Kulti

— 4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 ❝People are going to judge you regardless of what you do, Sal. Don't listen to what they have to say because at the end of the day, you're the one that has to live with your choices and where they take you. No one else is going to live your life for you.❞ 📖 | 552 pages 👤 | author Mariana Zapata 🏢 | independently published 📅 | release date 20 March 2015 What you can expect: — New-Adult Contemporary Sport Romance — First-Person POV — Rivals-to-Friends-to-Best Friends-to-Lovers — Childhood/Celebrity Crush — Age Gap (27/39) — Coach/Soccer Player — Grumpy MMC — Slow-Burn Romance — Enemies-to-Lovers — LOTS of banter Kulti is the New-Adult Contemporary Sports Romance by author Mariana Zapata which tells us the story of Sal Casillas, a soccer forward player who suddenly finds herself being coached by soccer legend (and her childhood crush) Reiner Kulti. Sal and her teammates are thrilled by the announcement of Kulti being added to their coaching staff, however that is quickly rectified when he proves just exactly why you should never meet your heroes. What should have been the greatest coaching opportunity of her career turns into the greatest disappointment and fight in Sal's life. Gone is the explosive and passionate player that was known for causing trouble on and off the field, and in his place is a a quiet, reclusive shadow that spends more time glowering at the players instead of inspiring and coaching them. Sal's fantasies were destroyed long ago... and she isn't impressed with the man that she sees in present time. But what happens when Sal stumbles upon him in a vulnerate moment which leads to her discovering what exactly plagues Kulti? Things in life don't come easy, and Sal is going to have to work harder than ever to crack the exterior shell of Reiner Kulti. This is going to be the longest season of her life. ❝They say not to make eye contact with dangerous animals so that they don't perceive you as a threat, but I said screw it.❞ I don't know how Mariana Zapata does it, but she has yet to written a heroine that I absolutely love. Sal Casillas is fiery, loyal and career-driven to her core. Her no-rubbish attitude was a winning point for me and made her the perfect adversary against the likes of Reiner Kulti. I swear Kulti felt like a very long, internal rambling monologue inside Sal's brain and that's in no way a complaint. She's absolutely hilarious and left me constantly grinning throughout this story, and my jaw genuinely began to ache with just how much I enjoyed Sal and her quick-wit. ❝I had to settle for keeping my thoughts on the game and not on the dumb man people had called 'The King.'❞ Reiner Kulti, retired international soccer icon and childhood crush of Sal Casillas is the opposite of what Sal expected. When we’re first introduced to Reiner, Sal and her teammates are all understandably star-struck and a bit intimidated. Unfortunately, whoever said that you should meet your heroes has it all wrong. Reiner is surly, dismissive and overall very rude to everybody on the team. Kulti and Sal don't get off to the best start when they continually butt heads and find themselves within verbal sparring matches. Kulti's dismissive and grumpy exterior is excusable to Sal... until he ultimately upsets and disrespects her father. This is a turning point for Sal who is nothing but protective of her father, and her family in general. Without a care for the consequences Sal berates Kulti for how he has been behaving, and this was the beginning of the turning-point for his character. Kulti definitely frustrated me for the vast majority of this book, however I knew to remain patient as Queen Mariana Zapata never fails to deliver in the end. As the story progresses and truths begin to come to light I really begin to see the good that Sal continues to look for in Reiner. He is far from perfect and continues to mess up and make mistakes, however we are taken on a learning journey with his character arc as we slowly begin to see the cracks Sal creates. Whilst he isn’t a man of the best words until near the end, I love that Reiner is a man of actions as it’s easy for people to say nice and well meaning words just to never back them up. Reiner is angry at the world and at himself for how his life has turned out just shy of forty-years-old, but when it matters most he is always acting on behalf of Sal. Rey becomes her tied number one supporter (tied with her adorable dad) and proves time and time again that she is worth far more than what she is getting from her team. Kulti becomes one of her biggest advocates by the end who continues to push Sal to demand more and accept the worth and value that she carries within her team. ❝I'll tell you when the open practice will be so you can meet him.❞ Then he did it, he crossed the line again. ❝Sal—Sal, don't tell anyone, but you're my favourite.❞ Mariana Zapata has this knack for giving just the right amount of spotlight to her side characters. Whilst I really didn’t care much for Sal’s youngest sister and most of her teammates, I found myself really looking forward to the appearances of Sal’s dad, and her teammates Harlow and Jenny. As the story progresses and the conflict within the story results in Sal begin to question her place amongst her peers and within her team, I was relieved to see that Sal had two genuine friends in her life. Jenny and Harlow had Sal's back from beginning-to-end, and it was a great to see those bonds survive to the end. Sal’s dad has been her number one supporter since day one. Her best friend. It was such a beautiful relationship to read, and his fan-girling moments and utter obsession over Reiner were hilarious. Sal's dad's dialogue never failed to make me laugh, especially as Sal described him to be a loud and assertive person, and yet he essentially became a nervous and bumbling super-fan whenever Reiner was around. It's not uncommon to see a side-character shine through amongst the rest, and Sal's father was definitely the winner for me. Mariana Zapata delivers with everything I come to love and expect within her stories. Kulti has found itself within my top three favourite MZ books, and I just know that I will read and love everything that this author produces.

