---
product_id: 471034690
title: "When Gracie Met The Grump"
brand: "mariana zapata"
price: "$71"
currency: NZD
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/471034690-when-gracie-met-the-grump
store_origin: NZ
region: New Zealand
---

# When Gracie Met The Grump

**Brand:** mariana zapata
**Price:** $71
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** When Gracie Met The Grump by mariana zapata
- **How much does it cost?** $71 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nz](https://www.desertcart.nz/products/471034690-when-gracie-met-the-grump)

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- mariana zapata enthusiasts

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## Description

When Gracie Met The Grump

## Images

![When Gracie Met The Grump - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SVmUkAfML.jpg)
![When Gracie Met The Grump - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ml9heRcbL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    An entertaining but repetitive slow burn
  

*by E***F on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 1, 2022*

Set in a modern world where superhero-type figures have made themselves known while helping in world crises, the premise of this book was right up my alley (I'm a huge comic book fan).  That being said, even though the book was a decent length, if you took out the excessive repetition (and I mean excessive), the story probably should have been at least a third of the size that it was.  More on this in a bit, but it was the reason I gave it four stars when all of the other Zapata books I've read have been a solid 5 stars for me.So, what's the premise?  Gracie, our heroine, lives a lonely life.  After her parents stole money from a cartel, she's forced to live on the run with her grandparents, keeping a low profile and staying off the grid in order to stay safe.  She doesn't make friends, go out, or interact with people in general, mainly so she's not forced to lie to them while trying to keep herself safe.  She's lonely, but makes the most of the cards she's dealt.  Gracie's life is thrown into turmoil, however, when the best looking man in the universe lands critically injured in her yard.  Enter Alex, aka The Defender.  One of the Trinity, superhero-esque individuals that have cropped up around the world recently, he's the last person Gracie would have expected.  While knowing he might put her carefully constructed world at risk, she takes him in and tries to help him recover.  The book then focusses on their changing and developing relationship as the two find they have more in common than they realise and maybe there's more to the The Defender's crash into her life than initially meets the eye.I loved the world the author created throughout this book.  A trio of mysterious do-gooders with superior talents, complete with costumes and all, made a really entertaining spin on Zapata's usual slow burn romance.  If you've read any of this author's books before, a lot will be familiar.  Gracie is the down on her luck female lead that tries to see the glass half full and make the best of a poor situation.  Alex definitely fits the grumpy card and is borderline rude for three-quarters of the book, grunting at Gracie or just flat out refusing to talk.  Sound familiar?  It will.  This isn't a negative, by the way - I'm a fan of this author.  As always, the romance is definitely a slow burn - I don't think they even kiss until the 92% mark or so, although there are several clunky hints thrown around about the circumstances leading to their relationship (I won't go into that here in case readers are avoiding spoilers, but it's not rocket science).  The first third or so of the book had a good chunk of drama with Alex landing in Gracie's yard and then the cartel entering the scene, with the remainder of the book focussing on the main couple's bonding and tentative relationship.I like this author's style of writing even though her phrases tend to be more flowery even when stating something simple.  I took a star off because the amount of repetition in the book was almost to the point of ad nauseam - like I said, I'm a big fan of this author but I almost gave the book three stars because I really felt like I was reading the same thing over and over: the words and catch phrases, the themes, the lot.  Gracie is constantly harping on about how hot Alex is - his good looks, his body, etc. - and how he's one of the greatest powers on the planet and had fallen into her life.  He was constantly grunting, speaking gruffly (or not at all), snorting or huffing.  If you want a fun drinking game while reading the book, take a shot every time The Defender trots out one of these characteristics.  Just kidding - don't do this.  You'll die or at the very least make some regrettable life decisions.  There were the constant references to Gracie being on the run without the reader getting an explanation of why and then when you did find out, that was jammed in all over the place, along with the fact her life was never going to be the same, she had no one, could only rely on herself and had been alone and taking care of herself since the dawn of time, yada, yada, yada.  Then there was Gracie always bringing up that he was a grumpy jerk who couldn't stand being around her or didn't like her.  This was harped on about both in her internal monologues and in her dialogue to Alex, laying on the 'feel sorry for me' vibe pretty strongly and almost making her a bit of Mary Sue.  That or coming across as the girl everyone knew at school that depreciates herself so she gets compliments.  The one thing that really drove me crazy, though, was Gracie's constant 'poor me' moments.  She was forever going on about how rough and lonely her life had been and it wasn't long into the book where I was answering back, 'Okay!  We get it!'  By half way through the book, I'd pretty much had a gutful of what I came to refer to as Gracie's pity parties as she did the whole 'I know I'm a nobody and I'm okay with that and understand why I'm not important' while bringing it up regularly enough to readers for them to be pretty sure that maybe it's a bit of a sore point since she's not giving it a rest.  Oh, and a phrase that cropped up a couple of times that made me laugh: Alex's roundish-shaped eyes.  What does that even mean lololol?Aside from the repetition, I love a grumpy/sunshine read and this fit the bill.  The dialogue was good and I liked the sarcasm thrown in.  The relationship between Gracie and Alex was on point as I'd expect from this author.  I probably would have like a bit more closure as I felt a couple of aspects of the plot that had been focal points (the cartel threat and the grandmother) suddenly became non-existent or non-issues after quite a bit of build up.  I really liked both of the main characters (despite the repetition) and I hope the author does a follow up for this world.  As an added bonus, there was a cute cartoon depiction at the end and I absolutely loved this - it made the comic book nerd in me squeal a little.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    There were some things I liked in the story and some things I didn't liked
  

