It took me a ridiculously long time to realize that When Javi Dumped Mari is a riff on When Harry Met Sally. To be fair, to me, the only part of the movie that really stuck with me were the scenes with Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby. I really enjoyed When Javi Dumped Mari. I’ve liked all the Mia Sosa books I’ve read, but I loved this one. It is funny and heartfelt. I loved the ups and downs of the friendship between Mari and Javi, and between Mari and her girlfriends. Mari has an excellent friend group, and if this were a tv series, I would be tuning in for their shenanigans.
Mia Sosa gives us a slow-burn, friends to lovers with a dual POV with a timeline that goes from present to the past, showing us Mari and Javi’s relationship from college to adulthood. We meet them in the present day when Javi is clearly about to ask Mari to be in a romantic relationship, but Mari instead tells him she is engaged. And then we go back to when they first met in college. I laughed at their early antagonism. It’s so clear that they are crazy about each other, but Javi isn’t ready to be romantic, so Mari builds a friendship with him.
Javi puts the breaks on his relationship with Mari several times through the book. It takes him a long time time to get himself together enough to be Mari’s partner. If you are looking for a character who embodies the aphorism, perfect is the enemy of good, Javi is your guy. Fortunately he does one of my favorite things for a masculine character in romance to do – he goes to therapy. Mari has her own (daddy) issues to work through, but she is consistent in her belief that Javi is good enough for whatever he wants to do. She is very invested in her own success, but for Javi, she just wants him to believe in himself enough to try.
I received this as an advance reader copy from P. G. Putnam and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.