When I started reading Kulti I thought damn this book is long and the only author I normally invest that much time for is Kristen Ashley, (sorry lol) but once I got into the story time just fell to the side. I’ve been brought up on watching football aka known as soccer to Americans so I knew Kulti was going to be a fun read I would enjoy. Usually I seem to have a hit/miss with Mariana Zapata books but Kulti was definitely a hit for me, saying that it did also have its flaws which is why I couldn’t rate it five stars. Kulti is definitely a slow burn romance with plenty of angst, drama, chemistry and sexual heat. What I loved about this book is sexy Reiner Kulti who is the star of the football world. He was such an arrogant ass but I couldn’t help falling in love with him especially when the author showed his soft sweet and protective side. Taking on a role as a coach to the woman’s football team for the Pipers he came across at first as distant, cold, harsh, uninterested and unlikeable. Add striker Salome (Sal) Casillas to the mix and the story was explosive as they butted heads. Sal was such a crazy, fun and loveable character who lived for soccer. The banter between Kulti and Sal was so entertaining to read as these enemies went on to become friends and lovers, I absolutely loved them together, their relationship was adorable. I felt the sport part was really well written in the story, covering training, competitiveness and pitch time. I absolutely loved Sal’s dad he was such a hoot and omg Dex the tattoo artist needs his own book! Now what I didn’t love about this book. I had a really hard time trying to picture what Sal looked like at the beginning, and that was because the author didn’t give a description of her features up until about 20% in, and I found that really frustrating especially when she’d been descriptive about Kulti. The age difference between Kulti and Sal was another thing not mentioned till towards the end of the book. For supposedly being close to her brother Eric the author failed to show this special bond Sal had, and only spoke of it in scenes but failed to show it, and that sucked. Questions about Kulti’s past were not answered like, why didn’t his marriage work? And what was the meaning behind his old tattoo that he got covered up? I mean come on readers need to know this when you’ve set the mystery behind his aloofness etc.! I like slow burn reads but ugh I really wish the author hadn’t dragged on the romance for their first kiss for so long, and the 1-2 sex scenes were worth the wait with its hotness but again came in really late and just wasn’t enough, after being teased and tortured with anticipation for so long and then to only feel let-down with the rush job, add the short epilogue which I really wish had also included a look into their future with some kids was a disappointment. Another thing, I could understand why Sal’s mother treated her the way she did, but her little sister Ceci’s bad attitude towards Sal was never explained, so why set it up? Grammatical errors also contributed to my four-star rating. Other than these issues for me I really enjoyed Kulti, it was full of laughs, angst, sexy alpha yumminess, sexual frustration and great characters, I only wish the story had been meatier and executed better to not leave me with unanswered questions at the end.

