Did someone say fake fiancé, sign me up!

Elena Armas does it again. I absolutely LOVED this book. This fake fiancé was done so well. Small town coffee shop owner Josie needs a new fiancé, yeah cause she’s had 4 already.
Matthew and Josie are off to a rough start. He’s a little bit of a grump but has us swooning with how over protective he is of her. He is a natural flirt and Josie is swooning. The slow burn that’s leads up to a little spice is so worth it. There is family drama as well as small town shenanigans.
They had me laughing and tearing up the perfect rom-com. I couldn’t put this book down!!!

Josie has given love plenty of chances with 4 failed engagements and an absentee father but as her business tycoon father gets ready to retire, she learns her romantic history is bad pr on the family. Matthew has not only been fired but after making a wrong turn on his way to Green Oak, NC ends up stumbling upon his BFF’s sister greeting him as her fiancé. What started as a big misunderstanding quickly turns into a fake engagement and while Josie may have his ring on her finger she knows it’s only temporary. Lines start to blur and the small town comes to believe that maybe the fifth fiancé is truly The One.

This is one of those books I’m kicking myself for not reading sooner. I absolutely adored Adalyn and Cam and everything about this small town in the first book so it was no surprise I loved every second of being back in Green Oak. Matthew had me blushing and kicking my feet and my goodness the backstory had me swooning. Josie was so relatable and down to earth and I loved her so much. Honestly, Armas is one of those autobuy authors for me cause her books just make me so happy but this one might just be my favorite she has come out with. I definitely think if you haven’t checked out The Long Game series yet and you want to just fall in love with love you should because it gave everything I needed to be kicking my feet like a little school girl.

Josie is always the bride. But never one that gets married. After 4 failed engagement she realized she needs something to get her out of a PR story. In come Matthew. Can fake love turn into real love.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before the release date. I am very sorry it took so long to write this, I honestly forgot about it. Anyway, Elena Armas is such a good writer. She wrote one of my favorite books, The Spanish Love Deception. She just knows how to write a man. This book had so much drama and slow burn. It was just so fun to watch it unfold. Josie had four failed engagements and she was a secret child of a very powerful man. So when she comes out she needs to be put in positive light. The first thing she can think of is to say that the man walking across the street is her fiancé. She didn’t realize it was Matthew, her long lost sisters best friend. This book was funny and spicy and everything you want in a rom com.

The Fiance Dilemma by Elena Armas was a slow-paced version of Runaway Bride. I thought that I would enjoy the storyline because of my love for the movie, but that wasn't the case. The characters were irritating and I didn't like the found father aspect of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced digital copy of the book.

TW: parental abandonment, parental loss

3.5 stars

Welp I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Long Game but it was still an entertaining read.

The Fiancé Dilemma is the sequel to The Long Game but this time we are following Josie and Matthew. With a ridiculous fake dating/engagement plot there’s loads of edging between these two and even you the reader. I swear on my life I was waiting forever for these two idiots to finally get physical. I’m not usually so hard up for that but there was so much eye contact and TOUCHING but then the scenes would change quickly and I’d be left hanging cold.

Josie was a little TOO quirky for me and I seriously don’t mind quirky cutesy characters but they way she was constantly people pleasing instead of telling people to mind their own business got on my nerves after a while. She does have some issues being engaged 4 times and never actually getting married will do that to you. And having a father that you literally know nothing about pop into your life after 20 something years is going to have your head spinning. But Josie is beyond kind to every single person and I can appreciate that about her. Matthew was all about Josie, maybe a tad too much. I would’ve love to get more of his character development but I can’t say I don’t love a man who worships his woman as much as he does. And that mouth of his whew!

I was hoping for more of Adalyn and Cam but what we got I soaked up so quick! They are adorable and I’m so happy for these fictional characters lol

The Fiancé Dilemma was a cute read that is unexpectedly emotional. Lots of parental issues here that aren’t quite explored that much but I thought the love story part of this book made up for some of the missteps by the author. I’ll definitely continue to read her work and support her. Thank you so much to Atria Books for gifting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

i love elena armas books because they're always cutesy little romance books that i don't have to think too hard about. loved this one!

4 stars.

"𝘈 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩. 𝘠𝘰𝘨𝘢, 𝘮𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘴, 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘴."


Ugh. I loved this book so much.

I have been waiting for Matthew and Josie's story since I read "The Long Game" last year.

And it was just perfect.

Matthew is the epitome of a book boyfriend, and I just love them so so much.

Thank you to @atriabooks and @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for this review ❤️
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I'm a big fan of Elena Armas, I've read all of her books so far. The Fiance Dilemma was good, just not my favorite book of hers. I liked the characters but this book seemed to have a lot going on and I felt like it kind of distracted from the overall story.

Got about 2/3 through liking this book just enough before I forgot about it and eventually decided it wasn't for me. It's harmless and would work well if you don't know what book to read next and need something of a palate cleanser. It just missed the mark for me.

I really enjoyed this one! Matthew was my favorite of the whole book by far. He is so sweet, such a gentleman and so caring. I really liked the aspect of fake marriage and how it brought them closer together. I do feel like we don’t get much closure or dive deep into the problems such as her four first engagements so I would love liked to see more of that play out. Some parts were a bit slower and I felt less interested with the podcast aspect of this book. Josie and Matthew really were fun to read about. The tension and friendship between them hooked me and I loved every second. Overall, I definitely recommend.

