(2.5 stars, rounded up)

Catalina "Lina" Martín is a Spaniard living and working in New York City. She lied to her parents about having an American boyfriend to prevent their meddling in her love life from afar. When Lina is lacking a plus one to her sister's wedding in Spain, she is forced to take Aaron Blackford -- that guy from work she can't stand.

Aaron outwardly has the personality of a rock, but Lina gains some insight into his personality through their fake dates. Even though she's irritated and repulsed by him at work, outside of work she magically realizes she's attracted to him.

Aaron and Lina's relationship is off-putting. Aaron gives off a stalker vibe as he's pined over Lina from afar and his goal is convincing her she's into him too. Overuse of the word "baby" also feels juvenile and shallow. The sex scenes were cringy with language more reminiscent of a porno than a romance novel.

This book is currently available in e-formats only and was a sensation on TikTok. The novel is also a Goodreads Choice Award 2021 winner in the debut novel category. I honestly don't understand the hype behind this romance where the characters seem to fall for each other because they have to for the book to work.

Scarlette Hayes' deadpan delivery of Aaron's lines is accurate since he's an impassive mountain of a man. The rest of her narration is good -- on par with other audiobooks but not exceptional.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Romance is not my usual genre. But I really enjoyed this book. The enjoyed the writing.

The Spanish Love Deception is the definition of a comfort read. Coworkers Catalina and Aaron must pretend to be in a relationship so she doesn’t have to attend her sister’s wedding alone and single. Just one small problem, they hate each other. Very comparable to The Hating Game and The Unhoneymooners, the love interest Aaron Blackford is definitely worth the hype. I enjoyed the slow burn romance, and I enjoyed how atmospheric the scenes in Spain were. I’m also so glad to see an indie book take booktok by storm!

The Spanish Love Deception is an adorable rom-com of a book. I thought the external angst was mostly well done, but the book was strongest when it let us see heart-on-his sleeve Aaron just all-on loving our heroine. Who frankly was so obtuse it was a little unbelievable. But then I got to thinking about all my relationships in my twenties and I decided maybe she wasn't quite too stupid to live... just the right amount of wounded and needing to heal. Bonus points for a great title. Three and a half adorable stars, rounding up to four stars of sure, you should read it. Especially if you like workplace romance that... actually goes ok in the end.

What can I say, it had me craving a trip back to Spain and wishing for that Spanish sun while also dreaming of Aaron Blackford. Is it possible to have eyes for a book character? I have heard from many people on bookstagram that Aaron Blackford is a heart throb. They were not wrong! I loved this story. I can see myself struggling to find a date for a wedding (before I was married myself of course) and then arguing with a nemesis. Life in the city is tough and I know we all try to hide parts of our life from our family. This was just the perfect rom-com.

Fake relationship based on a desperate attempt to fool your family?? Yes please! I loved this one. It was a good slow burn and the characters were just wonderful! Highly recommended romance!!!

So in a weird way, this reminds me a lot of "Fifty Shades of Grey" with the super hot rich guy pining for the oblivious love interest. It's the blatant wish fulfillment. "The Spanish Love Deception" is actually written by a competent author and doesn't glorify domestic abuse, so that's where the similarities end. Lina and Aaron are adorable. Better yet, they behave like actual human beings instead of walking tropes. And the burn is sllloooowwww which makes it sooooo delightfullllll when it finally comes to head. This is ridiculously feel-good. Go read it.

I absolutely LOVED this book. An anxiety riddled main character, a handsome and gruff love interest, this book had all my favourite things.

I’ll be honest, I usually don’t love a fake relationship in my romance books but this one was done so well and I absolutely loved Aaron and Lina’s whole dynamic.

I loved that the big conflict wasn’t a miscommunication disaster like most romance novels and I loved the inclusion of Lina’s huge family as part of the book.

The spicy parts were *chefs kiss* and I really liked the slow burn of the book, it made me appreciate the romance a lot more when I got to it. If Aaron Blackford were a real man I’d propose to him next week.

This was a cute slow burn romance that was very reminiscent of the Hating Game. Much like the Hating Game it is a work place enemies to lovers and I am learning that I kind of enjoy this trope. Also throw in a little fake dating and I was hooked.

Much like the Hating Game a small misunderstanding took place sometime when these characters 1st met (off page) and it has caused them to "hate" each other. Or at least this is what is perceived by our female lead who is the focus of the story. Throught the story we learn that they wasted so much time and energy in this farce when they were actually perfect for each other all along.

I enjoyed learning Lina and Aaron's individual backstories. We got to learn why it is so hard for Lina to trust and why Aaron works so hard to get her attention. Also, let me just say, everyone needs a friend like Rosie.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and it definitely has me intrigued in checking out the author's future work.

