I was a little nervous going into Elena Armas’ debut contemporary romance, The Spanish Love Deception, because of all the hype surrounding it. I couldn’t resist the pull of an enemies-to-lovers romance that also featured fake dating and a fabulous trip to Spain though so I finally dove into it. I immediately wanted to kick my own butt for putting this book off for so long because it is an absolute delight!

I was hooked on this story from the very first scene. We meet the protagonist, Lina Martin, as she is lamenting to her best friend about needing a date for a family wedding she will be attending in Spain in four weeks. Lina’s coworker Aaron overhears their conversation and offers to be her date. While taking Aaron as her fake boyfriend would definitely get her family off her back about her “forever single” status, there’s just one problem – Lina and Aaron hate each other, or at least Lina hates Aaron anyway. In her mind, he’s always up in her business, offering opinions where they aren’t wanted, and just quite possibly the most annoying person she has ever met. Needless to say, the fireworks are off the charts whenever Lina and Aaron interact and I was practically screaming for her to say yes to him, just to see how the trip would play out, specifically if Aaron would make it back home alive, haha. At first, Lina says no, but out of sheer desperation, she caves and accepts Aaron’s offer. I was positively gleeful by this point waiting to see what would happen.

I adored Lina so much. She’s smart, sarcastic, and she is driven to be successful in her career. But she’s definitely not perfect, which made her so real and so relatable. She’s almost ridiculously stubborn when it comes to her feelings about Aaron too, which made for some very entertaining moments, especially since he’s practically standing in front of her with heart eyes. And oh my goodness, Aaron! Even though Lina thinks she hates him, he’s seriously book boyfriend material. I loved everything about the man. He’s smart, sexy, and kind and caring, and just so obviously into Lina. Watching the two of them grow closer and realize their feelings was definitely the highlight of the book for me. It’s a slow burn but Armas writes their growing relationship so well that it ended up being very easy for me to patiently wait because each step along the way is so satisfying.

The Spanish Love Deception is a wonderful new addition to the romance genre. I found it sexy and hilarious, and the ending left me with a big grin on my face. It’s perfect for enemies to lovers and fake dating fans.

This romance was super cute. I loved how the characters were super quirky as well. If you like haters to lovers tropes, you will like this book a lot.

An instant buffet for the romance readers, this has enemies to lovers, faking dating, only one bed, and grumpy/sunshine trope!!
Catalina has to take her work enemy, Aaron, to her sister’s wedding in Spain so her family will believe she isn’t sad, single, or lonely.
It hits the ground running and moves pretty quickly. Every now and then the writing gets a little repetitive and I had to check if I was re-reading the same section.
Aaron Blackford immediately has Edward Cullen’s brooding and secretly pining vibes. Catalina, while lovable and determined, is also dense and obtuse. The story flew by and was entertaining but I still don’t understand why Aaron fell so hard for Catalina. We want more for Aaron!!

Definitely a swoonworthy office place romcom read for all the hopeless romantics out there!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read this e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is super hyped but unfortunately, it was not for me. It was too slow-paced for my liking and I ultimately decided not to finish it. I do own the self-published version, so hopefully I will get to it in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to read this one and congrats to the author on it being picked up by Atria.

4/5

This book was so delightful and I really enjoyed it!

The chemistry between Aaron and Catalina was so well written and I loved watching their relationship unfold. From enemies to loves to learning more each others past, I was amazed at the depth of these characters. The steam was perfect. I loved Lina's family, her sister and the bachelorette/bachelor party.

I didn't love that the work event wasn't talked about more or that there wasn't a point where Aaron could've helped Catalina with the event later on in the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading the next book by this author.

I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley In exchange for an honest review.

Lina and Aaron are coworkers who can’t stand each other. Yet, Aaron agrees to be Lina’s date to a family wedding in Spain. We can all see where this is going, right? Full of romantic tropes, this was a fun and flirty read. I loved the characters, especially Lina’s boisterous family, and the story took a few turns that were a bit different from the expected. The part of the book that took place in Spain really made me wish I lived there. I think one of the most enjoyable scenes in the entire book was the soccer game.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good, tropey rom-com. I found a lot of similarities between this book and The Love Hypothesis, so fans of that one may also love this one.

Catalina is desperate for a date for her sister's wedding to show her family that she is happy and successful. But when Aaron, her silent stuck-up coworker insist she take him, Lina refuses. However, when circumstances conspire, they've made a deal, and Aaron is acting as her fake boyfriend for the weekend in Spain. However, Lina worries that her body is betraying her with confusing, growing feelings for her surly coworker.

