If you like a good haters-to-lovers book with some workplace romance and European travel built in, this is the book for you! I enjoyed Catalina and Aaron’s romance, and this book also had the “it’s always been you” trope that I love so much. I especially love Spanish as a language and the culture, so it was fun that the author brought that into play as well. That being said, this was not my favorite rom-com book I’ve ever read. I think the book took too long to get to the trip to Spain and spent too much time on office dialogue. I think Catalina complained too much and just seemed unrealistically clueless about the world about her.

I would have loved to see more drama and tension between Aaron & Catalina. It’s pitched as enemies to lovers but there was no banter. With all the talk about this on BookTok I decided to request it to review. Here’s a line from the book :

“You are right. Being your friend has always been the last thing on my mind.” Aaron gives her a lot of hints that he’s interested. Catalina is a little oblivious which makes sense . But, I would have loved to see more of a back and forth banter between them. The fake dating trope is what drew me in to the book but unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype.

A Spanish Love Deception is a office romance, fake relationship, enemies to friends to lovers, hate to love, slow burn, tension, nosy families, one bed- grumpy and sunshine trope.

Catalina Martin has four weeks to find someone who will be willing to travel to Spain as her pretend boyfriend for her sister’s wedding. The bane of her existence and the cause of her annoyance; her colleague Aaron Blackford offered to be her date to the wedding. Was Catalina desperate enough to deal with her family and the headache named Aaron? Yes, yes she was.
Especially since she didn’t want to be the pity of the family during her stay. Add in the fact her ex was engaged. What she doesn’t know is that Aaron was secretly in love with her.

I enjoyed it. I could relate to Catalina when it comes to having a big nosy Spanish family. I know how that goes so I found many things she did, some things I might have or might not have done when I was younger lol. Especially to get my family off my back. I was a bit annoyed with her one-sided enemy rivalry. Aaron could be annoying but come on. How did she not know he was in love with her. He listens, he’s not a playboy who sleeps around. Aaron is super cute in wanting to save it for someone worthy of everything he has to offer. He gets her food..come on what female wouldn’t go for food. Attempts to learn Spanish to fit in with her and her family/culture.

I wish the characters were more connected. I can feel the tension but the FMC made it a bit difficult. It was an entertaining read. Not something I am used to but I could see recommending it to others that are into the tropes in this book.

The fake dating trope has got me again! I mean I seriously never get tired of it but whats one thing that I love even more - storylines involving weddings. This book was the perfect blend of "The Wedding Date" and an enemies-to-lovers office romance. At first I was intimidated by the size of the book, because its fairly long from your average romance book. However, it reads super quick and I love that it gives the characters more opportunities to get to know each other as the slow-burn happens. It's in all the little gestures and touches that makes me fall in love with a character and man oh man Elena Armas makes it so easy to fall for Aaron Blackford. I mean get yourself a man that makes his own granola and knows when you get hungry. When he got her the five fish tacos after she asked for four I was on the floor salivating. And don't even get me started on the shoulder and forehead kisses. *screams internally*

My favorite scenes were when they joined the wedding party and took part in all the games and activities. Nothing like a random sports scene that be used as an excuse to see the male shirtless haha. I mean this is a rom-com just waiting to get adapted into a movie. Yes, its super cheesy. And did I know what was going to happen? Yes, but that's not the point. It's how you make your characters unique and what motivates them that sets this book apart. The way Armas gave us a glimpse into toxic office culture and how women are often treated in that environment I'm sure resonated with a lot of readers. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would 100% jump to read her other books after loving this one.

I love this book so much. It’s a great enemies to lovers, forced proximity, only one bed and slow burn read. Lina is a bad ass and awkward lady who you would definitely wanna be friends with and Aaron is a modern day Mr. Darcy who will definitely become one of your book boyfriends. In short, I definitely recommend that you read this one (I doubt that you’ll have any regrets from it)

I really enjoyed reading this book! The steamy scenes are really spicy and the fake dating trope is really fun. I appreciated the commentary around how women are treated in the workplace if they’re suspected of “sleeping their way to the top.” I found Aaron to be a bit too possessive and obsessive in almost a scary way, but ultimately the two of them had more good things than bad things going for them. I wish Lina hadn’t been the only one apologizing at the end. Her fears and grievances were very legitimate. Honestly I liked reading it a lot and would probably keep reading from this author.

I only have one word for this book: WOW.

It lived up to every expectation I had for it and more.

It’s not often a book makes me go “ughhh” and turns my face into an emoji because of how wonderfully sweet, and heartwarming it is but this one did just that.

There is nothing I love more than an enemies to lovers plot, so one that’s also integrated with forbidden love is just pure fire.

I loved it. And I will be a die hard Elena Armas fan until I die.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one was rough. I understand that English is probably not Elena Armas’ first language, but the editor should have done a better job to not make the dialogue so stilted. And the book is SO LONG. No rom-com needs to be more than 400 pages. (Even 350 pages is typically too long.) It just got SO repetitive at parts.

And I still don’t forgive Aaron for not sticking up for Lina at that early meeting.

Super cute and fun love story. This one kept me engaged the entire time. The hero, especially, as I feel he stole the whole show. The writing was great. The characters charming. The various settings made me want to be there with the characters. A few times I had enough of the heroine but the on going story and the hero made up for her sometimes too naive outlook. Otherwise, this story lives up to its hype and I found it incredibly enjoyable.

