to marry for his visa, I would have finished this and felt more like I'd not only seen more depth to his character but also not look back on that plot point with so much side-eye. Readability and delivering some of those well known romance moment hits had me flying through this but after I was done, I couldn't help but look back and miss some substance. If you want a football romance (J.J. Watt fans need apply here) without much actual sports integration, touching on serious issues like physical abuse, romance serotonin hit moments, a very slow burn, and spun like cotton candy, this would be a great pickup.