*by P***M on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2022*

‘When Gracie met the grump’ is the newest story of the writer Mariana Zapata. A writer whose books I really love, so I find it hard to say that this book was a bit of a disappointment for me. It left me with mixed feelings and thoughts about the story. I think my biggest disappointment was that the story had a chance to become one of my favourite of hers (just like ‘All Rhodes lead here’) but it didn’t. Because I don’t want to spoil the story for new readers (because I think that you have to discover all the secrets for yourself) I will try my best to explain what I liked and didn’t like without giving away any spoilers.When I first read the blurb and heard that the story was about superheroes I didn’t really know what to expect. But after reading the story, I can say that I liked and enjoyed the superheroes theme.  I’m glad that the writer choose this special theme and went with it. It was entertaining.The story is about a not so social, grumpy superhero, whose known to the world as ‘The Defender’ (but his real name is Alexander) and Gracie Castro, an almost thirty year old ‘normal’ woman who lives alone in a very remote place. She was brought up by her grandparents but they died some years ago. For reasons that we discover during the story, she keeps to herself and has no friends and no contact with other family members.The Defender isn’t the only superhero in this story, there are three superheroes in it, two men and one woman. Nobody knows who they are or where they came from. Nobody knows their name so people just gave them one. The guys are named ‘The Defender’ and ‘The Centurion’ and the woman is called ‘The Primordial’. Together they are called ‘The Trinity’. They help when there are major disasters. And just like all superheroes they wear a suit and a cape and they have superpowers. They can fly and have extraordinary strength, speed and other super powers. Nothing can hurt them too.The story starts when one night Gracie finds one of them, The Defender, in her garden. He’s wounded! Gracie is in shock, not only to find a superbeing next to her house but also that this superhero is injured! She helps him into her house but soon she discovers that The Defender isn’t an easy or social roommate. He’s grumpy, not talkative and very bossy too! And that’s the start of Gracie’s and The Defender’s adventure. She helps him heal and he protects her against danger from her past. Both are hiding many secrets from each other but during the story all (or almost all) of them are revealed. Just like Gracie, we discover the secrets of the superheroes, who they are, where they come from and also secrets from Gracie’s past. Can lonely Gracie find a new home with these superheroes or not? And what about her feelings for Alexander?I have to admit that during the first half of the story I did consider giving up reading a few times. I found it hard to get into the story and connect with both of the main characters in the first half. I think part of that was that the focus of the story was more on Gracie’s thoughts  and inner dialogue (the story was told from her POV) and that The Defender (Alexander) was very distant and recovering from his injuries so he slept a lot and so there was little to no action. But I kept reading for two reasons, some friends of mine liked the story and I was also curious enough to want to know more about the superheroes so I decided to continue reading and luckily the second half was better. There was more interaction with other people (Alexander’s family) and the banter/bickering between Gracie and Alexander became more entertaining and funny. I did like how Alexander started caring for Gracie during the story and that he surprised her now and then in little sweet ways. But just like in the first half of the story, there was also a lot of repetition here of the same insecurities and self-doubt of Gracie and I personally found it a bit too much. I did like Grace’s honesty (and the fact that she didn’t have a filter when she said things, that was entertaining at times), you could also feel that she had loved and respected her grandparents very much. She cared for other people and was friendly and helpful. Her clumsily had me smiling at times. Alexander was grumpy, bossy, distant but also very observant. I was a bit confused by him at the beginning but later when I got to know him better, I discovered that he hid a good heart and he was very protective of Gracie . He could be thoughtful at times but other times he could do or say things that I found very thoughtless and confusing. I found did Gracie and Alexander a cute couple. Just like her other stories, this was again a slow burn story and there was one sex scene in it.The many names of Alexander’s family had me a bit confused at times. I did like the secondary characters, they made the story more special and interesting. Although all the family members were very nosy, they also cared for each other in their own way and I really liked how they cared for Gracie too.One of the things that I though was a bit too much in this story were the (family) secrets, I have no problem with secrets in my stories and especially family secrets but in this story I found it a bit too much. There were so many secrets that I felt a bit overwhelmed by it. You had secret, after secret, after secret,…I also missed some more details about the ‘superheroes’, there was an explanation but not much. There was also not much action in the story, after all the fear of Gracie, the ending was a bit of an anti-climax for me, it left me a bit dissatisfied. I missed an epilogue too.So to finish, I liked some things and parts of the story and other things I didn’t like.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Meh, more of a 2.5*
  

*by A***R on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 24, 2022*

I love Mariana, her books are a one click buy for me and one of the few authors where I constantly find myself rereading her books. For the first time I've struggled alot to finish this one and have found myself skimming multiple pages. Mariana is known for her slow burns but this story is just slow. I honestly feel that the other 5* and 4* reviews are based on how liked the author is rather than the quality of the story. Marianas characters are usually relatable and full of depth, there character building in this book for me was lacking. Its mentioned a few times that the main FMC is dramatic, but I just found her annoying and her inner monologue tedious at times. Considering the book was based around superheros very little action happened. Overall I just found this  book boring. I'm still a fan of Mariana and look forward to her next release but this ones a hard no.

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*Product available on Desertcart New Zealand*
*Store origin: NZ*
*Last updated: 2026-02-22*