Elena Armas hit it out of the park with this book!

The Fiancé Dilemma follows the story of Josie and Matthew and their interesting predicament that they find themselves in. Josie, a serial runner after fleeing from four prior engagements, invents a lie on the fly that she and Matthew are engaged in order to keep the press from releasing any further bad PR about both herself and her absentee father. The events that follow are nothing what Josie and Matthew could have expected but ultimately are life changing for both.

Elena told such an amazing story of a small town that makes you want to visit Josie’s coffee shop, the farm with the adorable animals (including a teacup Pig) and watch some programs with Grandpa Moe.

I absolutely loved this book! I enjoyed how well Josie and Matthew balanced each other, the hilarious side characters, the overall unique story and the beautiful message behind it all. Also, I will never hear the word ‘bootylicious’ again and not think of this story.

The ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this book!

The main characters it follows is Josie and Matthew. The story starts out with Josie in the kitchen trying to use strawberry jam to get her ex’s engament ring off her hand. As she’s covered in head to toe in strawberry jam her doorbell rings she reluctantly goes and answers it. Standing on her doorstep is a woman name Bobbi shark that works for her father Andrew wood, who by the way was basically a dead beat dad, he is a wealthy business man and word got out he had a daughter he dipped out on and is now trying to save his reputation and do damage control over the situation. As Bobbi is talking to Josie she notices an engament ring on her hand and assumes Josie is engaged again! Btw she’s been engaged four times and left each man at the alter. Bobbi decides this is the perfect thing Andrew can help with to save his reputation for abandoning his daughter and starts asking Josie a ton of questions about this faince who doesn’t exist. Out of panic when Josie sees her sisters best friend walking down the road and pretends he is her fiancé and Matthew plays along with it. The book develops into watching them plan their fake wedding they are going to call off but end up slowly starting to fall in love. The ending was nothing I was expecting and absolutely loved it. The book was beautifully written and perfectly executed in my opinion. This book was a 5 star read for me I can’t wait to read more books by this author!

Josie is having a rough day when her estranged father’s publicist hounds her about her past relationships and failed engagements. A misunderstanding and Matthew appearing at just the wrong time results in a fake engagement. Josie and Matthew barely know each other, but that changes quickly when they must pretend to be engaged to save Josie from a PR nightmare.

I am a huge fan of Elena Armas, and I was honored to receive an early copy of this book! It is now my new favorite from her. I loved the runaway bride storyline and the soulmates/love at first sight type of romance is just perfection for a romantic like me. Josie is the sweetest character and Matthew is funny and kind toward Josie but protective of her outwardly. I found myself just smiling at how sweet of a couple they made, the chemistry and spice was perfect, and I couldn’t get enough! Do yourself a favor and grab this one as soon as you can.

Thank you to Elena Armas, Atria books, and Netgalley for the arc and opportunity to be an early reader and reviewer.

Elena Armas has done it again! I am completely in love with all of her books, I'm convinced she could write a 100 page book about a trash can and I would still rate it 5 stars. I love Elena Armas works because they are funny, cute, and cliche and it bit cheesy. Theyre proper romcoms and I love it!
Having met Matthew and Josie in "The Long Game", I was very excited to read their story! Considering how big a fan I am of Elena Armas' works, I had high expectations for this one, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

really fun and romantic book.

The setting and the plot in whole was interesting and developed greatly. At the same time, i wish book was shorter. some chapters were not necessarily.

i loved Matthew, he is such a good male character. nicknames, behavior, personality and how he talked to Josie…soo cute

why 3.5 stars? again, the length. it was long and i skipped a few pages, i wasn’t really into Josie, i don’t really understand her behavior in some moments. in general, good romance for easy and fun read! definitely will recommend to new readers

Thank you so much NetGallely and Atria Books for approving my request

I enjoyed the long game so I when I saw there was a sequel I couldn't wait to read it. This one is the story of Josie. She was shell shocked at the end of last book to learn Andrew was her father. Now, the media is having a field day digging into her past with four failed engagements and it is proving to be a public relations nightmare for her father.

Josie lies and says she is engaged to Mathew. He willingly plays along. Mathew is adorable with how he places her first and reassures her and calms her down when her anxiety spikes. It is beautiful to watch the relationship grow from fake to real.

I like how Adalyn and Cameron were also in this book. This book makes you laugh and also has some good advice for staying true to yourself.

Fake Dating, Forced Proximity, Family Drama, Small Town Romance this book checked all the boxes.

Elena Armas has done IT again! I could NOT put The Fiancé Dilemma down. It was the most perfect rom-com I've read in a long time. Everything played like a movie in my head. I love the fake relationship trope and this definitely lived up to the hype. This is going to be the book of Summer 2024. The perfect read for the beach, a boat, the plane, wherever you may go. I was lucky enough to receive a free ARC of this, but all opinions are my own.

I’m sure I’ve said it in past reviews but Elena Armas is the queen of slow burn! I could not put this book down and loved the whole ride. Josie is fun and pure sunshine and Matthew is the knight in shining armor everyone wishes would be there for them. I cannot write enough words to express my love for Matthew. This book is just as good if not better than the Long Game and has moved Elena Armas to my instant buy list.