While the premise of this slow burn / enemies to lovers romance was cute and there were parts that I enjoyed, to me there were enough illogical things happening to annoy me and the chemistry just wasn't there. Aaron's strong and silent type was just too much and came off as too controlling. And why a coworker you don't like would vehemently insist that he come with you to an international wedding is ridiculous. Because the book was so long and Lina was oblivious it was just too much stream of consciousness. There was conflict around relationships with power dynamics (teacher/student, manager/employee) which I wish would've been handled with more depth. Overall, not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atriabooks for the e-copy of this book!

This was super cute. It was mostly standard, fake dating fluff, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Perfect if you're in the mood for a lighthearted, fun read that doesn't require too much thought.

I will say I preferred the first part of the book to the end. The third act conflict felt too rushed to even include, so I wish it had either come earlier in the story so that it could have gotten the attention it deserved or just left out entirely.

Content: There were a couple scenes with adult content towards the end of the book. Not my thing, but these were easy enough to skip over.

3.5

I rarely DNF a book but I was not able to finish this one. So many people loved it, maybe it's a one off for me but the dialogue and the slow pace just didn't hold my interest.

I really enjoyed this one! An enemies-to-lovers with fake dating? Sold.

Definitely a slower burn than I was expecting, but it worked so well for their relationship. I loved seeing them together at work, the airport, the wedding festivities - it all came together so well. Aaron Blackford did not disappoint. His attention to detail and need to do well comes across so sweet as you get further into the story. Grumpy/sunshine is my favorite trope and the fact that Aaron's secretly a softie? Perfection.

Seeing Lina and Aaron dance around their feelings for one another throughout the book and finally deciding to do something about it had me screaming. I loved how driven, capable and wicked smart Lina was. The fact that she found Aaron attractive but (very reasonably) put him at the top of her shit list and refused to back down - phenomenal. We love a woman who stands her ground. It was unfortunately realistic to learn more about Lina's past and how she's treated currently at her job by the men in power. I felt it made her struggles with her self confidence and her feelings for Aaron all the more relatable.

Overall, a fun quick read with some added spice! Can't wait for the next one

My Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Catalina ‘Lina’ Martin is in a pickle: she is supposed to bring her boyfriend to her sister’s wedding in Spain, where her ex boyfriend happens to also be the groomsman. Her problem: she doesn’t have a boyfriend. It’s too late to say she lied about it - so she reluctantly enlists the help of her grumpy coworker, Aaron, who offers to go and pretend to be her boyfriend in exchange for her to attend an event with him. Not really a fair trade, but let’s go with it. They have to go to Spain from NYC just for the weekend - just to show that Lina is fine and not moping around and finally over her ex boyfriend.

Here’s the thing: Catalina is utterly insufferable. She is somehow unaware that Aaron is in love with her and that’s the only reason he is offering to fly to a foreign country to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend. They’re not even friends. Lina is incapable of moving on and holds onto her weird grudges even though Aaron is persistent in his pursuit (which is also a bit borderline aggressive). The spicy scenes were really what saved the story, and actually finding out the reason Lina was so adamant about having a fake boyfriend in front of her ex and family. Overall, I thought the story was ok, a bit slow, great love scenes, terrible heroine, but I am a sucker for enemies to lovers / grumpy/sunshine.

Thanks to Atria books for the e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

The dialogue in this was a little tough to get through because it was so repetitive. The characters would "think" something and then have to repeat it by saying it "out loud" to the other characters...but then it would be the same sentence or phrase multiple times over.
It's a cute premise and a fun take on the "enemies to lovers" trope however the dialogue was a little tricky to follow because at alternate points one would say/think something and the other would contradict it in their answer. This is hard to explain- like, their response to the other character would be on par, but the way the author phrased the responses somehow sounded like both disagreeing and agreeing.
It's a good idea and if you really LOVE romcoms then you will probably like this - I have found that I am fairly picky with them and I need them to have me cracking up from start to finish while also shredding my heart and this one just didn't quite reach that level. It was cute but not the most amazing romcom I've ever read. I would still look to read something else by Elena Armas though as I think she's on the right track with this genre.

This is a contemporary romance with enemies to lovers/fake dating tropes. I had read a lot of hype about this book and frankly I found it disappointing. I know I’m likely in the minority on this but that’s truly how I felt reading it: disappointed.

