When Javi Dumped Mari

Mia Sosa is an author I’ve been wanting to read for a while now, especially since I enjoyed a short story she wrote for a holiday anthology a few years ago. Her newest novel is When Javi Dumped Mari, a friends-to-lovers romance that takes 12 years and a rapidly approaching wedding (to the wrong man!) to finally blossom into what it was meant to be.

What I Liked:

• Back-and-forth timeline. This isn’t a straightforward dual timeline; the past slowly catches up with the present, which actually makes everything happening “now” come into focus and feel so much more urgent. Over the years leading up to the wedding, readers get to see how Javi and Mari became college friends, lost touch, and then started to explore new facets of their relationship later on. It was sometimes frustrating for me (just kiss already!!), but ohh I loved the journey.
• Dating approval pact. Both Mari and Javi have been unlucky in love, so they decide to act as each other’s approver for any new potential partners. Basically, if Mari starts seeing someone, Javi has a chance to suss them out and give his thumbs up or thumbs down on the guy. Mari has the same say over who Javi dates. This works well enough… until Mari goes rogue and randomly gets engaged to a guy Javi’s never heard of after only a few months. And the wedding is in only six weeks!
• A rapidly approaching wedding that needs to be stopped! No, Mari, no!! Don’t marry this rando when you could (finally) have Javi instead! Operation “I Object” is in motion! Thankfully, Javi isn’t the only one trying to stop this rushed wedding. Mari’s other friends (love them, btw) are totally Team Javi.
• Discussions of worth and what you can bring to a relationship. Part of what’s been keeping these two apart is the perceived imbalances between them. See more in the next point, but basically, Javi doesn’t feel worthy and doesn’t want to be a burden who drags Mari down. Aww. He has some growth to do in that regard.
• Careers and family issues. After finishing college, Mari has an easy path forward in her career: join her dad’s entertainment law firm and quickly work her way up. Javi struggles with his employment and personal goals (something I related to), but I loved his longterm effort to write a musical and see it on the stage. There’s a big imbalance between Javi and Mari in that regard, but they can bond over imperfect family relationships. Javi and his two older brothers had a rift years ago; Mari has an ongoing complicated relationship with her dad. These come to the forefront by the end!
• Spanish and Portuguese language. Since Javi and Mari and Puerto Rican and Brazilian, respectively, they speak Spanish and Portuguese as second languages. These two languages are pretty similar, enough that they can understand each other, so I loved how they’d always say “Para siempre; para sempre” to each other. Between the two, I only speak Spanish, but I could understand the Portuguese used here well enough!

Final Thoughts

When Javi Dumped Mari is a slow burn romance that takes its time unfolding, but even at 448 pages, it didn’t feel like it dragged on at all. I loved every bit of this book, from characters who keep you engaged to a love worth fighting for, even after all this time. This is a friends-to-lovers romance that is funny and impossible to turn away from, and I’m sure it will win readers’ hearts. I look forward to reading so much more from Mia Sosa!

Special thanks to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy When Javi Dumped Mari here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

When Javi Dumped Mari by Mia Sosa
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	California; New York; Michigan
Number of Pages	448
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	June 24, 2025
Publisher	G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Official Summary

One engagement. Two best friends. Three’s a crowd.

The USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man is back with a fun and flirty rom-com about a pact between friends that goes awry when one of them suddenly decides to get married.

On the eve of their college graduation, best friends Javier Báez and Marisol Campos swore never to date someone the other doesn’t approve of. Now, almost a decade later, Javi has a problem. Mari, the woman he’s secretly pined for since sophomore year, is engaged—and Javi didn’t even get the chance to vet the Pedro Pascal knockoff she plans to marry.

Mari, a successful entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, is no longer seeking Javi’s dating advice or waiting for him to declare his love for her. Instead, Mari’s made a different pact—with herself. And to succeed, she’s vowing to build a future with someone else.

With his life and theater career finally on track, Javi’s ready to confess his feelings. Except Mari’s changed the script and moved on without him. Javi has just six weeks to convince Mari this marriage is a flop. If that means he needs to ruffle some feathers to help Mari avert a disaster, well, he’s up for the challenge. After all, isn’t that what best friends are for?