Okay, I wanna start by saying ...TAKE NOTES MISCOMMUNICATION TROPES DONT NEED TO BE A THING AND THIS BOOK PROVED IT. I was absolutely fucking terrified the entire book up until the 95% mark there would be some sort of huge misunderstanding, nope just a very healthy understanding and acceptance of boundaries.

The only thing I feel like this book missed was seeing more from Matthew's side ... but honestly I loved how all in the male character was and the female character was just playing catch up the whole time. I loved how every interaction they had could have easily gotten thrown out of proportion but it didn't. I saw nothing but paitence and healing which was very refreshing.

I was addicted to this couple thankyou

I was looking forward to this sequel to The Long Game and really excited when I was approved for the eARC (thank you Atria!) I enjoyed it but it took a decent amount of the book for me to get into it. I loved that it was set in the same town as The Long Shot but something just didn’t click for me. There were some abrupt endings and my desire for alternating POVs just had me not super interested throughout the book.

It isn’t a bad book by any means, I just think I enjoy her other books more!

Can Elena Armas do no wrong???

Characters who wear their entire hearts on their sleeves, who unapologetically love each other even when they don’t quite know how to, who learn and grow and change with each other and look good doing it.

(US Pub Date: August 13th ‘24)

Thank you @atriabooks for this @netgalley ARC!

Josie Moore has been given a lot of labels. Mayor, coffee shop owner, sister, friend, heartbreaker, misstep, flighty.

After four failed engagements - more than one of which ended nearly at the altar, and discovering that her long-lost-father has not in fact been lost but has just been pretending she doesn’t exist - Josie thinks she’s given men enough chances.

But when the woman in charge of cleaning up her father’s messes shows up on Josie’s doorstep ready to write her off as a disaster, Josie panics and reaches for the first safety net in sight.

Enter Matthew Flanagan - Josie’s sister’s best friend, newly minted aimless wanderer, and, with a little luck - also Josie’s new (pretend) husband-to-be.

But with the press breathing down their necks, and their pretend romance sending both of them stumbling, the two find themselves becoming fast friends and partners - and also maybe falling for each other… a little?

But both Matthew and Josie have pasts they’d like to forget, and people who have no interest in letting them do so. And as the very real wedding date for the very fake (or not?) couple approaches, they need to let each other in enough to decide whether they get to keep each other, or if the tangled mess they’ve created will end in another run the wrong way up the aisle.

dnfed @ 30%

after really enjoying the long game, i was so excited to have received an arc of this, but unfortunately i did not enjoy this one. i find that elena is a kind of hit or miss author for me and this one turned out to be a miss. i just felt no connection to the characters or the storyline, and at 30% in i expect to already feel that connection. really bummed about this one, it was definitely an anticipated release this year for me

I was honestly expecting something more but alas, it was an okayish book. The characters could have used a more mature take and better setting. It started off well but then the downhill. Overall, an average book by elena armas.

This was a fun read, but it really took a while to get into, and was somewhat disappointing given how much I absolutely LOVED Spanish Love Deception and the American Roommate Experiment (The Long Game was good, but not loved).
I’d love to read more from Elena Armas, though! Can’t wait to see what she writes next!

Absolutely peak wholesomeness, Matthew Josie are <333 the writing was really pleasant, and I loved that the third act was handled so well.

This book is very "How Did It End?" and "So High School" from TTPD 😭

I only wish we had more of Matthew's pov? But Elena has promised to write a Matthew chapter for the BN exclusive, I can't frickin wait.

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

I really wanted to love this book and I think there was potential, but overall the story just wasn’t for me. My biggest issue was the fake engagement and the reason for it. It was super flimsy and far-fetched in my opinion. I think had there been more behind it, it would have worked better. I also felt like this book was super rapid fire and then end scene. Like something would be happening and then boom the chapter ended and we pick back up two days later. Josie was a lot and Matthew had two different personalities in my opinion. I didn’t understand what Matthew was getting out of the arrangement and his weird insta love which I still feel like was never really explained In a way that made sense. It wasn’t a bad book, but it was just lacking and could have been so much better. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC.

I have been looking forward to Matthew and Josie's story since finishing The Long Game last year. My expectations were high, and, honestly, Elena Armas DOES. NOT. DISAPPOINT.

I was laughing from chapter 1. Josie is a wonderfully hilarious and beautifully written FMC. And Matthew is absolutely everything I look for in an MMC. The book was written so well with so much tension, hilarity, and top-tier spice.

I could not put this book down, and ended up finishing it in one day. It is absolutely amazing, and I will be trying to convince everyone I know to pick up this book in July!

I struggled getting into <i>The Fiancé Dilemma</i> in the beginning. If it had been any other book by any other author, I'm sure I would've dropped it by 15%. It was at around 25-30% that it started getting better.

Josie was a lovable character, but I thought she was too dramatic at times. I understand that people ramble when they're nervous or anxious, because I do that as well, but the length at which she went made me want to switch off my phone multiple times. Every time I thought it couldn't get any worse, it got worse. I wish Ms. Armas had deviated from this kind of plot line because all it evokes are second hand embarrassment and plain irritation. However, once the story began to pick up, it gradually got better and bearable.

