24 year old Zeke is the youngest of three boys,
His dad , who died 10 years ago when he was age 14 , was the one who introduced him to running track and was his biggest support . Now 10 years later he is doing what his dad always wanted for him the run in 2024 Olympic Games on team GB. They are a tight knit Zimbabweans family living in the UK .

Olivia is the only child to her parents, she is meant to do an internship at the Olympic this year as the public relations officer, but unfortunately she wasn’t informed when her position was cancelled. When she get to Athens and finds out that she has no internship! What does she do ?
She can’t return home , so she asks if there are any other open position she can fill. She gets the opportunity to be part of the volunteering team.

Unconventional she meets Zeke the team GB star track athletic and their love story starts from there, from annoyance to the prefect love .

An initial enemy to lover trope with elements of managing grief , fear, self discovery, love, friendship, public perception and family life .
The prefect summer romcom

I absolutely loved this book. It was so much more than I anticipated beforehand.

Olivia and Zeke are both very lovable and relatable characters. The fact that they both had their own issues to solve made this story much more layered and intriguing. Add to that an ex-girlfriend and a friend who loved the girl that you love and the mix is complete.

The author really managed to capture the comings and goings in an Olympic Village. The surroundings were captivating and felt real.

All in all, definitely worth 5 stars!

This is a fabulous debut, it really captures the essence of the games very gently splashed with romance, friendships, professional struggles, grief and success.

The author captured the summer vibe very well and the FMC and MMC really complimented each other without compromising their own journeys. It was particularly lovely to read about a black being pursuit by a black MMC and there being no need for overcompensating who she is to appear more palatable.

I love that Olivia is very bold and open about her ambitions and that is apart of her chatacter.

Darling Ruffaro, you don't know me but I am a fan. Thank you for being generous with your words.

I did enjoy this Olympic romcom, and the characters - it’s a feel-good romcom which is perfect for summer. Quite a few inaccurate/unrealistic details jarred though, and not just in the Olympic setting, which made it 3.5 stars rather than 4.

What a great debut novel from Rufaro!

This story is dual POV and spans over two weeks at the Olympic Games in Greece following Olivia and Zeke.

Olivia is a goal achieving ambitious woman who has landed a job at the Olympic Games.

Zeke is a Team GB Olympic athlete trying to win gold.

This book got me in a good summer feeling and excited to watch the Olympics ! I really loved the dynamic between the two main characters and the side characters. GIVE ME A HARUKI BOOK🙏🏼

Cannot wait to see what she releases next !

i really enjoyed this book!! i had such a good time reading it and i LOVED olivia!! it was such a charming YA romance and it was so wholesome and cute.

This was a good read and overall a great debut novel by Rufaro Faith Mazarura . For me it has the perfect level of ambition, romance and spice in the most perfect setting. Didn’t want to put it down, I adored the characters and recommend for an easy summer read.


Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Penguin U.K. , Fig Tree Hamilton, the publishers and NetGalley for this E-ARC of Let the Games Begin by Rufaro Faith Mazarura

Omg I love a sports romance with a difference. There is diversity , there is angst, there is a will they won’t they there is a woman of colour trying to make herself seen in a world that does not have her a seat at the table. There is an athlete who wants to win a Gold, there is issues of deep grief in his life. All this in a span of two weeks . A lovely real romance with so much thrown in, but nothing that I couldn’t deal with or read in one sitting.

𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧 | 𝐑𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐫𝐚
★★★★☆

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟
⟡ Summer romance
⟡ Olympic sports
⟡ Diverse representation
⟡ Greek setting

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
This book features two Zimbabwean characters that are unapologetically themselves, Olivia and Zeke. I LOVED Olivia. She has this wonderful type A personality and the organization of a wedding planner on amphetamines. I found her awe-inspiring, whilst both characters had their flaws, they both had such tenacity and goodness in them it was very easy to root for them.

I actually thought that both characters were surprisingly insightful. Zeke explored the theme of grief whilst Olivia explored the more racial side of things: just how hard she had to work to get a sliver of what privileged white males have. The character both for Zeke and Olivia definitely had me wondering if somebody was cutting onions whilst I was trying to read my book. It was profound without being heavy.

The romance is really good, I enjoyed how it wasn’t an insta-love. It felt much more realistic. And there were no declarations of ‘I love you’ after they’d known each other for one summer, it was so much more grounded and believable than that. I think that the romance genre in general loses sight that just the magic of falling in love is enough.

In short, this was really good and definitely worth picking up. I sprinted through this faster than Zeke could sprint for the Olympic gold medal in the 100m.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin UK for sending me this book. All thoughts are my own!

I feel like people who like the Olympics will love this. The setting of this book made it a refreshing take on sports romance, a genre that can get quite repetitive. I liked both Zeke and Olivia quite a lot, and there was definitely a depth to their characters individually that I enjoyed. More than anything, I really appreciated that the author included parental grief affecting a character long-term. This was done particularly nicely.

This could've been a 4 star read for me but I do think I struggled slightly with the pacing. Sometimes it felt quite slow but then it would speed up a bit. This is probably because the book only spans about two weeks, and so there has to be a sense of time passing whilst also including small details. However, because it only took place over a short period of time, I think I wasn't as connected to the relationship as I could've been. But nonetheless, I think the characters suited each other really well. So I enjoyed it!

