I was trying to get past a scene in Gabriella Gamez’s The Next Best Fling for two weeks. At first I thought the problem was that I have been tired and my job is very stressful right now. I finally pushed through, got to the next scene, and realized I am not going to be able to finish this book. The primary antagonist is a narcissist. Gamez has written the controlling and manipulative dynamics of his relationship with the two main characters so well that it is triggering very bad memories for me. I have done this with one other book, Alexis Hall’s Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. Unfortunately, with that read, I pushed myself so hard that now I can’t read Alexis Hall at all. I don’t want to get to that point with Gabriella Gamez, because I would like to read her next book.
Marcela has been in love with her best friend, Ben, for years. They dated for a while in college, but then Ben thought they would be better as friends. Ben’s brother, Theo, has been in love with Ben’s fiancé, Alice, since they were kids. Marcela stops Theo from confessing his feelings to Alice at Alice and Ben’s engagement party. Marcela takes him home and they agree to support each other. Ben does not want Marcela and Theo to get together, and their fake relationship to fling to romance sets Ben off on a path of self destruction.
Narcissists are hard to write, because they seem improbable to people who don’t have experience with a narcissist. The things they do seem far fetched, and that’s one of the ways they keep people trapped. In the scene that took me two weeks to read, Marcela and Theo kissed at a bar in front of Alice and her friends and decide to go back to Marcela’s to fool around some more. Ben calls them both, one after the other, to stop them. That behavior is unhinged. And, if you’ve been in a relationship with a narcissist, you will have your own moments of recognition. I don’t really believe in psychic powers, but a narcissist knows when their people are attempting to leave their orbit and will pull you back in.
I did skip to the very end, and Marcela gets her happy ending with Theo. I can’t wait to read Gabriella Gamez’s next book, which I hope will not have a narcissist. Be kind to yourself and dnf books when you need to, and when you want to.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
