Tag: the spanish love deception

Book Review: The Fiancé Dilemma (The Long Game #2) by Elena Armas

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 432 pages
Author: Elena Armas
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: July 30th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Josie Moore has given the opposite sex—and love—plenty of chances. Four exactly, if you count all her failed engagements, and five if you include the absentee father who kept her existence a secret until very recently. So when her father decides to announce his retirement with a splashy magazine piece about the family, Josie realizes her romantic history is a complicated PR issue.

Matthew Flanagan is in the mud, literally. Not only has he been fired from his job, but also the tires of his car are stuck in the muck after taking a wrong turn as he enters Green Oak, North Carolina. So, he grabs a duffel with his essentials and goes in search of a place to crash until he gets his life back on track. But instead, he finds his best friend’s sister, Josie, greeting him as her fiancé.

What starts as a big messy misunderstanding quickly turns into an arrangement with Matthew playing a new role as doting fiancé. A fifth engagement—and a stunt, at that—makes Josie’s stomach turn, but every dilemma requires a choice between equally undesirable alternatives, and Matthew doesn’t seem to mind becoming one more number in a colorful list of grooms-that-never-were. Despite the ring on her finger, Josie knows this is only temporary, even if the rest of the small town believes that the fifth time’s the charm.

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook.

BLESS MATTHEW.

Matthew single handedly held up this book. He had that epitome of a book boyfriend vibe that I couldn’t get enough of. He was swoony and hot and did all the right things that I love in a romance.

Josie was a struggle for me. I don’t necessarily mind a more chaotic, doesn’t have it all together FMC, but this felt forced. There was too much effort involved in the base of her character and it didn’t feel authentic. I do think as the book progressed, things mellowed and I enjoyed her more.

BUUUUUUT. I STILL don’t understand why Josie left FOUR fiancés??? Even with the explanations I had a feeling I wouldn’t be cool with it and I wasn’t.

I enjoyed this a lot more than The Long Game and it made me hopeful to continue reading Elena Armas books. The Spanish Love Deception is still my absolute favorite.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 3+ open door

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Book Review: The American Roommate Experiment (Spanish Love Deception #2) by Elena Armas

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Elena Armas
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: September 6th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the author of the Goodreads Choice Award winner The Spanish Love Deception, the eagerly anticipated follow-up featuring Rosie Graham and Lucas Martín, who are forced to share a New York apartment.

Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks.

Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline.

SHE DID IT AGAIN.

I loved this y’all!!! Now, it didn’t top my obsession with The Spanish Love Deception, BUT this grew on me in a different way.

This was so dang soft. It’s low angst with lots of heart. I adored Lucas and Rosie. I felt like I connected with both of them about different things and it really sang to my heart as they found love with each other. It was pretty slow for the first half and you have to hang in there, but the foundation is being laid for all of the swoon!

I love a great romance where I’m sitting there reading it and all of a sudden realize how attached I am to everything that’s happening. Yes, this is a little bit on the cheesy side but it WORKS. The grand gesture(s) and fake dates, the chases through airports and more. It has the love story movie-esque vibe that worked well for me.

The surrounding plot was steady and I liked that it gave a chance for both Lucas and Rosie to evolve and exhibit there own personal character growth. This is why I love dual POV romance books!!! I have a super soft spot for Lucas and gosh dang he just MELTED MY HEART.

Bring on whatever Elena Armas is giving us next because I can’t wait.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: multiple open door; med-high explicit
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: Parent abandonment mentioned (off page), PTSD and trauma, panic attacks, nightmares

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Book Review: The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 487 pages
Author: Elena Armas
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: February 23rd, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A wedding. A trip to Spain. The most infuriating man. And three days of pretending. Or in other words, a plan that will never work.

Catalina Martín, finally, not single. Her family is happy to announce that she will bring her American boyfriend to her sister’s wedding. Everyone is invited to come and witness the most magical event of the year.

That would certainly be tomorrow’s headline in the local newspaper of the small Spanish town I came from. Or the epitaph on my tombstone, seeing the turn my life had taken in the span of a phone call.

Four weeks wasn’t a lot of time to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic–from NYC and all the way to Spain–for a wedding. Let alone, someone eager to play along my charade. But that didn’t mean I was desperate enough to bring the 6’4 blue eyed pain in my ass standing before me.

Aaron Blackford. The man whose main occupation was making my blood boil had just offered himself to be my date. Right after inserting his nose in my business, calling me delusional, and calling himself my best option. See? Outrageous. Aggravating. Blood boiling. And much to my total despair, also right. Which left me with a surly and extra large dilemma in my hands. Was it worth the suffering to bring my colleague and bane of my existence as my fake boyfriend to my sister’s wedding? Or was I better off coming clean and facing the consequences of my panic induced lie?

Like my abuela would say, que dios nos pille confesados.

The Spanish Love Deception is an enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating romantic comedy. Perfect for those looking for a steamy slow-burn romance with the sweetest Happily Ever After.

AN ABSOLUTE NEW FAVORITE.

This is one of those reviews I want to WRITE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I LOVED IT SO MUCH.

I didn’t even notice it was 500 pages (which is usually on the longer side for a contemporary romance) because it didn’t matter. This book was amazing. I am completely smitten with AARON BLACKFORD. Oh gosh. Swoon-worthy, romantic, stoic, loyal, an absolute cinnamon roll.

“Because when I finally take those lips in mine, it will be the furthest thing from pretending. I will not be showing you what it would be like if you were mine. I’ll show you what it is.”

Add together some of my FAVORITE tropes: enemies to lovers, workplace, only one bed, fake dating. Oh my gosh, how can you go wrong?!

Answer: YOU CAN’T.

I knew from 50 pages in I was going to love it. That’s how well this hooked me. Sunk its teeth into my soul and took me a long for some a perfect ride. Going to Spain, meeting the family, little confessions of love, ahhhh. I’m writing this review right after finishing so I am sporadic because I HAVE NO CHILL.

Watching walls crash down, and the most beautiful slowwww burn occur over this trip left me breathless. They discuss important topics with care and handled them so wel. My heart would flip every time Lina and Aaron got close. I couldn’t get enough.

“You feel complete in my arms. You feel like my home.”

Another great thing I loved was that the conflict was placed in the exact spot it needed to be. AAAAND it wasn’t overdone. No drag out, unnecessary issues. Pure, raw, revealing truths that made both characters shine brighter. Hot dang, I love Aaron and Lina so much.

A fantastic book. Had everything I want when I read a romance.

TL;DR: READ THIS BOOK.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: kisses to a few open door scenes
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a parent, sexism in the workplace, grief, unsafe dieting (restriction of food)

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