Reviews

It Happened one Winter Author: E.L Deliza ARC Review: ⭐⭐⭐/5 Spice: 🌶️🌶️.75 Tropes: - Academic Rivals - Enemies to Lovers - Interracial Love - He Falls First - Banter - Forced Proximity - STEM MCs Firstly I'd like to thank the author for presenting me with the opportunity of reading the ARC of It Happened One Winter. It Happened One Winter is a good medium paced enemies to lovers college romance with great banter and amazing friendships. Ibrahim Mirza is an exceptional soccer player and even brilliant med student. He is everything that defines perfect. Smart, quick witted, good looking, a bit cocky and confident. One thing he loves other than med school and soccer is, indulging himself in verbal sparring with his bane of existence and dearly beloved academic rival, Zaira Silva. Zaira Silva is a headstrong, stubborn and incredibly intelligent med student, rivalling Ibrahim Mirza in their class. She is ambitious, passionate about her goals and closed off. If there's one thing she despises the most in the world then it's Ibrahim Mirza. She hates the mere sight of him. So when their recommendation letters are threatened for the top spot in prestigious Swiss Program for doctors because of their rivalry, they're forced to co-operate together and put aside all their conflicts. Working together in forced proximity was never a good idea for them but maybe it's different this time? The sparks fly and ofc there's some chemistry involved in quite a few open door steamy scenes. 🤭 Apart from their budding enemyship, the book briefly mentions the topic of abandonment of parent. So if you love a book with that just screams enemies to lovers with academic rivals, this book is for you!! Personally, this one wasn't for me. Don't get me wrong, I love these tropes but I felt like the connection was lacking from Zaira's side. She didn't quite fell in love with Ibrahim and just confesses her love for him?!!! It didn't make sense to me bc she went from hating him to loving him all of a sudden. I didn't see much of her talking about Ibrahim romantically, it's either hate or sexually but hardly ever romantically while Ibrahim, he was willing to worship the ground she'd walk on if she lets him. Another thing that confused me is what exactly happened that started their rivalry. I couldn't for the love of my life figure out how and why it happened?? Not even our poor Ibrahim knows and guess we won't find out either.