REVIEW: Kulti by Mariana Zapata
Dear Ms. Zapata:
This is a tough book because it’s a fairly slow moving story and much of it is focused on the heroine’s struggle with her current position in life, but there is a romance in it and the ending of the story is very romantic.
A friend of mine said that the first chapter is to hook the reader on the present book and the last chapter is to get the reader to buy the next book (not necessarily in the series but just any book by the author). And truly the ending of this book left me with such a good book feeling that it erased all the negative ones I had during the first 50% of the book where I struggled to become engaged. I think knowing that the book is slow but that the reward is worthwhile is important going into this book.
Salome “Sal” Casillas is a soccer player with the Houston . Reiner Kulti, a recently retired international soccer icon, has agreed to be an assistant coach for the team. Sal has conflicting feelings toward Kulti. On the one hand, she grew up adoring him. Like Jess Bhamra in Bend It Like Beckham, she has posters of Kulti in her room. She wrote fan letters to him. She kissed the posters when she got older. Her fantasy was to marry him and have dozens of soccer babies with him. Her fantasy was marred when he married someone else, but who cares about those small details.
Sal’s brother, Eric, however who also plays pro soccer (or futbol as everyone else in the world uses) had an altercation with Kulti resulting in a broken leg for Eric. But her childhood crush burns brighter than her sisterly loyalty. After all, she became a soccer player because of Kulti. He is her inspiration so to have him as her coach? It’s almost a dream come true. Until Kulti shows up.
He’s as surly, hostile, and disagreeable as any human being. Every attempt Sal makes at drawing him out is met with disdain. And even a threat. But over time, Sal discovers that Kulti is not only alone, but he is lonely and she can’t stop herself from reaching out to him again.
She invites him to her coed softball league games, to her youth clinics, to even her home and they become…friends. Underneath their friendship is her very real crush that still has not been snuffed out by Kulti’s brusqueness or his past run in with her brother.
But concurrent with her strange relationship with Kulti is the direction of her career. She loves playing in Houston but she’s been muscled out of a spot on the National team despite being one of the best midfield strikers. She had a drink and date with the husband of one of the senior players and she got Sal blackballed from the National team.
Her career is jeopardized further by her antagonistic relationship with the Houston GM (he’s mostly a jerk; she really doesn’t do anything but show up and try to be the best player possible). As a female pro soccer player, she has limited options.
The character of Sal is fully realized. From the workouts, to the general aches and pains, to the on the field games, I really felt I was there in the moment. I also appreciated the insight into what it means to be a pro soccer player in the US. Sal has only one endorsement. She works part time as a landscaper to help supplement her income. She plays professional soccer and devotes her life to it because it’s her passion, not because it is making her rich.
As a sports fan, I think this part of the story really appealed to me. BUT the movement of the story is incredibly slow. And there’s a strange storytelling technique used (which just might be a writer quirk). There’s a set up for an emotional response but the wind up to the response can take paragraphs or even pages so that by the time you get from say the insult to the response to the insult you often forget exactly what you were reading. It’s this that drags down the story.
Toward the end, it picks up and those techniques aren’t used as much. And as Kulti and Sal interact more, frankly, it’s much more interesting. It’s hard to grade this book. I really loved parts of it, but the first 40-50% was a slog. Because the ending is so strong (at least for me), I’m going with a B-.
Best regards,
Jane
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I downloaded the Amazon sample of this book after a commenter here recommended it. I can handle slow moving romance if other things are happening, so that wouldn’t put me off. But there was something about the writing (a certain lack of polish, maybe?) that disappointed me, so I gave it a miss.
With the USA-Germany semifinal of the Women’s World Cup being today, this is perfect timing for this review. I’m tempted to try this, but I often don’t do well with slower books.
@Janine: I always get in the mood to read soccer books during the world cup. I still love the I Am Zlatan from the men’s matches.
@oceanjasper: I completely understand. I think it’s that she puts so much detail into the story that we don’t need. And too much internal monologue. I think a heavier editing hand would really help to tighten up the story and make the characters glow that much brighter.
This is next on my TBR list as it is, but I’m excited to hear that you loved the ending. I had heard about the slow-ish start from others, but I’m a soccer nut and was going to read this regardless. After reading this review, I’m extra-pumped to start it up.
