len ❀ 's Reviews > All Rhodes Lead Here

“You gotta come back.”
“Come back?” I echoed like I’d never heard those words before.
“Home,” they said at the same time.

I debated writing a review for this or not because I was unsure how I felt about this, but I think rating it 2 stars is enough.

All Rhodes Lead Here simply follows Aurora as she moves to a place she once called home, Pagosa Springs, after being dumped by her long-term famous boyfriend. She wants to start a new life, one full of new opportunities and new memories. She's decided she will rent a garage apartment she saw online, get a job to earn money, and complete the hikes her mother wrote on a list. The story unfolds as Aurora begins a small friendship with her landlord, Mr. Rhodes, and his son, Amos.

People cried over endings, but sometimes you had to cry over new beginnings.

The Good

Mr. Rhodes. Zapata has a type. They're grumpy, tall, muscular, have nice thighs and a nice ass, and broody.

With a few minor exceptions, Mr. Rhodes is a DILF on a whole other level. While he may not be THAT much older than Aurora, his personality, attitude, and physical features stand true to his age. He's grumpy and has no intention on becoming Aurora's friend, no matter how difficult it then becomes. There's no denying that Zapata knows how to create attractive grumpy characters, and Mr. Rhodes isn't anything new. I’ve seen reviews saying he’s a mix of Aiden and Kulti. While he may not be the best at communication, his actions speak louder than his words, and the soft spot he has inside of him begins to show as he befriends Aurora.

I've noticed that's a pattern in Zapata's books. Her male leads seem to be unable to communicate the best. They're not the best at showing their emotions and expressing their feelings, but they show the love and care they have for their friends in different ways. Rhodes is no exception to this, and I'm honestly not complaining. I love it. He's grumpy and tired at first, but his character development starts to unfold as he realizes there is actually more to Aurora than he thought.

Rhodes really was the hottest forty-two-year-old on the planet. He had to be. At least, I thought so.

The romance | part 1. Honestly, the romance between Aurora and Rhodes was not my favorite because of its development. However, I still really, really enjoyed the romantic scenes between Rhodes and Aurora. My favorite? When Rhodes set up a tent and camping chairs outside their apartment because Aurora's plans of going camping were changed. That was truly a top tier moment, one that ended many other romantic scenes. Small things like that make my heart ache and surround it with warmth and happiness.

“I looked for your tent in the garage and in your car, but it wasn’t there. If you want to bring it down, we can set it up in a minute. But mine is a two-person.” He stopped suddenly, talking that was, and leaned forward, squinting at me in the dark. “Are you crying?”

Or when she went on the hike alone.

That entire beefy, hunky body trembled lightly, I faintly noticed. “No more hiking by yourself,” he whispered roughly, so hoarse it scared me. “No more.”

Or when he called Aurora's date an idiot and called her beautiful.

His jaw was tight again. The lines across his forehead were back too. “You look beautiful,” Mr. Rhodes said in that careful, somber voice a heartbeat later. “He’s an idiot for looking at anyone else.”

Yes, my heart swooned.

The setting. I'm from New Mexico, and Colorado is like a second home to me. I've been to Pagosa Springs, CO since I was young, and I'm aware of Colorado's rocky mountains. Being from New Mexico, an altitude like Colorado's and mountains surrounding every area is nothing new, which was why I loved how involved hiking and the outdoors was. I may not be aware of them, but imagining them is still possible. I simply love mountains more than the beach, and reading about a character who finds peace and comfort around mountains, alone in the woods, is refreshing.

“You don’t ever have to hide it—your grief. Not from me.”

The Bad

Unfortunately, there is more "bad" than "good" for me in this book.

Aurora. I forgot Aurora was in her 30's sometimes. It felt like she was still very immature, or if she was in her mid 20s and still looking for guidance in every sense of her being. I found her annoying at times, which made the reading experience worse because the grumpy hero/sunshine heroine is a trope I love. But with a character like Aurora, it difficult to do so. She was annoying and frustrating throughout a part of the book. While I found her to be strong in other times (such as how she wanted to complete her mother's hikes and make her proud), or how I understood the grief she felt (especially towards the ending), I couldn't find myself sympathizing with her all the time.

The b-word. Many other reviewers have pointed this out already, but the whole "buddy" business was so weird. I remember my first reaction to Rhodes referring to Aurora as buddy was just "what the fuck". It kept going for page after page, so I got used to it, but it still was annoying. I felt nothing but relief when he would call her angel/angel face or sweetheart instead. I haven't read Hands Down, which features Zac from The Wall of Winnipeg and Me as the lead, but I know he calls the female lead "kiddo", and I just find that strange. Weird. It's not gross to me (either buddy or kiddo), but it's just so fucking weird. Out of all the nicknames, you decide going with something you call your child, or your dog, or any minor person? Seriously, I got really tired having to see Rhodes tell Aurora "hey, buddy" every chance he got. It was tiresome. And weird. Just. Weird.

Too much filler. The book felt like it could have been shorter, but true Zapata style, it wasn't. Like the whole family tree of Amos? I felt like that could have been shortened down to something more simple instead of making it so complicated. I can't even describe it because I didn't get it myself, but it was confusing to read about how Amos is related to Rhodes but also his uncle in a way because of how his uncle couldn't have a child? Honestly, I forgot it already. I wish it had been more simple because it not only would have made the situation easier to understand (like reducing the family tree to just Amos and Rhodes), but it would have made the story shorter.

The romance | part 2. In my opinion, the romance actually developed a lot quicker than I thought it would, so that was the only quibble I can point out. Rhodes and Aurora's feelings were very clear towards each other before I even realized it. The sex scene they had was also a lot more smutty compared to Zapata's other books and it did not wait until the end. This was something I didn't like, if I'm being honest, because I wanted it to continue being slow burn, and I wanted the sexual tension to continue developing.

While Rhodes is grumpy, I found him to be . . . not grumpy enough? Seriously, I wanted him to be more of an asshole than he supposedly was. It wasn't even 200 pages in when the two were already having a conversation as if Rhodes hadn't yelled at her 100 pages before. Seriously, if there wasn't unnecessary drama and filler (like the situation with Aurora and her boyfriend + his mom, and the entire family tree confusion), perhaps Rhodes could have continued being a grumpy hero for a couple 200 pages more. It wouldn't be until page 300 or so for him to finally start developing and become somewhat nice to Aurora. But no, it was between page 180 when he, Amos, and Aurora go on a hike together and he starts becoming nice. He also called her "angel" for the first time in page 214 and "buddy" in page 226. *Sigh*. It was too early fam. Not enough slow-burn and tension for me.

“I know how I want you to feel, but I’m not rushing you. I know how I feel. I haven’t changed my mind about anything, especially not you. I only want you to be sure of what you want.”

Mariana Zapata is becoming a new binge-worthy author. All of her books (except Kulti, sadly) are on Kindle Unlimited, so I want to take the advantage of reading them before its too late. The one I'm looking forward to the most is Hands Down, and I'm prepared to deal with the cringe I will feel when Zac calls Bianca kiddo. Yes, I am.

All Rhodes Lead Here was, sadly, not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. There were too many obstacles that made the reading experience too dry. I hope her other books make up for this one.

You didn’t survive someone taking a wrecking ball to your existence and not have thousands of fractures to live with the rest of your life.