Review: Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata

Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Long Slow Building Romance

Mariana Zapata is one of my favourite romance writers. She is the master of the long slow build book and I really enjoy that sometimes in my romance. This book is no exception.

A large part of the book takes the format of emails back and forth between the protagonists, Ruby and Aaron. Aaron is in the army and Ruby is a volunteer in a program that ‘adopts’ a soldier when they are deployed. They promise to email and write letters and send the occasional care package. I think this appealed to me initially because in my teens I used to write to an airman who was stationed in the Falklands that I met through a mutual friend. I remember that we used to talk about everything and anything and this is what this book started out like.

Ruby’s brother was a marine who was injured whilst deployed and his stories of his time overseas made her want to give support to someone that didn’t have a family like hers. She’d had several other soldiers before Aaron, that she’d written to, but none that she connected with so well. Gradually over the course of the book we see them both starting to open up to each other, starting with silly jokes and asking about ‘favourites’. The emails start to get more personal as time goes on and we gradually get to know the characters at the same time as they get to know each other.

Eventually the format changes to sending Skype messages. They become very close friends and admit to sharing things with each other that they’ve never shared with anyone else. It’s a slow intimate journey as the relationship transforms into something deep and beautiful, especially once the relationship moves out of the virtual into the real world after Aaron comes back to the US.

It’s a lovely book that allows us to see into the heart of two characters. I really enjoyed getting to know Ruby and Aaron. They are both interesting characters with flaws and weaknesses that they slowly reveal after the initial getting to know each other phase. At the same time they are both good people who want to help others, they are funny and supportive of each other as they become friends.

This is a great book, but if you want hot and steamy, this doesn’t have much of that at all. If you like a long slow build, then this is a book you will enjoy.

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