
Member Reviews

I have loved all of Elena Armas’ previous books and this one is no exception! I read the whole thing with a smile on my face. Matthew and Josie have great chemistry and I love the “fake dating” trope. I enjoyed seeing characters return from The Long Game as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC!

Another duo executed beautifully by Elena.
We met Josie and Matthew in The Long Game, along with a handful of other side characters who continue to move this story along and give us laughs and maybe a few cries. This picks up about a year after the conclusion of The Long Game. Elena really has us falling for a blonde hair MMC who says yes to Josie’s chaos like one says yes to ordering fries with a burger. You can’t help but enjoy their antics throughout Green Oaks and how she ties things up at the end with *the texts*, in the feels.
Adalyn texting “my best friend and my sister” gave me all the Ross Geller from Friends vibes. I laughed out loud. (Although we don’t see much of her and Cameron in this).
Elena was not kidding when she said she was delivering her horniest book yet. The mouth on Matthew. He can sweetheart me anytime.
“Give your fiancé a little scream. Tell me who’s making the fucking world disappear.”
“…If someone fails to see all of that, or who you really are, then good.” A throaty sound left him. “More of you that’s just for me.” Okay. Again. Matthew.
Grandpa Moe with the jokes.
“Croquembouche,” he repeated.
Jesus Christ. “You’re unbearable.”
“And you’re cranky,” he pointed out. “You’re a crankembouche.”
Is Josie going to make him shortbread cookies?! No. She never did. JOSIE!!!! How could you after he told you they’re his favorite?! This, along with a few gaps around the previous fiancés kept this from being a true 5 star read for me. (Really though - how could she not make him shortbread cookies?!) A solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (like a 2.75)
Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Atria Books

This was not my favorite. Perhaps all of this author's books need to be read in order? I felt like I was missing some background on the characters. And sometimes there would be a lapse of time between chapters that I had to sit and think about what happened in between the last chapter and this new chapter. I did feel some sparks between the characters, and eventually I was invested in the outcome, but for 3/4 of the book I was struggling to decide whether to finish or not.

I’ve been waiting for Matthew and Josie’s love story since I finished The Long Game. I was excited to see Elena’s take on the fake dating trope. I really enjoyed the small town setting again and I loved the two main characters. I didn’t care for some of the secondary characters, specifically Josie’s dad. I understood why he needed to be in the book because he had so much to do with why the characters are the way they are. Overall I thought this was a fun/easy read.

This is my first Elena Armas book, I've seen so many good things about The Spanish Love Deception and I have yet to read it, I know :( so I ran so fast to request this and thank you to Atria Books and Elena Armas for accepting!
I did think the beginning couldnt keep my attention, it was kinda slow but I pulled through and continued and it picked up in the middle to end. I loved how Matthew gave Josie the courage to love and to not run away and he would be there no matter what fighting for them .

In "The Fiance Dilemma" by Elena Armas, we dive into Josie's world as she faces her reputation after four failed engagements. To dodge her father's publicist and shake off the engagement baggage, she ropes in her sister's friend, Matthew, for a fake engagement.
Matthew is like a human golden retriever—sweet, sexy, and head over heels for Josie. Their fake engagement journey turns into something real, filled with hilarious, swoon-worthy, and sometimes awkward moments.
Josie's fun-loving personality and Matthew's protectiveness make for a charming read that's both heartwarming and entertaining. If you're into fake engagements with a dash of slow-burn romance, "The Fiance Dilemma" is a must-read that'll leave you smiling and rooting for Josie and Matthew's happily ever after.
I binged this book in a day, it was honestly so good! Thanks NetGalley for letting me read the ARC 💜

If Elena Armas writes it, then I will read it! This book is about the lovable and quirky mayour we fell in love with in The Long Game, Josie. When a sudden mishap and miscommunication due to her estranged father comes back into down, she is suddenly stuck in a little lie she told and now must scheme with Matthew, her new sister's best friend and also the extremely cute guy with glasses *swoon*. She ropes Matthew into a fake engagement scheme to get her father's publicist off her back due to her past of 4 failed engagements. Matthew, being maybe the sweetest guy ever, goes along with it. Although he is reluctant at first, he is quickly persuaded as it is so obvious he is already down bad for Josie. Thus we are gifted many funny, awkward and sweet moments between the two the involves them turning from friends into lover and so much more.
Matthew is the definition of a golden retriever. He would literally do anything for Josie and just wants her to be happy. We see that time and time again when he literally drops everything he is doing over a simple text she sent, Not only is he sweet, but oh so sexy as well.
Josie is just as fun as she was in the first book. I am so glad we got to learn more about her and see her find her true happily ever after with the right man.
These two together are just two golden retrievers finding one another. They are so sweet and the best part, no true third act break up. There is a bit of miscommunication as Josie at times can't see what is right in front of her with Matthew being completely smitten.
Overall, I really loved this book and can't see what Armas comes up with next!
Thank you to Atria Books and Elana Armas for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Atria for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
3.75 but rounded up because I love Elena Armas!
The long game was such a fun read for me last year so I was super excited to dive back into the town green oak. You definitely don’t need to read the long game first. They are an interconnecting stand alone but I always recommend reading it!
At first, I would pick it up read for about 10 minutes then put it down but I was hooked around the 40% and couldn’t put this down afterwards!
Our MFC, Josie is such a mess but in the best way. It made her so relatable as a character. I felt like I was reading about my best friend. The star of the show for me was grandpa Moe!! I loved every single scene he was in or even mentioned! It would have been a 5 star read for me if it was duel pov. I really wanted a peak inside Mathew’s head to see what he was really thinking. In the beginning the whole “mysterious guy” vibe wasn’t doing it for me. The more I saw/read and learned about him, the more he ended up really growing on me.

