Ensuring that the heroine and hero have distinct voices is tricky, and it’s made trickier when they’re communicating via email, then via instant messages, and then finally in person. I’m not a huge fan of the epistolary style in romance because it’s very difficult to execute well. The bones are there to tell a good story with these characters in their situations - Aaron in the military and unsure of what he wants from life, and Ruby trying to overcome her fears in order to embrace possibilities for the future - but it doesn’t feel like the structural work was done to do the characters justice, or to build a cohesive story arc.
There are chunks of this story that could have benefited from extensive developmental editing. But this isn’t what happens in Dear Aaron. I was warned that Zapata specialises in slow-burn romances, so I was prepared for the romance to take a bit of time. If you’re keen to try Zapata’s work, don’t start with this one. When Kaetrin flagged to me that Dear Aaron has a half-Filipina heroine, I figured it would be the perfect excuse to finally read Zapata’s work. I’ve heard some very good things about Mariana Zapata, and she’s on my list of authors to try. There are similar but much better stories on Wattpad, and they’re free. The story has sweet moments, but for the most part it’s boring.
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