The story centers around Lina and Aaron, coworkers who have long been at odds based on some initial awkward interactions that have had long term consequences. Lina is returning to her native Spain and needs a date to her sister’s wedding—thinking this is the only way she can convince her family that she is over her ex-boyfriend and the mysterious history of their breakup. Aaron steps in to be her fake boyfriend. Their proximity inflames buried attraction and what starts as fake ends up becoming real—far too real.

The premise and summary really intrigued me but the book itself was a disappointment. Clunky dialogue and uninspired writing—Lina’s heart pounding that hard and like it was going to leap out of her chest so frequently was very repetitive and felt less like attraction and far more like a medical condition that she should get checked out.

I did not feel much chemistry between the characters. Lina was all about Aaron’s sculpted body and attractive looks and he was all brooding yearning—but a connection and spark just didn’t seem that evident.

It took Lina far too long to agree to have Aaron go with her—it became repetitive in how many times she turned him down and a bit creepy how persistent he was. This really could have been edited down. And it took her an interminable amount of time to figure out he’s been awkwardly crushing in her since they met—he basically says it more than once and she’s still oblivious.

The repetitive descriptions of their size difference was also wearying. I get it—she’s petite, he’s a huge athletic guy. Fine. But all the instances of him carrying her around and lifting her off her feet and such were very awkwardly described and totally took me out of the moment as I tried to picture it and the reasoning why we had to keep dwelling on it,

Their big secrets they were keeping from each other were somewhat predictable. The act 3 dramatic parting was anticlimactic.

Don’t even get me started on the sexy scenes which were awkward and clunky and had dialogue that made me cringe.

I finished it but not one I’d recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This contemporary romance has a mix of popular romance tropes including enemies to lovers, workplace romance, one bed, and fake dating. Usually I would lose my mind to find this many tropes jammed into one book, but Armas found a nice balance that I enjoyed.

The story drags a bit in the beginning and there are some repetitive scenes that I feel could have been cut to move the story along. Once Aaron and Catalina head to Spain for the big reveal of their fake relationship things really start to pick up. All of the things that Catalina was internalizing at the start of the book are finally revealed and her family is full of eccentric characters that liven things up.

The HEA ending was perfectly done by jumping a year into the future as Aaron and Catalina’s families are going to meet for the first time.

Recommended for: romance readers

Content warning: steamy scenes at the end

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"And I knew then that we'd take anything on as long as we were together. We were a team. Ee'd light up each other's day, hold each others hands and push each other forward when we stumbled. TOGETHER. We'd do anything together."

*workplace romance- check
*enemies to lovers- check
*fake dating- check
*second chance romance- check
*Clark Kent look a like- check

I loved this book so much !! I was lucky enough to get the audio of this book and it was so perfect !! The narrator added so much character to the story !! Lina was seriously the greatest character I've read in a long time-- funny, witty, feisty, strong -- and very very relatable. Being a hardworking woman in a man's world is not easy and she kicked ass at it!! AND AARON!!! holy moly super man !! He is literally just so dreamy and charming. He was so very patient with her as she dealt with her family, her ex, her heartbreak and her fears. He was just so great. This was definitely a slow burn romance, but the chemistry and banter between Lina and Aaron was so electric and feisty, it was so worth it... and the STEAM!!! I will definitely be reading more of Elena Armas-- loved every second of this !!

"Again, that grin. Only for me. What a lucky bitch I was."

thank you to Atria books, Netgalley and Elena Armas for an advanced reading copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

One of the best books that I have read this year! Fun, fast-paced, and cute. I thought this was a very refreshing read and I will be recommending it to everyone!

This story had a lot of potential, but honestly, I didn't love it. Interactions between characters seems forced, and the writing style wasn't for me (the way the dialogue was written drove me crazy). The first half of the book was boring and the ending wasnt great, leaving me wondering why this book was soooo long. I also couldn't connect to the main characters. I'm giving this 3 stars, but it's 2.5 rounded up.

Note: Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for allowing me access to this book I'm exchange for an honest review!

This was a DNF for me. I found the writing rather clunky and the plot too similar to other books. I wanted to like it but I had to give up part way through.

I enjoyed the book. That said, I could nitpick that Aaron calling Lina "Baby" was one of the most irritating things ever and the sex scenes were just poorly written.

I'm sorry, I know I'm in the minority here because apparently this book was all the rage on TikTok or something, but I thought this book was unreadable. I had to DNF because the dialogue was so cheesy and the writing was completely juvenile. I tend to be fairly picky about writing style, so I can understand why so many people enjoyed it, but it just wasn't for me.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to review this book.