So I was really hesitating between a 3 and 4 for this, but ultimately, I did enjoy parts of the book a lot, even if others fell a little flat for me.
First off, I loved seeing Adalyn and Cam again, The Long Game has been my favorite Elena Armas book. There's an editors note at the beginning of the book saying this can be read as a standalone and that's not technically wrong, but I think you would get a lot more from reading TLG. There are a ton of repeat characters and I enjoyed getting to know Josie and Matthew in that book before seeing their story in this one. I did really like Josie and Matthew in this book, as well, although Josie was a lot at the beginning. because the plot needed her to be. It's not just anyone who will grab a person who is barely her friend and essentially force him into being her fake fiancé. I think Josie shined more when she was just interacting with her friends and family and not actually having to deal with the plot.
That's actually my major issue with this book. The plot is that Josie found out her father is a famous rich celebrity and the she's being seen as a mistake and a problem for his legacy, so a PR manager has been hired for her. Josie has had four previous engagements that have been broken for one reason or another, but this obviously (to the media) means she has daddy/abandonment issues. Josie panics when the PR manager appears at her house and ends up grabbing Matthew to be her fake fiance. The pacing really struggles with this plot. Ultimately, the end problem is they are being forced, or at least pushed, to get married very quickly. That means there's a long stretch where everything that's causing problems is the wedding planning and Josie's relationship with her father, which is tied into that. It ended up getting a little samey and at some point, a lot of the plot was just hinging on Josie's inner turmoil.
I did like this book, but unfortunately, I think it's the weakest of the author's bunch. I'm still really looking forward to whatever she puts out though!

I loved The Long Game. So much so that I have six copies of it, including one in German that I can’t even read. To say I’ve been excited for this book featuring characters I loved in that one is an understatement. Ultimately, it didn’t *quite* live up to my expectations, but it was still fun to go back to Green Oak.
One thing I did love without fault in this book was Matthew. That man is a tall drink of swoony water. He’s got a mouth on him, he’s got a sense of humor, and he has the strength to stand behind his convictions and behind the people he loves. He shows up. It would be impossible not to fall in love with him. He was without a doubt the best part of this book, and I wish we would have gotten his POV like we did Cameron’s in TLG.
Josie was complicated for me. So much of her personality that I loved in TLG felt like it was lost here. I had to keep reminding myself that so much of her world got a major upheaval with the Andrew reveal and she’d been thrust into a spotlight she never asked for here. I felt for her as her past was put under a microscope for the world to judge without really knowing her. I was happy when some of her personality made a comeback later in the book. Her life spiral made it kind of difficult to feel the relationship development between her and Matthew, but Matthew carried it with his steadfastness.
Even though I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, I’ll still be adding a copy of this one to my personal collection when it releases. Elena Armas could release a dictionary and I’d want to read and buy it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ok Elena, I SEE YOU!! 👏🏻
I think The Fiance Dilemma is my new favorite book by Elena Armas!!
I was SO excited for this one because Josie was one of my fave characters from The Long Game. I’m so glad she got her own time to shine because she is a QUEEN 👑
We hit the ground running with a fake engagement because Josie had been engaged 4 times prior and her reputation was being put on blast. Enter her father (who she only very recently met) wanting to fix it and we get the funniest, swooniest, angsty “engagement”!
Right off the bat I was hooked by Josie and Matthew. He has gotta be Elena’s best MMC!! The funny nicknames, his protectiveness over Josie, and his personality were just icing on the cake! He knows how to make a person feel loved and valued. Josie is a small town girl, who is a bit all over the place. The juxtaposition was amazing and their chemistry popped off the pages!! Watching them figure out their true feelings for each other was such a joy!!
This book made me laugh, swoon, get a little teary eyed, and everything between. You'll love this is you’re into engagements of convenience!!!
I think I would read Elena’s grocery list if I’m being honest. I just loved this book SO much!! It had her classic slow burn tension and such a wonderful ending that gave me a lot of closure!! Overall I 10000% recommend grabbing The Fiancé Dilemma on July 30th!! 🥰
Thank you so much to Elena and Atria Books for this ARC!! 🫶🏻

This was amazing, but I shouldn't been surprised because everything Elena Armas has written is divine. I will definitely read more that she writes!

