I loved every second of this fun, funny, steamy rom-com! Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes in romance novels. Elena's writing is so descriptive and sassy. So much sass! I loved seeing the dynamic of Latinx families! Just excellent excellent excellent! Ripped through it in one day.

It was very much giving 'The Hating Game' vibes. Like, clearly that book walked so this one could run over everyone on BookTok.

Honestly, this was entertaining. I had a lot of fun reading. It had all my favorite tropes, Grumpy X Sunshine, Enemies to lovers, and of course the all-time favorite, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED!

My one complaint is that this book was very long and it very much did not need to be. It's almost a 500-page novel. And for what? I will say though, it didn't feel that long while I was reading. The author's writing really let me fly through this. It wasn't until the end that I sat back and thought that there were parts that made the book a bit too long.

Anyway, it was a good book. A good way for me to start my 2022 reading. I totally recommend this one to any of the few who still haven't read this

This was an amazing story and I loved it so much! A little to old for my classroom but such a fun sexy story.

I think I’m one of the last people on bookstagram to read The Spanish Love Deception and I’m very happy to say it lived up to the hype!

In case you haven’t read the synopsis: Catalina needs a date to her sister’s wedding in Spain and her co-worker/nemesis Aaron volunteers to fill that roll, and ends up being her pretend boyfriend in the process. This is the perfect enemies to lovers romance with so much tension.

You’ve probably already seen all of the great things about this book but let me summarize them for you:
-A strong, independent heroine - truly she even held out against her feelings for Aaron longer than most
-The best cinnamon roll of a love interest - Aaron might be one of my all time favorite book boyfriends
-A slow burn with SO MUCH chemistry and tension
-All the tropes: enemies to lovers, fake dating, one bed, workplace romance
-An amazing growth journey. I loved watching Catalina open herself up to love and starting to trust Aaron

This one is a winner just like bookstagram has said. If you haven’t read it yet, you should!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the copy!

With all the romantic tropes your heart could desire, Spanish Love Deception gives readers an extremely slow burn enemies-to-lovers story set in corporate New York City and a wedding in Spain. Tension builds throughout most of the novel with a satisfying conclusion, but at times, I did find Lina obnoxious in her blatant naivety in regards to Aaron. Otherwise, this was a great read!

*Thank you to Atria Books, Elena Armas, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I was so excited to see this approval in my inbox the week before I left for vacation. I had heard such wonderful things about and while enemies to lovers trope is not my favorite; I am a sucker for a great romance. I wanted to love this book and devour it. Sadly, that did not happen.

1. Any romance that is almost 500 pages better earn that mileage. It took almost 400 pages to get to the first kiss. I love a good slow burn like everyone else but that burn is barely moving. Armas cites Mariana Zapata as one of her inspirations. I get that. Mariana is the absolute queen of slow burn but the banter starts early. Lina and Aaron banter starts at like page 350 after endless stressful bickering for the 349 pages before.

2. I guess I didn't understand the hate. Aaron was rude to her several years before. He made a comment he didn't want to work with her. But the hate for Aaron literally consumes Lina's day every time she goes into the office. She had more hate for him than Gerald, the office misogynist who continually made her feel terrible.

3. I want to repeat the bickering was STRESSFUL. After 200 pages of this, I wanted them both to get new jobs somewhere else and never see each other again. But the main issue I had was they really went from 0 to 500 in hating each other to steamy back against the wall loving.

4. I want to know the point of Rosie. Who is Rosie? Where does she live? Is she just there to booster Lina's day?

Again, I wanted to love this book. There were good things about it. But in the end, I just felt like Lina and Aaron were just caricatures of Charo and Clark Kent.

I am giving this three stars because I did laugh out loud at some parts and I love Brooklyn. It's nice.

“I’ll give you the world,” he said against my mouth. “The moon. The fucking stars. Anything you ask, it’s yours. I’m yours.”

This book literally killed me with the warm and fuzzies. I loved every second of this and am so glad I picked it up. I really wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did, but WOW! this is definitely a new favorite that I will recommend to everyone.

Aaron Blackford...that is all. The slow burn, fake dating trope was incredible. As were the references to Zayn Malik, FRIENDS, and Twilight! The whole time reading, I just wanted to watch a movie based on the book and imagined the ultimate casting choices. The cover is beautiful, the romance tropes, just everything. Thank you for the book :)

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Atria Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this book until the end. There was a lot of the "baby" this and "baby" that - I mean it's a great term of endearment but it just felt like annoyingly too much. That being said I really liked the rest of the book. I thought Lina was funny and she definitely had me laughing. Aaron was....well Clark Kent, secretly in love with Lina, rich and dreamy!! Everything you expect in an enemies to lovers, fake boyfriend!! Pick it up... great summer time beach read!!

So I have only heard amazing things about this book and that plus the fake dating trope made me super excited to read this book. However, I ended up a bit dissapointent by this book. There is a lot of promising things in this book though. Aaron and Lina have amazing chemistry together and I loved the tension between them. They had a lot of great scenes together and especially once we got to Spain I couldn't stop reading. I really liked Lina's family and seeing them interact together. Aaron absolutely stole my heart as well during those scenes. I also like the way this book discussed misogyny in the work place as well as Lina's past relationship and how that affected her. However, this book got VERY long winded at parts. It was incredibly wordy and the inner monologue exhausted me at times as well. There are a bunch of lines that could have been cut without changing a single thing about the book. That bogged down my enjoyment of this book quite a bit. On top of that I also feel like the dialogue got very over the top and cringey once they actually got together and that also took away from my enjoyment of this book. However, all of that being said I am still quite excited to read more by this author in the future because I overall had a great time.