I enjoyed this book and the characters. I loved the main female character from the previous book and I’m glad she got her story. It was a lot of fun.

Gah what a cute book! This is actually my first Elena Armas book and I loved it! Marriage of convenience is one of my favorite tropes! Josephine was so funny! Matthew was too but his was more sarcastic humor which I love! Josephine is the mayor of her small town and has had 4 previous engagements! To try to appease her dad and his PR agent, she pretends to be engaged for a 5th time to Matthew! And I think you know where this is going! 3.5 stars! Quick read!

Elena Armas did it again! Matthew and Josie are so sweet together. If I could actually marry a book boyfriend, it would be Matthew! When Josie's life starts to run away from her, Matthew steps in to help her knowing that by doing so he's sacrificing what he actually wants from Josie. With each new obstacle thrown their way, Matthew and Josie grow closer together and stronger in their love.

[Regardless of how the story lines concluded, I still can't stand Andrew or Bobbi.]

Tropes:
slow burn (slooooow)
fake engagement
small town romance
golden retriever MMC
no third act breakup
fun nicknames

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the advanced copy of The Fiance Dilemma.

Thanks to Atria and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

I have been a fan of Elena Armas's other books, but this one just seemed off to me. With the single POV with Josie, I felt at times like I couldn't figure out her chemistry with Matthew. Matthew is ALL IN during this novel and I don't know if I forgot their origin story or what from the first book in the series but I was glad to get some of the information towards the end of the book. For most of the book I kept thinking, why is she not realizing how committed he already is? Why isn't she questioning why? Does she just love him already? It felt imbalanced and confusing. And Cam and Adyln staying far away was ok in the sense that it focused the book but if my sister was all of a sudden engaged to my best friend I would do more to say "uh, what? Tell me more".

So it was fine! There were some good moments! The podcast stuff felt like a tack on when I think it was supposed to be a thread. I had hoped for a little more.

This book took me a bit to get into, and it was my first Elena Armas book. There were aspects I really liked (fake dating, small town vibes,) but over all I just wasn’t super invested in the characters. I’d be willing to give another book of hers a try at some point.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read this book. It is recommended to have read the long game to have an accurate understanding, but it can be read as a stand-alone.
Our FMC is allowing turning her life from 0 to 100 and fall in love in the process.
The story is so good; I'm so happy to have given Elena another try.

i’ve been going back and forth ALL over the ratings board from 2-4 stars, so i think landing solidly in the middle is fair. this book was close to being a SLOG to get through. josie is such a tough character to be in the head of. every time she got herself into wacky situations, without thinking anything through, had me wanting to pull out my head. i mean, truly, i was close to calling it a quits early on with just her narration style.

i switched over to audio about a quarter of the way through, not because of the writing per se (rather because i was on a road trip and needed to listen something. so two birds, one stone). but man did that make so much of the difference. the ditziness definitely became a bit easier to stomach. i mean i was still like “girl what the actual fuck are you doing!” but those moments were definitely fewer than in the front end.

i also think as their plot progresses and as matt and josie’s relationship develops, him being around more also helped the case. matthew was truly the saving grace of this book. the way he went with all of josie’s dumb decisions,,, he really is what made this book worth continuing on. and now, while i really didn’t find myself loving josie (and i’m still irked we still never really get any clarification into WHY she was engaged 4 times, or what happened so that they’d all still be friendly with her) their relationship was still lovely to see develop.

It was through sheer will that I finished this. It did not feel swoony or romantic. It felt really awkward and the main characters had no chemistry whatsoever. The MMC just went along with eveyrthing because he had already been in love with this oblivious, shallow woman who kept making the same mistakes instead of going to some therapy and working through any of her issues in a healthy way. The premise is ridiculous and I just kept thinking... if this is the expectation for people to call romance in their lives, I'm not sure I want any part of it. The characters really had no chemistry, no banter that was cute, it was just this woman trauma dumping on a guy who sat passively and took it - maybe that's the dream now? Not working through your issues, not growing as a person, just being a gremlin and a man being absolutely smitten for it.

Elena Armas’s The Fiancé Dilemma is a charming yet somewhat uneven romantic comedy that explores the intricacies of love, family, and the complexities of personal growth. Following the success of her previous works, Armas delivers a story filled with wit and warmth, but it doesn't quite hit the mark as perfectly as some of her earlier novels.

The novel follows Josie Moore, who, facing a PR nightmare due to her series of failed engagements, recruits an unexpected ally to help salvage her family’s reputation. Enter Matthew Flanagan, who, after a series of unfortunate events, finds himself accidentally engaged to Josie in a bid to clean up his own mess.

The premise is undeniably engaging: Josie, desperate to repair her public image, and Matthew, who’s stuck in a rut, find themselves in a fake engagement that quickly spirals out of control. The initial misunderstanding between the characters provides a strong foundation for both comedic moments and romantic tension, and Armas’s writing shines in these early interactions. The chemistry between Josie and Matthew is palpable, and their witty exchanges are a highlight of the novel.

However, while the setup is promising, the execution falls somewhat short. The plot occasionally feels predictable, as the fake engagement trope is familiar territory for romance readers. Despite Armas’s efforts to inject fresh twists into the narrative, the storyline sometimes settles into expected patterns, making some of the plot developments feel a bit formulaic.