1st read: March 2021
2nd read: March 2022

I feel pretty much the same after my second read of this book. The first half was better than the second half and Jasmine's inner dialog was often long-winded and annoying. Ivan and the romance did grow on me a bit more this time around.
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I loved the first half of From Lukov with Love, but the second half was just okay for me.

The back and forth between the main characters was really fun to read. The ice-skating stuff was great, too.

I liked both main characters, but Jasmine was kind of annoying when she was dealing with her issues, and Ivan wasn't given enough character depth. Also, the transition from friends to love interests wasn't believable for me. ( )

I have an intense fondness for the 1992 figure skating romcom, The Cutting Edge, and end up watching it whenever I run across it. So I was immediately drawn to this book since the synopsis sounded very similar to the movie. In this book, Jasmine is a pairs figure skater without a partner. She's prickly and quick to fight (so more Tonya Harding than Kate Moseley). She hates Ivan Lukov, who is wealthy and holds several skating titles and gold medals, so when he wants her to be his new skating partner, her initial impulse is to turn him down, but she needs a partner and Ivan is very good, but can the two of them stop fighting and work together? The obvious answer is yes, and there's nothing surprising in this story, but there are many references to The Cutting Edge and several scenes that were cribbed from the movie. Since the story was told entirely from Jasmine's point of view, many of Ivan's actions made little sense, but I'm not sure that matters much. No one said, "Toepick!" which was a minor disappointment, but the pamchenko was referenced. ( )

It was very reminiscent of the movie "The Cutting Edge," but with a lot more swearing and a lot more blinking. (Seriously. They would not stop blinking at each other.) ( )

I can't imagine not loving a Mariana Zapata novel.

This one really made me miss ice skating when I was younger. Amazing. ( )

I can't imagine not loving a Mariana Zapata novel.

This one really made me miss ice skating when I was younger. Amazing. ( )