There is so much buzz behind this book and I really wish I could’ve connected more with this. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t. I understand the hype, I loved these characters and the setting. I think I struggled the most with the pacing. This book was way too long for a romance and I feel like it just dragged to add more pages. Overall, I loved the chemistry but it was way too long.

Had a good time reading it. Not the most exciting story and ending but I still enjoyed it. The characters can be bland at time. But didn’t bother me enough to quit reading

So the Spanish Love Deception was basically just The Hating Game.
In fact, the whole time I was reading it, that’s what I was thinking about; Wow, this is very similar to The Hating Game. Even the characters were easily similar, a charming woman that everyone liked and a stoic guy that most of their co-workers found a little off-putting. I did like Aaron. I love a misunderstood hero, the quiet guy that hides his feelings. His character was very well written. Catalina, on the other hand, I found to be a little annoying and honestly not all the likable.
If you’ve read The Hating Game, then you know the plot. I mean, there is even a fake date wedding! So was it exactly the same? Not exactly, but it was eerily similar. I’m not going to spoil anything, but all of the same tropes were used, even some of the same situations. And personally, I didn’t think it was somehow a more well-written version either.
This book was fine, and had Catalina been less annoying, I think I would have liked it more, but she wasn’t, and I didn’t.

While I enjoyed it and thought it was well written, I thought I would like it more. It didn’t live up to the hype for me. I wanted more descriptions of Spain. I wanted more humor. I wanted it to avoid the cliches of a workplace book. Maybe if I had read it in the summer when it was newer it would have blown me away. It’s still a 4 star book for me, but I was expecting it to be a 5. Maybe I’ll reread it and like it more

So here’s what we’ve learned:
- Aaron is BIG and STRONG and HARD. His chest is BIG his quads are STONG his ABS are HARD… oh and his chest is BIG and STRONG and HARD
- I *LIVE* for yearning
- I don’t like reading fiction about disordered eating when it’s in this flippant kind of way used as a plot point that immediately resolves once it served it’s superficial purpose
- I also don’t love the “man as savior” trope
- However, I DO love “fake-dating” and “forced proximity” and “I’ve secretly loved you from the first moment I saw you but couldn’t tell you” tropes
- Catalina should get an MRI with how often she would have nearly fallen if not for being held up by Aaron (see above STRONG BIG HARD)
- And also maybe get her heart checked out with how often she sustained a “cardiac arrest” or “chest flutters” or irregular heart pounding that can be nothing short of pathologic
- Question: Am I reading into the Twilight references? Bed breaking, spider monkey, you were “made from me,” etc etc. Addendum: Definitely not reading into it - see direct reference to Edward Cullen. Further addendum: Really amped up the references at the end, really clearing up any doubt on my end.
- Against my better judgment - I enjoyed the crap out of this. The end.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As most of us know, TSLD has been all over bookstagram and booktok and I can definitely say it lives up to the hype.

What I liked:
-workplace romance
-enemies to lovers
-the banter !!!!!
-the spice !!!!
-the REALNESS of the workplace. The struggles Lina faced being Spanish female in a male dominated industry!

What I didn't love:
-that it ended? I have nothing bad to say about this book.

This is a SLOW burn and I was 100% here for it. The slow build and enemies to lovers trope really sold this store for me. Elena did an amazing job portraying real life characters, situations, and created a story that was truly "unputdownable".

TikTok made me read it 😂 But actually, I love rom-coms, so this was an easy one to pick up. I wasn't sure how I would like it, but once I was a couple chapters in, I was hooked till the end. It was fun to read and had great settings.

My question to the author would be if she was a teensy bit inspired by Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice? Because, I really got that vibe and loved it - ❤️❤️❤️❤️

And Lina is the most completely (sometimes infuriatingly) clueless woman in the world and it’s the better for us, because we get this adorable, frustratingly in love but can’t see it character and Daniel who has a lot of hidden depth.

On the one hand, this was hot and loooooong and just the swooniest, slowburniest romance that I’ve read in a while.

On the other, it’s not perfect - I found some of the romantic scenes clunky, sometimes Lina’s denseness was just too much and I wanted to try and smack some sense into her for not seeing what everyone else does.

But I found myself smiling at this story more often than not, really did enjoy it for the most part (excepting the parts I wrote about just above) and I am absolutely planning on reading this author’s future works.

I wish I could give this book a chili pepper rating, because this was the spicy romance that I wish I would’ve found sooner! The Spanish Spicy Love Connection is a better title! The characters were so likable in a classic “enemies to lovers” storyline - I particularly enjoyed the setting of a wedding in Spain, leading to the cultural aspects woven in the story. Thank you for the advanced copy- really enjoyed this one!

3.5 stars.

My favorite romance trope is “enemies-to-lovers” and while this was marketed as that, it wasn’t really. Aaron was obviously head over heels for Catalina from the very beginning. She may have thought he was the enemy but it didn’t really play that way.

I liked the MC and their banter. There was some tension. Some of the dialogue was repetitive and we got a much clearer picture of Aaron and what he looked like than we ever did of Lina.

It was ok. It hit the right notes for a fake dating/ slow burn trope and it was a fast read.

Absolutely enjoyed reading this book! Would have loved it more if we got Aarons POV however it also adds a lot to the mystery of what he was thinking. Aaron is literally perfection and I love him.