Dear Aaron — A Review
If you’re in the market for a slow burn romance with a few really enjoyable tropes and a unique heroine, this is what you’ve been looking for.
Dear Aaron follows the story of a 20 something girl living a quiet life, who corresponds with soldiers in her spare time. Since her brother served, she has a personal connection to the cause, and joined in order to ease the loneliness her brother spoke of.
Ruby, our heroine, is paired with Aaron. They slowly develop a close friendship, and look forward to their correspondence more than just about anything else.
Aaron encourages Ruby to stand up for herself in the various uncomfortable situations she has been dealing with quietly for a long time. Ruby makes Aaron laugh, and sends him socks and non-perishable pizza making kits. Zapata did a good job with the emails and messages, including a good balance of serious and fun moments and conversations. The difficulty for me, came when the two meet, and the writing shifts from pen pal to reality. Then I found a bit more exaggeration and drama then really necessary. That being said, I didn’t find it horrible or difficult to read — it definitely wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen.
As the ‘in person’ part of the book progressed, I thought Zapata settled into writing the characters more, and it became more and more enjoyable to read.
Slow burn. Some, including me, find this incredibly frustrating. A lot of waiting for a reward that has to be worth it. Zapata does slow burn like no other romance author I’ve read thus far, and the reward was worth it to me — but only emotionally speaking. The two characters getting together romantically basically had me jumping up and down for joy. However. I found Zapata’s weakness was her smut (what little of it there was). In my opinion, she really could have let it be. I would have enjoyed the book just as much (maybe even more) without it. Don’t get me wrong, I love some good smutty romance, I just felt it was anti-climactic. Of course, everyone has different preferences where this is concerned, other readers may not agree.
Overall, this book was highly enjoyable, and I will definitely find myself re-reading it in the future. If you’re looking for a good pen-pal trope, or friends to lovers, or just a good old slow burn romance, look no further. Dear Aaron has you covered.