I really liked this book. One of my favorites this year. It really never felt slow to me, but can see how it would be to others. Sal was a great heroine, I did not mind being in her head at all. Her dad stole the show. I really liked the sister relationship it surprised me, in a good way, as i was expecting some angst. But it read very true to life. For as long as it was I still would of liked a bit more of the relationship at the end. But i do love a slow burn and how she took them through all the beats of meeting, sometimes talking, to time spent together, etc.
Completely disagree.
I loved this book, it is my top read of the year so far.
It is slow, it requires patience, but the pay off is worth it, the characters are brilliant and you buy it. They are so well realised.
I am going to make a slightly bitchy comparison- but I read one Jen Frederick book The Charlotte Chronicles and everything was served up on a platter. Instalove, over the top explanations, characters who were *destined* regardless of the circumstances, with contrived problems thrown up to create angst.
Kulti is the opposite. It’s slow and beautiful. I absolutely adored Sal and by the end I thought Rey was worthy of her, but it took that long, slow build for him to be worthy of her. By the end I could totally, happily buy Sal and her Pumpernickle. They were perfect for each other.
I am totally with Em on this. I LOVED this book and read it after I saw it mentioned in the monthly reader thread. It’s definitely slow burn, Kulti the coach is an unknown quantity for much of the read but there is a real story here. I love a sports romance where you really get to feel that the sportsman or woman is living and training in their chosen field and I totally believed in Sal, her hard work, her ethics and her heart. And the ending is fab.
Thanks for the review! I wouldn’t have found this book otherwise, and stories where one can really feel the characters’ professions/callings (as Cait describes above) are my catnip.
This book also really brings home that what works for one reader might not work for another, too; I absolutely loved the first 7/8ths or so with the great immersion in Sal’s life, but was frustrated by the last part because some of the later revelations felt jarring (e.g., what was framed on his wall) and the sex felt somewhat obligatory. It also felt like some connections got dropped, particularly with Sal’s friends and coach; it makes me wonder if there will be a later book with Jenny or with Harlow (who reminds me a little of the Harlow from Christina Lauren’s series), either of which I’d want to read.
Sal was amazing. I don’t have to like a POV character, far from it, but she felt warm and funny and driven and human. Sal’s family was amazing, all of it. I also appreciated Kulti as a character (barring the above revelations); he was transformed for the better through his association with Sal, yet he wasn’t watered down. This duke stayed a duke, as it were!
I loved this book. Ive been a big reader for 40 years or so, so it’s hard to find good writers. I’m happy I found Mariana Zapata to add to my favorites list. I listen to audiobooks a lot because I keep very busy and they allow me to do things while listening to books. Kulti is my latest favorite because I feel it’s well-developed, has very interesting characters I’d like to hear more about, it’s a romance with a good ending, it has soccer, a great heroine and storyline. It’s starts a bit slow but it’s worth it. I like this website too. I’ll keep checking it.
I’m with Kay on this: I rather enjoyed 6/8 of Kulti – yes, the detail, the internal monologue, I even didn’t mind the pooping – but the final part just seemed like a completely different book to me. Aside from the increasingly implausible revelations and the rather perfunctory sex Kay already mentioned, I just could no longer picture Kulti and Sal as adults, even allowing for the fact that elite athlete = exist in privileged bubble = arrested development.
Here’s what I saw happening: independent, driven, socially intelligent Sal basically hands over agency over her life and poor, wonderfully taciturn and complex Kulti, a 40-year old adult, starts to act like a jealous adolescent. And they live happily ever after. And there’s an epilogue tagged on about her career.
And I don’t get it.
Is it a question of needing a heavier editing hand? Is it wanting to cater to different audiences – the established romance market and those looking for fun and engaging stories about female athletes? Is it that this category – female athlete as protagonist – is still in its infancy? I read Kulti back to back with Jennifer Lohmann’s ‘Winning Ruby Heart’ and it too suffered from a rushed, slightly jarring ending and almost clinical sex scenes.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I expect too much. But I do hope that the success of Kulti will lead to more novels about females in sports, and ultimately produce the catnip that is Bend it Like Beckham and A League of Their Own. Or any documentary on Victoria Pendleton.