Overall I really enjoyed 'Let the Games Begin'. It's the perfect summary romance for the lead up to the Olympic Games this year.

As main characters, I really loved both Zeke and Olivia. They both had depth and nuance to them. The supporting cast of characters really breathed life into the ensemble as well. The friendship between Olivia and Aditi was so lovely to see. Honestly, I loved that it was Haruki and Zeke have the problems rather than the girls - the friendship breakups that feature so often in romance books that are caused by men are unrealistic and usually unnecessary. Olivia, in particular, meant to much to me. Her character arc leading to her standing up for herself, unapologetically ambitious in both her life and career, was so awesome.

The reason for my 3 star rating had to do primarily with the writing style. The book was written in third person POV but rather than it being the sort of third person that's over the characters ear and it incredibly zoomed out, taking us to random people in random countries who were watching the games. I both don't enjoy this and also think it wasn't the greatest decision for the narrative. Oftentimes there was long, waffly, otherworldly paragraphs that I felt didn't fit with the vibe of the book (I had to start skim reading them they were so common).

I can't wait to read another Rufaro Faith Mazarura book in the future because despite any criticisms of the book, I did have a fun time reading it and I think people will really love this one. Thanks so much to Viking UK for the ARC.

I couldn't put the book down. This was a great story about Olivia and Zeke finding each other, but most importantly, finding themselves.

As a Black British African, I easily related to both characters' journeys of self-discovery, especially Olivia's. Navigating the complexities of being a Black woman in corporate and finding that balance between not being the angry Black woman stereotype and also not being taken advantage of was very well-handled by the author. Being the child of immigrants can be bittersweet; we feel we have to carry not only our dreams but also our parents' dreams, as they sacrificed so much for us to be here. Mazarura really explored this well.

I loved the backdrop of the Olympics and Greece. It's made me want to attend the next Olympics and travel to Greece myself!

All in all, it was a fantastic read, a good mix of romance and self-discovery. A perfect summer YA romance for a quick escape.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. All views are my own.

Thanks to Penguin for giving me an ARC of this book!

I was so excited to read this and was thrilled when I received the copy. Unfortunately, the blue haired girl stereotype in the first chapter almost made me DNF. It's 2024, do we really need to include that?

The rest of the book was a well written romance with a realistic representation of how anxiety can overcome us.

Overall, I did enjoy this book but unfortunately the first chapter took me out of the story a bit.

This one just wasn’t for unfortunately, I didn’t find the characters very believable and it unfortunately just didn’t keep me very engaged.

DNF @ 17%

This book has a lot of potential but unfortunately it’s not working for me at the moment and I don’t want to force myself to finish it to potentially end up disliking it.

I’d rather dnf for now and revisit it at another time (probably when the Olympics are on!) because I love the idea and originality of having the olympics as the main setting of the book!

(Please note I don’t rate/star my dnf reviews on goodreads but I need to put something here for the review to go through)

Olivia and Zeke are meant to be having the best few weeks of their lives. Olivia has the internship she was wanted since she was a little girl and Zeke is the favourite to win gold at the 100m sprint.

Unfortunately, there are major things getting in the way of this happening, and it's on a particularly bad day when they bump into each other, literally.

This book was super sweet, the perfect sports romance book for the summer. Olivia was funny and Zeke wasn't too perfect. I appreciated the anxiety representation and was fully behind them as a couple.

I look forward to seeing it in shops, libraries and hopefully in the hands of more booktokers I know!

This charming contemporary romance, Rufaro Faith Mazarura's debut, is set at a fictional Olympic Games at Athens in 2024. Our two Zimbabwean protagonists are both aiming high: Zeke wants to win gold for Great Britain in the 100m sprint, while Olivia is starting her dream internship for the Olympic Committee. But as soon as they arrive at Athens, both are knocked off course. Olivia's internship is not what she expected, while Zeke is battling with panic attacks as he trains. When they first bump into each other, they don't get off to a good start, but in the relatively small confines of the Olympic Village, they're bound to meet again. What will happen when they do? Let the Games Begin is just full of positive, fun energy, and I loved how Mazarura just DEMOLISHES one of my least favourite tropes, the idea that if you want to find happiness you have to give up on ambition. Who said protagonists can't get what they need and what they want? It's deliberately tropey and silly, but so joyful, and although Mazarura is a bit too keen to spell out the lessons her protagonists have learnt, hey, this isn't litfic. And I adore both the UK and US covers (though interestingly, as you can see from the look of them, this seems to have been marketed as YA in the US and adult over here - the protagonists are in their early twenties, it felt adult to me). A nice surprise in a genre that I rarely read.

My first book by this author and they didn’t disappoint although the storyline could have been shorter. Zeke and Olivia have different roles at the 2024 Olympics but literally bump into each other at the village campus. A bit obvious in parts but then the author takes us on a journey. Thanks to Rufaro and their publisher. Thanks also to NetGalley

I love sport, I love the Olympics and I love books about them! It took me awhile to get into this. I wouldn’t say it grabbed my attention from the start, I read abit each day and eventually splurged it all near the end. I thought the characters were nice, they had interesting stories and it was nice to have one character who didn’t have much of a ‘sob story’. Overall I enjoyed the book as I loved the idea and the setting!

Thank you for the ARC! I loved this debut novel, it was amazingly written. I’m not sure if I would read again as it was a bit slow about 50% in but I look forward to seeing what other novels this author produces!