ELENA! How dare you make me fall for a blonde?! Kidding, kidding, I love all hair colors 🤭 But you guys, this book is just wow. And maybe I finally like the nickname sweetheart. I've been changed!

Welcome to Green Oak, NC! For those who've read The Long Game, welcome back. Meet Josie Moore, coffe shop owner, town mayor and frequent flyer in the fiancé department. She finds herself in a 'jam'. Enter Msthhew Flanagan, sweetheart, glasses toting golden retriever and her sister's best friend.

The way I loved this book friends. I have been a fan of Elena Armas since TSLD. I love her writing style, humor, and characters every single time. And this was no exception. If you're looking for found family, small town romance, second chances, and a very sunshiney mmc, run to the stores on 7/30! Thank you @thebibliotheque and @atriabooks for this gifted arc!

xo

I’m having mixed feeling about this book. Loved the beginning. Got a little slow in the middle and finished strong. The story of a young lady that can’t seem to walk down the aisle. She struggles w a father that hasn’t been present and her mother passes at an early age. While the premise of the story was fun and entertaining, I would have preferred a different lead male character.

I loved this book and the sweet little town of Green Oak and all of its characters. I somehow missed its prequel but I was able to jump right in. Josie was wonderfully flawed and Matthew was every woman’s dream. I do wish that there was more relationship building along the way but the ending was wonderful regardless.

Josie comes across as a pushover being bullied and coerced by two people she has zero connection with, and it rubbed me the wrong way at the start. It seemed to me that she was vulnerable and being manipulated and taken advantage of, paired with the bully/gossip podcast aspect, it felt overall very mean. However, once the story started moving and Matthew started making a solid appearance, it became comical in a stereotypical rom-com way that was fun and sweet. I loved the full circle of the story with their relationship, I appreciated the villain characters taking accountability for their actions and I loved the strength of love and partnership throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC and the opportunity to read and review this title.

I absolutely loved this book. The long game wasn't my favorite but I felt like the author redeemed the town and previous characters so well. The chemistry was great and the character growth was believable. I'll be telling all my friends about this book!

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203572092-the-fianc-dilemma" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Fiancé Dilemma (The Long Game, #2)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1707891821l/203572092._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203572092-the-fianc-dilemma">The Fiancé Dilemma</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20669618.Elena_Armas">Elena Armas</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6524437967">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
The Spanish love deception was the book that got me back to obsessively reading so I've been following Elena all along. This book is amazing, Matthew is such a great guy, proving that men written by a woman truly are the measuring standard.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/143499939-isabel">View all my reviews</a>

So I need to read the long game next. You can read this as a standalone but I feel like I’m missing some background on the characters that would be icing on the cake of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The FMC grows in this book and she’s just a super sweet character. The MMC is swoon worthy (even if he is a blonde). I usually don’t highlight quotes and I did a few times here. You have here a fake engagement, he falls first kind of book.

I received an ARC from netgalley and the publisher.

I adore Elena Armas and this book was no exception. Matthew really had the whole unconditional love thing down pat. The writing, the characters, the sass, everything was just perfect

I have loved the author’s previous books, but this one didn’t measure up.
It felt as if the author put trope over plot. I couldn’t really buy into the initiating conflict that she had to lie that he was her fiancé because she’d been previously engaged before? And because her wealthy, new father in a different state didn’t want to look bad? It just felt - well… fake. I didn’t believe that the press would actually care so much about the characters, so the whole premise felt too unrealistic.

2.75 ⭐️

I don’t know why it took me forever to get through this book! I had such high hopes but it just felt flat to me.

The beginning went really slow and the characters dynamics weren’t giving me the thrill I usually find in the contemporary romance novels I read. Once I hit the 70% mark the story picked up the pace but that kind of defeats the purpose of pleasure reading if you have to wait that long for the story to peak your interest. I have enjoyed Elena Armas’s books in the past- sadly this wasn’t one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in return for my honest review.

The beginning of this book was really difficult to get through unfortunately, but things started getting better about 25-30% into the book. Josie is very quirky, and it was definitely a “it’s not you, it’s me” situation that made me disconnect from the book initially around. I ended up taking a month long break.

I’m glad that I stuck with it and read the entire book though, Even though the reason they started fake dating was extreme and they were essentially strangers, Matthew was very sweet and seemingly perfect (impossibly so at times) for Josie, and I enjoyed seeing them fall for each other.

Books by Elena Armas are always enjoyable. The tale of Josie and Matthew was amazing. Josie is under pressure from her little community and others to proceed with a successful engagement because she has called off four previous engagements. Though they quickly realize they are both interested in more than just a fictitious engagement, Matthew is at the right place at the right time. Josie's dad's publicist Bobbi and a colorful cast of supporting people make for a humorous ensemble. There is increasing strain as the wedding day draws near. Josie's happily ever after is a wonderful way for Armas to wrap up the tale.

