When Gracie Met the Grump by Mariana Zapata
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Of all the things that could have landed in her yard, it had to be him.
For most people, finding a half-naked superbeing in their yard might be a dream come true.
Unfortunately for Gracie Castro, it’s the exact opposite.
Especially when he’s grouchy, rude, and shows no signs of leaving anytime soon.
But when a hero of mankind needs you, you do what you have to.
Even if it compromises everything you know.
And totally changes your life.
When Gracie Met the Grump
Original slow-burn superhero romance!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🖤💙❤️💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌍
Character development: 😚☹️🥹😉🥰
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Duet Narration
The heroine: Gracie Castro – she was nearly thirty and was raised by her grandparents who are now gone. They moved around a lot, and Gracie was told they had to move often to survive. Before her grandmother died, she told Gracie that she must survive. When she was young, they moved every three to four months, though by the time she graduated high school they stayed around for a year or more in each place. Gracie had begun to feel like the place she now lived was the only home she had really ever known, so she keeps thinking of reasons not to pick a new place and move. Reasons like the fact that she spent so much time on her garden, she wanted to wait to get the results, or the fact that it is too much trouble to move in the winter, but lately she just makes up any excuse.
The Hero: The Defender – he is one of the Trinity; The three superheroes with inhuman abilities that show up in the media every now and then helping people or saving the world. The first to show up was the Primordial, a female over six feet tall, muscular, and beautiful. She got an unexploded nuclear bomb out of the atmosphere and saved thousands, the next was the Centurion, a handsome man who also performed superhuman acts of good. The last was the Defender, who has helped in earthquakes and other major world-shattering events and had recently showed up at a terrible fire to save a bunch of people.
The Story: The Trinity first appeared when Gracie was young and the media gave them their names, they would disappear just as quickly for months at a time without saying a word, though after about ten years, the Primordial and the Centurion did start to talk to people a bit, though they never said anything about themselves. The Defender never did speak to the public and he never showed his face on camera. It seems all cameras and even drones that have tried to follow him, somehow go wonky around him or break down and all the public ends up seeing are hazy images of him.
One night when Gracie is sitting at home in her double wide trailer, she sees a bright light outside and goes to investigate. She finds the Defender has crashed on her lawn and is in bad shape. Which is odd indeed since she once saw the Centurion have a building fall on him and come out without a scratch. Gracie took care of him for days and he was a huge grump to her. Even after weeks, he was still grouchy and didn’t tell her anything about himself.
This was a story unlike any I have ever read or listened to before. It was made stranger by the fact that Gracie didn’t give up what she was hiding from her entire life until well into the book. The Defender didn’t give away much at all about himself either. If I were her, I would have kept asking him things over and over till he gave me some answers. Like is he an alien, and if not, where did he and the others in the Trinity get their powers. Also, if he is indestructible, like he says many times, then what was it that hurt him so bad before he ended up in her yard. Though I did love the fact that he used his superpowers quite a bit. One thing I dislike about paranormal books is that they often mention such cool powers and abilities, but then the characters rarely use them. I also loved the fact that he used his abilities to be an actual superhero.
This audiobook was told in dual points of view via duet narration and was narrated by Callie Dalton and Connor Crais. I liked both of these narrators quite a bit and was very pleasantly surprised that this book was done with duet narration. Connor Crais has a deep, sexy voice that I really love, and Callie Dalton has the perfect voice for a quirky character like Gracie.
