1 to 2 🌶 Box (Sports)
What is the Pepper Scale? 🌶️
One Pepper: Sighing
Romantic and heartfelt, these tales include sex, but behind closed doors. The focus of these novels is on the growing relationship, with tension that leaves you swooning but keeps things to the imagination.
Two Peppers: Gasping
Here’s where things start to sizzle! Open-door sex scenes complement strong storylines, with traditional dynamics and a balance of love and lust. Slow burns thrive here, building anticipation before the spark ignites.
Three Peppers: Moaning
The bedroom door stays wide open—frequently. Tension builds and when the moment comes, nothing is left to the imagination. If you love a rich love story but crave a steady dose of action, this is your sweet spot.
Four Peppers: Panting
Extra spicy but still grounded, with multiple detailed sex scenes that push boundaries without losing the story. Expect dirty talk, explicit details, and the exploration of kinks or taboo moments that keep the heat climbing.
Five Peppers: Screaming
Sex takes center stage with these wild reads, where kink, BDSM, and multiple partners reign supreme. The plot is secondary to the steamy action, and the spice level is so high, you might need a cold shower to cool off.
Let it simmer, baby. This box is for the girlies who live for the tension, the pining, and the kind of buildup that makes the eventual payoff feel like fireworks.
We’re serving up Kulti and The Wall of Winnipeg and Me—two iconic slow burns from Mariana Zapata, the undisputed queen of the long game. These love stories don’t rush, and neither should you. Stretch it out, savor the angst, and soak up every lingering look and almost-touch.
In Kulti, he’s the legendary soccer player she idolized as a teen. Now? He’s her grumpy, silently intense coach—and being around him is infuriating, complicated, and maybe a little bit thrilling. If you love the “I hate him, wait no I don’t, oh god I really don’t” arc, this one’s your new religion.
Then there’s The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, where our no-nonsense heroine quits her job as a personal assistant to a silent, hulking football star—only to get pulled back into his orbit with a proposal that changes everything. It’s marriage of convenience with Mariana’s signature slow-burn flavor: deep connection, emotional payoff, and a love that sneaks up and slams into you.
Trope tease: slow burn, grumpy/sunshine, marriage of convenience, workplace romance, coach/player
Spice level: All buildup, light heat—until the moment it hits. Then it burns. [See the Pepper Scale 🌶️-🌶️🌶️]
For readers who: crave the ache, love the longing, and want their romance with maximum emotional payoff.
June Books:
Kulti by Mariana Zapata
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
Expected to ship in mid-June!