I love a fake dating trope and a fake engagement even more! This book is a perfect combination of small town shenanigans, he falls first energy, a meddling grandpa, and the sibling’s best friend trope. I literally cried at the HEA of this couple and feel strongly that it lives up to the Elena Armas hype!

If you’re looking for a funny and light-hearted romcom, you’ll have to check this out in July 30th!

Summary: Josie recently connected with her biological father and he happens to be a pretty big deal. When the public finds out about Josie’s existence, they’re quick to point out all her failed engagements. So, she fakes another engagement to her sister’s best friend to try and do some damage control.

Thoughts: Man, this one was just not for me. I think I had a hard time with it because it felt like the MMC spent the first 7 chapters just so confused. I think this would have benefitted from a dual POV because I had a hard time understanding what his deal was.

Once he ends his deer in the headlights moment, he all of a sudden turns into a possessive growler and it felt like such an aggressive lane change.

All of the other characters in the book barely communicate with each other. It’s like they’re all dancing around one another and it felt so awkward.

The FMC was really cute and the story really had such great potential but I just couldn’t connect with anything here. Except the farm animals, they were adorable and easy to connect with of course.

Another solid read from Elena! It took me a minute to like Josie but damn did I love Matthew from the start. A very, very fun read!

The Fiancé Dilemma was such a fun, beautifully written book full of love, compassion, and piping hot tea. I had such a great time with it!

Josie and Matthew were SO cute together! At first I thought the pacing of their relationship was a bit weird, but as the book progressed it got better and better. They are so compatible, caring, supportive, and absolutely gone for each other. I seriously couldn’t get enough of them! And Matthew might be my new favorite Elena Armas book boyfriend. The WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THAT MAN’S MOUTH 🥵 I adore him.

I also loved seeing more of Adalyn and Cameron, especially their respective friendships with Josie and Matthew. The two sisters obviously care about each other so much, and seeing their relationship blossoming made me so happy.

The only thing I wish had been included was some on-page time with Matthew’s family. I want to know more about them so badly!

Elena Armas never misses, and this was no exception. 4.5 stars.

I will post my review on Instagram no more than 14 days before publication, and on Amazon on publication day.

Thank you to Atria Books for the ARC of this much-anticipated book that lives in the universe of The Long Game.
As someone who loved The Spanish Love Deception and the subsequent The American Roommate Experiment, I was so excited to learn that The Long Game (which I had just finished) was going to have a complement too, especially because of the way it ended (as soon as Matthew asks Adalyn if Lazy Elk is available, I knew it was coming).
Overall, I enjoyed The Fiancé Dilemma, but the beginning felt so preposterous and unnecessary that it took me a bit to get into it. With that being said, I really liked Josie and Matthew, even though I did think he was too good to be true at times. I wish that we had more Cam and Adalyn in this book, but I understand that would have taken away from our protagonist and her love interest. I enjoyed the book, but honestly, I wanted to love it more than I did.

Elena Armas does it again!

Despite the fact that I recently read two others (great!) books centred around a marriage of convenience, this engagement of convenience still felt fresh and exciting! The story was original, completely swoon-worthy and thoroughly entertaining. And thanks to my love of The Long Game, the tidbits involving Adalyn and Cameron made me so happy!

Can’t wait for Elena’s next one!

A sincere thank you to the publisher for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley! (My first ARC!!) All opinions are honest and my own.

I love this author and find all of her books to be an easy read. I liked the characters in this one but didn’t love the circumstances.

The Fiance Dilemma by Elena Armas
Josie, Ada's sister from The Long Game, is the center of this novel. Josie lies and says Matthew (Ada's best friend) is her fiance to save face in front of her father. He goes along, will love blossom or will Matthew be Josie's fifth failed engagement? This is a stand alone novel but was nice to see characters from The Long Game show up again.

Pros:
I liked Josie. I understood her. I pulled for her. I wanted her to stop people pleasing and ask for what she wanted.

Love Matthew. So supportive and hot.

Small town charm. Grandpa Moe! Goat yoga is back. Introducing Pedro Pigscale a teacup pig, c'mon!

Modern twist on Greek chorus using podcast hosts.

The right amount of spice.

Cons:
The premise is dumb. Why would it save face to be engaged for a fifth time? Made no sense. But if you can take that imaginative leap the book is very cute.

I wish Ada acted more like herself from the first book. She seemed too timid in this one.

Character of the shark. Meh. Not scary. Could be more dimensional and less one note.

All in all this was a cute, quick read, perfect for the beach. 4 stars. Thanks to Atria Publishing and Net Galley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.