This book was AMAZING! I couldn’t stop reading it and it was so good. We all need an Aaron in our lives. Yes, perfection. Highly recommend!

Enemies to lovers, he loves her first, fake dating, ONE BED. Come on. There's nothing not to love here! Plus, I really appreciate a Spanish female lead that doesn't feel like a caricature (the way we're often depicted).

Will add a more thorough review closer to pub date, but couldn't resist jumping on now to say do not hesitate to read this one.

Okay. Here's what I liked; the dialogue, Aaron, the premise.
The rest? Not so much - the writing felt lackluster and the last thirty pages had me struggling. The moment they got together the excitement of reading lost me and the whole final conflict thing...it felt thrown in there for the sake of having conflict. Also, can we please remove the term 'milking' from spicy scenes, i'll start the petition myself.
I still love Aaron don't get me wrong. Anyway, that's all I'm saying about that.


Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It had several of the common romance tropes ie. there's only one bed, fake date, and more but I still loved it. It was so well written and I really enjoyed the Spanish setting and her family. My only dislike about this is that I wish they were in Spain longer.

We’ve all seen the bookstagrams, the booktoks, the blogs… The Spanish love deception has been everybody’s online favorite for the past year and I’m really happy to have gotten a chance to read it. It totally lives up to the hype. This is a well written, deeply personal love story. I will admit that at first it was hard to root for Aaron but as the story went on and we got to see more of his personality it was easier to see the appeal. The only thing I wish had been done differently is that Aaron had gotten his own POV. I would love to have seen the story from his perspective. But overall this was a lovely, modern romance that is definitely worth all the love it has received online.

Thank you to #NetGalley For the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a delightfully fun read. I had seen it listed on some best of 2021 lists, and I can see why. I really appreciated the patience of Aaron. Catalina did get to be a little annoying sometimes, but she was also quite delightful, so it worked. The fake boyfriend trope is one of my fave in the romance genre. I give this one two thumbs up.

Thanks to NetGalley for my gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review.
The Spanish Love Deception is a cute enemies to lovers trope. Catalina and Aaron are coworkers who had a difficult first meeting. Having felt slighted, Catalina decides that she hates Aaron and is rude, ignores him, and is slightly “high school” mean girl. Aaron is an arrogant, almost robot-like coworker who puts up with Catalina but seems to go out of his way to antagonize her. Thee is some cute banter and end up in a weird fake dating situation which leads to more than either of them (maybe) bargained for.
This book is a slow burn. You have to read about 80% before you get to the steamy parts and you’ll also need to be ok with all of the internal monologues and strife in Catalina’s head. 3.5 rounded to 4.

Thank you so much for this review copy!
Recently, a few customers asked for this title at the start of its TikTok popularity and I was able to order it in for the table a couple of times before we couldn't get it anymore. I was thrilled to see a traditional publisher pick out up because we can sell it much more frequently!

That said, I hope there will be a little bit of editing and it won't be just a port of the book. It was jarring to me that neither Lina nor Aaron used contractions. I can understand it with Lina -- English isn't her native tongue. But Aaron, too? Having him use contractions would have made his voice sound different and unique. That was the biggest distractor for me when reading and I hope it is altered prior to publication. My only other "big issue" was how in the epilogue, it is mentioned very briefly that the family was told about the deception, when there had never been any guilt and no time was spent on it after that aside, almost like a chunk was pulled out of the story somewhere, giving it an unfinished feel, like an afterthought.

Those things kept me from loving the book and I would love to compare a finished version and hopefully have it read tighter. But I did enjoy the journey and the characters and it gave me vibes that reminded me of a 2021 favorite read of mine, THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS by Ali Hazelwood, which is also TikTok viral at my store -- we can't keep it in stock! I will absolutely be recommending customers buy these two together when they come in for the one and/or recommending it if they want something similar!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Spanish Love Deception. The book was the best kind of romance—a realistic relationship put to the test by extraordinary circumstances with a top off of spice.

The way the relationship developed and grew between Lina and Aaron was flawless. The way that everything tied together and came around full circle at the end was plot perfection. Seeing the two different sides of Aaron was interesting as well. The story was so relatable. The way Lina felt when she didn’t have anyone to bring home to her family, how protective Aaron was of her, as well as the relationship between Aaron and his father are all things that we can relate to and look for in real life. It was a great story.

This book started off really strong and kept my interest until a little over half way through the book. It had fun moments, but then it just got too boring and a tad ridiculous. It was decent enough but not good enough to recommend that highly. The characters were enjoyable and the side characters were fun and you knew someone like most of them, which made it fun. The problem was that it just was too drawn out and it didn't capture my interest the way the beginning really did. Overall, a decent read, but wouldn't recommend.

Thanks to NeGalley for the ARC!