My first read by this author although I’ve seen her books recommended on many of the book pages I follow! I had read reviews going into this read so I knew it was slow burn. But seriously this is SLOOOOOOOOOW. Not a bad thing for me but for those who aren’t into it, it took until nearly 90% for anything to actually happen. The chemistry and relationship between the two characters is 🔥 and that my friends is why I didn’t miss the steam or spice I usually like. Together they are perfect, as in soulmate, meant to be together for eternity, I refuse to see them with anyone else, PERFECT ☺️ The story is long, and knowing it was slow burn I did wonder at the beginning how Zapata would fill so many pages with the two MC’s not being together. Make no mistake though, she did it and never did I feel bored or start skipping or skimming. I was too invested in the characters and their stories. And I must mention Kulti - seriously swoon 😍 he’s a massive grump for most of this book but that’s why once he starts to share his feelings, my heart thumped and my thighs clenched all the more! I will most definitely be looking at this authors other reads! HEA: ✅ Spice/Steam: 🔥🔥 (at the very end though quality is 10/10) Hero: 👑 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Heroine: 💜💜💜💜💜 Chemistry: 💥💥💥💥💥 Angst: 😬😬 2/5 Slow burn rating: 🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋 5/5 (seriously the slowest I’ve EVER read) Sport content: ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️ it’s a big part of the story but don’t let that put you off, I don’t feel you need to know about football/soccer to enjoy it Tropes: enemies to lovers, sports, sunshine/grump, age-gap, slow burn Overall rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Salomé Casillas is in her late twenties and she is a successful soccer player for the Houston Pipers. Since she was little, she had a crush on the international soccer star Reiner Kulti and he was the reason she started playing soccer. Only after an incident with her brother did this crush fade a little bit but never in her life had she imagined meeting him in person - until the management of the Pipers hired him as co-coach for the women's team. But nothing could have prepared Sal for the real life Reiner Kulti - who is rude, moody and in general not a nice person. After he insulted her father who is the biggest fan of Kulti ever, Sal had enough and confronts him about his rude behaviour. Suddenly, he starts to take an interest in the team and most of all: he starts to see Sal. From now on he is like Dr. Jekyll und Mr. Hyde - one moment he is acting like she is his best friend and the next he is having a tantrum and the worst word vomit is coming out of his mouth. This will be the longest season ever for Salomé.. ----------------------------------------------- What a cute book! I'm a huge soccer fan and was really looking forward to reading this book. I liked Sal from the first moment but this diva Kulti was something else.. He was giving me (and Sal) whiplash with his behaviour but I guess it is not so farfetched. Sal's dad was a great character and I wished there was a bit more about her siblings, especially Eric but it was great nevertheless. When I read about her grandfather, I pictured an older version of Diego Maradona. It sounded just like him with what we got to read about him in the papers. The names of the German players had me laughing since it sounded a little bit clichéd - Franz and Reiner are not really very popular names in Germany. Franz Beckenbauer is at least a generation older than Kulti and Koch in this book but it made me smiling while reading about them. My imagination was running wild who could have been on Mariana's mind while writing this book. A great story and interesting characters put this book on my all-time-favorite-list.

Je suis toujours aussi Fan des livres de Mariana Zapata. Celui-ci nous plonge dans l'univers du football féminin, même si je ne suis pas une aficionados du football c'est intéressant de plonger dans cet univers. L'histoire est différemment menée que tous les autres romans lus de cet auteur jusqu'à présent, et j'ai vraiment apprécié. Ils ne se sautent pas dessus à la première page !

“ I haven’t done a single thing in my life to deserve you, Schnecke, but I will never give up on you, and I won’t let you give up on me.” Jesus Louise-us Mariana Zapata does it again! I’m mentally kicking myself for not picking this up sooner. This book made me feel so many things. Freaking giddy being one of them. Kulti was an absolute gem. I’m not really a sports kinda gal but it made zero difference, thats how good it was. The father daughter relationship was absolutely beautiful. The friendships between teammates, I want that. The nicknames between Kulti and Sal were hilarious, not everybody can call a person Taco and get away with it. And yes, in case you were wondering, it is once again, the slowest of slow burns, but what did you expect? The fact that they become best friends first is just, swoon. I don’t want to move on, so I gotta put my big girl socks on and do it. Synopsis: I’m just gonna leave you with this quote: “He was my coach and I was his friend. Or something like that.” “What was I saying? when life gives you lemons, go to a taco stand.” Read if you like : Sports romance •enemies to best friends to lovers •Forbidden romance •Age gap •boxed wine and bucket lists •languages and accents •Grumpy cinnamon roll

الصفحه الاولى ممزقه كما وجدت بعض قصاصات ممزقه داخل الكتاب

Il libro è stato meraviglioso, uno di quelli che appena finiti ti fanno già sentire la loro mancanza. La storia di Sal e Kulti è stata ben delineata e approfondita (finalmente non si dà tutto per scontato dopo solo 3 pagine!), l'autrice è stata in grado di farmela "vivere" insieme a loro pagina dopo pagina. Lo stile è fluido, la narrazione è stata ben curata e dettagliata in ogni sua parte. E' un libro che consiglio assolutamente. E' la storia di Sal, giocatrice professionista di calcio, che si ritrova come suo assistente allenatore Kulti, anche lui un ex-giocatore professionista, l'idolo che lei da bambina ha ammirato sopra ogni cosa e di cui si era anche innamorata. Il problema è che il Kulti che conosce di persona è diverso da quello che lei aveva idealizzato: è scostante, maleducato e freddo. Sal deve quindi abbandonare l'idea che aveva di lui e trovare un modo per poter aver a che fare con il lui reale e che si ritrova come allenatore. Nonostante l'inizio sia difficile, e ci siano diverse difficoltà che dovranno essere affrontate, pian piano riescono a diventare amici e i ruoli insegnante/allievo finiranno per invertirsi spesso.