I don't have any complaints about Matthew; he was funny, grumpy, sexy, and hot all packed in one. His dedication towards Josie was beautiful, and the length with which he went to protect and keep her safe warmed my heart. He never fucked around when the question of her safety came into play, and I both loved and appreciated that about him.

And that's not to say Josie mistreated Matthew or anything! She defended him, too, and ensured he was being cared for as well. I just really liked the way her anxiety and issues were handled, both in the general story itself as well as by Matthew. And there was no third act breakup, which was BRILLIANT.

Though my favorite parts are definitely the angst and Matthew. The smut in this book was so much better than all the other books, too, so that was a bonus. I have mixed feelings about Bobbi (could the next book be about her? Thoughts, thoughts...), and I still despise Andrew--he deserves none of his daughters.

Honestly, when I was reading, I had a lot more thoughts, both good and bad, but now that I'm here actually writing, nothing is coming to mind anymore. So I will end the review by saying: I think it's a 3.5 for me at best, but I'll give it a 4 because goodreads doesn't do half a rating.

I can't wait to read more books by Elena Armas! <3

I'm going to start with I love Elena Armas, Spanish Love Deception was absolute perfection and I've liked her other books. This one fell flat for me.

I did enjoy being back in the same town as the Long Shot and was so excited to read Josie's story. Especially with such an intriguing back story of being engaged 4 times and running away from 3 weddings. I wish those exes had been fleshed out more and they could have popped in.

I wish we had an alternating POV between Josie and Matthew throughout the book. Instead, the first half of the book Matthew seemed like a stiff, boring mannequin instead of us watching him internally falling in love with her as we determine in the second half when he starts to bring on the affection for Josie. Josie was developed fine, but Grandpa Moe and Bobbi Shark seemed like an afterthought. And I wish we had seen more Adalyn and Cam.

The thing that irked me the most was there were two different scenes in the book that ended really abruptly. The first Matthew is taking Josie for some alone time, instead of describing this alone time, the book jumps to the next scene. The second time is when Josie and Matthew drive to Cam and Adalyn's house, sit in the driveway, knock on the door, get invited in... and the next chapter is the next day. We don't hear about what happens at Cam and Adalyn's and both times it seems very disjointed and it messed with the flow of the book for me. Also, it was made so obvious to the reader what was going on with Adalyn, that by the time it was revealed at the end of the book, I thought, how did Josie not pick up on this sooner?

I loved Matthew in the second half, total book boyfriend. Defending Josie, being there for her, and being an overall great guy. I loved when she was weak and he was strong for her, and his affection really shone through in the second half of the book.

2.5 Not for me. I think I just could not suspend disbelief enough to go with the flow. The FMC is billed as a little eccentric, chronically over-generous and spread thin - a very sweet and sympathetic character with a tiny bit of emotional baggage. The premise of this book being that she's just a silly goofy girl, trying to beat the daddy issues allegations, who just happened to leave four fiancees at the alter! This reaaallly doesn't hit for me, doing that just once is downright cruel, not quirky. I found her to be erratic, immature, and oftentimes just plainly selfish towards the people who care about her and then randomly a huge pushover for those least deserving.

So given I'm a bit put off from the jump I might not be the most objective reviewer, but I found that my opinion of her hardly improved. She was constantly putting her own impulses and whims above others, refusing to communicate, not considering the feelings of others, and making bizarre decisions and getting into even more bizarre situations. If none of this bothers you, and you're able to be a very chill and unfazed reader then you may very well enjoy this book! I know I could be a little more relaxed about this, it just was not fun for me.

To illustrate both what I'm talking about and how crazy (perhaps stick in the mud) I myself am being about this; this is the opening scene:
FMC sticks her entire hand into a jar of jam in an effort to get a ring thats stuck on her finger off. Literally why? why jam?? thats not even like a known effective lubricant when I'm sure soap, oil, butter, etc are also in this kitchen. And why stick your whole hand in it!!??? she shares the house/kitchen/groceries!!! Its communal jam! Then she inevitably ends up getting jam all over the kitchen and breaking the jar, glass everywhere, huge mess. Basically she's just non-stop going out of her way to manufacture problems for herself and those around her at increasingly higher stakes and everyone just goes with it! even frequently acts like she's the victim of those situations! I just cant enjoy it. Prepared to accept that thats a me problem tho.

My final complaint is that we get to nearly halfway through the book before the FMC spends truly significant amounts of time with, and has meaningful conversations with the MMC so it's frankly unclear what he sees in her to start. I don't get it, which kind of in turn makes him feel fairly one dimensional. It is; however, made clear by the author that, for whatever reason, he *is* deeply enchanted by her, which is still exciting to read despite being inexplicable. There are definitely some nice and sweet moments that I have to give the author credit for, they're just constantly being interrupted but absurd behavior, choices, and plot developments.

All and all I'll just say not for me, but maybe for you!!! The writing itself isn't terrible and there are some fun and exciting moments.