I have mixed feelings about The Spanish Love Deception...
On one hand, I love it! It is such a fun light-hearted read and honestly, I love Aaron Blackwell so much (made me miss Aaron Warner) but also, the story felt so slow at times. I wish we got more of a backstory on Aaron because so much of it was about Catalina.

I wanted to love this book so much more than I ended up liking it. Honestly it just really needed some editing on the front end. I loved Aaron the male lead. I had seen a lot of Aaron Blackford lock and he deserves all the hype! He is wonderful.

The author had some many opportunities though in this book and I feel like she let many of them slip through her hands. They were going to SPAIN. Why is not more of this book ACTUALLY in Spain???? Why does it take over half the book to even get these two remotely together? I was so confused. I wanted more vacation fake dating romance and there was actually just more enemies to lovers work romance - but not really? I guess I was hoping for more Island Affair (by Priscilla Oliveras) vibes but in Europe?

This is not bad - honestly it was very enjoyable but it needs to be tightened up and wrapped up in a bit of a different way to be loved.

I loved this book, and oh was it spicy. A classic enemies to lovers trope where the guy (Aaron) pursued the girl (Lina), and I know I was like can that be me. Ooh la la, or I guess I should say ay caramba!

I was so torn between not wanting to put it down each night and wanting to do that I could have more to read the next day. Ultimately, the latter of those two choices won out because of having to go to work the next morning.

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the chance to read this great romance. I am definitely going to recommend #thespanishlovedeveption


#netgalley
#mybookishlife
#readmorebooks
#readmorebooksbywomen

I really liked this book! It was really cute and I liked how slow burn of a romance it was. Aaron Blackford is perfect and I am so jealous of Catalina. This book would have been a five star read for me, but there was one scene that ruined it for me since it was just written really weirdly. Beyond that, though, I really liked this book, probably because I love fake dating and enemies-to-lovers!

I was intrigued by the premise of this book, but the characters were difficult to connect with because the plot felt unrealistic. It was a bit too far in the zone of being a fairytale possibility for me to connect completely. I also felt the slow burn went on a tad too long. With that said, there were moments that I enjoyed and I’m ultimately glad I read it.

A delightful novel of enemies to friends. Stoic Aaron has so much passion under his stiff exterior. Perky Lina is a ball of fiery personality. They fight each other until he volunteers to be her fake boyfriend at her sister’s wedding in Spain. I loved it!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"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. And I sure as hell wont be showing how good I could make you feel if you called me yours. You'll already know that I am."

I mean do I even need to say more after sharing that quote. I will though ha

Catalina and Aaron are coworkers and they have never gotten along, they bicker and knick pick and generally despise one another. But Catalina needs to attend a wedding back home in Spain and needs someone to accompany her and pretend to be her boyfriend. She needs to show her family shes happy and has moved on from a devastating breakup. Aaron volunteers and after some bickering (its what they do) they make a deal to help eachother out. And well thats when things get interesting.

I dont know why I waited so long to read this book... I loved it. It had everything I love in a romance and I mean, the male lead makes homemade granola bars and volunteers at a dog shelter 🥰 . Im so excited for her second book to release... I definitely need to read more by this author.

Read if you like:

Good character development
A Workplace romance
The fake dating trope
He falls first ❤
Enemies to lovers
Good banter
A slow burn
A few spicy scenes

Or if you are in need of a new book boyfriend (i mentioned the homemade granola bars right 😉🤣)

I had seen this all over #Bookstagram, so I was super intrigued. Catalina needs a date for her sister’s wedding, so she can prove her to her family she is over her ex. When her co-worker and nemesis Aaron volunteers to go with her, Catalina is desperate enough to take him up on his offer. This was a super slow start for me, and it’s a super slow burn. However, I recommend you put on your patient pants and read this - Aaron Blackford is worth it.

The best part of this book is when they are in Spain. The dynamic between the two main characters and Lina's family in Spain is well done- wish this section's pacing could have been kept up throughout the book. I found the beginning slow and I wasn't interested after the trip was over. I did read this fairly quickly due to knowing the hype around it- though some of the dialogue fell flat.

This book is at the top of my recommendations list this year! In fact, a friend of mine called me two days ago whilst standing in a bookstore in need of an easy-breezy romance. Along with a few others, this flick was brought to mind directly and has me itching to travel.

Aaron and Catalina's relationship was such a trip and Aaron is definitely top of the list for favorite book boyfriends!

While it does have an uncanny resemblance to The Hating Game, sometimes it is nice to revisit a beloved comfort zone. I loved the whole narrative, especially the Marriage For One reference!

Tropes: Fake dating // wedding date // co-workers // enemies to lovers // forced proximity // only one bed // spicy slow burn //grumpy-sunshine//was always you

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Tessa Bailey!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!