This is the first book. I have read by this author and now I definitely need to go back and read her backlist because this book was just an absolute delight. It has so many of my favorite things to read about and even though it’s not necessarily the most perfect book to exist, I had such a great time and I know my best friend who loves this author is going to love this book as so many other individuals are going to as well upon release !

This book had me laughing out loud at some parts and it’s definitely a quick and easy rom com to read! When Matthew agrees to a fake engagement with Josie, she has no idea what a wild ride she is in for. Being thrown off and surprised by her dad and his assistant, they are constantly having their emotions tossed around, but Matthew remains a steady rock for Josie….and she isn’t quite sure how to process that at first. I love how quirky and awkward Josie is and you can’t help but laugh at some of the things she says.
I absolutely love Matthew! He is sweet and sexy, all wrapped into one beautiful package. The way he flat out flirts with Josie had me smiling and some of those steamy moments they shared were definitely the result of that angst and slow burn building between them while they initially tried to fight their chemistry.
It releases on July 30th and is definitely a perfect rom com for the summer!
Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Elena Armas for the chance to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A laugh out loud, feel good and heart melting love story I couldn't put down! I loved Josie and Matthew, all the crazy side characters that made this book so silly. I also loved how soft and loving the author made Matthew's character, he had so many "awe" moments in this book it made me smile. Definitely add to your TBR list

Reviewed for NetGalley:
This one started off strong for me: quirky grandma, young mayor/coffee shop owner protagonist with an fake fiance trope thrown in.
However, after a quarter of the way in, I just started losing interest.

Thank you to NetGalley, Elena Armas, and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book just wasn’t for me. I didn’t love The Long Game, but I still liked it. Some of my favorite parts involved Josie, so I couldn’t wait for her book. However, as a main character she just fell extremely flat for me. She had very little development, the focus on her supposed daddy issues was blinding and underwhelming, the plotline involving her failed engagements honestly was never fleshed out and there we still have little details on all of the previous engagements, and she became over the top in a strange way in this book that I just couldn’t connect to at all. Also, Josie kept insisting that she wasn’t naive and then continued to make idiotic and naive decisions. It just didn’t feel like the same Josie to me and I had such a hard time reading about her. Matthew was just there. We knew virtually nothing about him, besides that he was fired and he was Adalyn’s best friend. We literally didn’t find out anything about him, his family, or his motivations pretty much until the last like 15% of the book. Also, this book only had one Matthew POV chapter (the final chapter) and I really think that did a disservice to the storytelling.
Andrew is a terrible father and having an entire second book dedicated to him being a terrible father was just not fun to read about. Josie pretty much let herself be bulldozed by everyone constantly, would randomly get a backbone for .25 second and stand up for herself, only to immediately go back to letting everyone walk all over her the next page. It was so frustrating.
Grandpa Moe was my favorite part of this book. He is a treasure and must be protected at all costs.

3.5 ⭐️
The Fiancé Dilemma is a fake engagement, friends to lovers story that follows Josie and Matthew as they navigate this intricate scheme they had developed. When Josie’s estranged millionaire father decides to come into her life, he sends his PR associate to help shine a positive light on the situation. In the process, there is a mix up that leaves everyone believing Josie is engaged. She grabs the first man she sees off the street, who happens to be her half sisters best friend, to play the role of fiancé.
I want to preface this review by saying that The Spanish Love Deception is one of my favorite books of all time. Elena Armas became an instant buy author for me because of that book and this was one of my most anticipated reads this year. This book fell a little flat for me. I felt like I was pushing myself through the first 70% of the book. It seemed like there was very little chemistry between Josie and Matthew and their scheme didn’t feel well put together. It seemed like it happened almost instantly and the details were never fully developed. It also felt like chapters just halted suddenly without wrapping up the scene. There were multiple occasions where I thought the scene was going to carry over into the next chapter but instead it switched to something new, leaving me confused. Around the 70% mark, the story did finally take a shift for me and I finished the remaining 30% in one sitting. I just hate that it took me that long to fall in love with these characters. I definitely would recommend this book, but probably not above any of Elena’s other books.

Literally obsessed. Every one of Elena’s books is better than the last! Honestly my only request is to write faster so we can have more of her books in the world!
No notes. No comments on the characters. This is a Non-review review because you just have to read this story.
Read this book!

This is my first book by Elena and it won’t be my last because I really enjoyed it! I do feel like the fake engagement was unwarranted for the situation, but that didn’t make the book any less fun for me. This was spicy spicy spicy! I do wish I had read the previous book before reading this for more context. I will go back and read that now. Overall, a fun reading experience with loveable characters.