2 stars ★

I enjoyed this book, but it felt so messy. Yes, it has some sweet and funny scenes, which I loved. But besides that? it was disappointing given the incredible tropes this book has and the potential to be so much better.

I really hated how the fmc allowed her father and his PR agent to “dictate” her life so easily and quickly. This girl barely knows her father, and that man has done absolutely nothing for her, not even to get to know her better. She let his PR mess take control over her. She didn’t want to be a burden or a bigger problem for him and his PR mess/reputation, given her reputation of getting engaged and leaving her fiancés at the altar. So, what does she decide to do to improve the situation? getting engaged again knowing she wasn’t going to make it to the wedding. Did she really think this would calm the situation? The joke tells itself.

Also, she kept the rings and wedding dresses from her previous engagements. That was so weird. I don't want to judge, but it really seemed like she was collecting fiancés. And there was never any deep reason why she left them. She had daddy issues, she was scared, and… what else? There was no further explanation. Maybe that is the author’s goal? That some fears don’t need to have some deep meaning? I honestly don’t know, but it felt messy and confusing in this book. I understand that the book needed a plot, but… the plot wasn’t plotting. It was lacking and needed more depth and development of everything, including the main characters and the romance. The chemistry and the whole falling in love felt so rushed. This was a slow burn that somehow took them about two months to realize they were each other soulmates. Huh? No further comments.

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Anyways💜🦋 thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion!

Minor spoilers!!!

When I read "The Spanish Love Deception", I enjoyed it and moved on. With this book though............I have ALL the feels!! Although I haven't yet read the first book in this series, I still was able to follow along super well and still really, really loved it. Josie is such a fun, crazy character and I ADORED Matthew for her!! She honestly deserved someone that loves her the way he does, we all really do if I'm being honest!! Seeing their relationship develop throughout this novel was so beautiful, and I'm hoping we will get to see them again eventually!! All of the side characters were super hilarious, especially Grandpa Moe and Bobbi Shark (side note: ADORE the cute Sharky name for Bobbi's coffee!). Maybe a Bobbi story next?!? Elena Armas....the ball is in your court! Seriously, if you enjoyed any of the author's previous works, you will love this silly, romantic, goofy book!

I really enjoyed this romance. You had me at fake dating. For some reason this trope has me in a chokehold and this author knocked it out of the park. The banter was perfect. I really loved the Spanish love deception and this one was a close second. Elena keep them coming!

Ever watched The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds? Do you like the fake dating trope?

Then this is the book for you!

Josie has gone through four engagements, you could say she has had some bad luck. And the latest ring won’t even come off.

Matthew has also had a bit of bad luck. He’s been fired from his job and his truck gets stuck in the mud on the way to see his best friend. But his bad luck stops when he meets eyes with Josie and she panics, introducing him to her family as her fiancé.

Now the two have to keep this act up, but where is the line drawn?

This book was cute, it was fluffy, but it was also STEAMY. Baths will never look the same, nor will pies.

I gotta be honest, this book didn’t really click for me until about halfway through. And that’s a long time before I started to enjoy it. Maybe it’s because the first book was also not super impressive. I just keep hoping for another TSLD and keep getting let down.
However, once about halfway through it did get better. And I honestly think having his POV would have really helped. I’m happy with how it ended, I thought she’d give into the demands of everyone around her.
It just needed a bigger hook in the beginning to get me to want to keep reading.
I received this Arc from NetGalley and all thoughts are my own. Thank you NetGalley and Atria books.

I could not put this book down! I don’t know what it is but I enjoy reading Elena Armas’ books so much. The Spanish Love Deception is one of my favorites and I know this one is up there with it. I love how quirky and lovable Josie is. Let not forget about Matthew (where can I find one?!). I love how he sees her and understands what she needs. I think Grandpa Moe was my favorite character. Pedro Pigscal is an honorable mention. I would recommend this book to everyone if I could. It’s such a cute rom com that most would enjoy. The spice is a bit slow to start but I enjoyed the build up. Other than that this is filled with laugh out loud moments and moments that tug at your heart strings.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing! This author continues to wow me! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this early!

I loved this book! I am very thankful for being chosen to receive this arc before the release date of the book!

These are my honest opinions!

I loved Josie, she was such great. She was an amazing character and I could relate to her at times. She was funny and so heartwarming nice.

Matthew was a character indeed. I loved him once I got a better feel of him. I would have loved to seen more from his POV but still he was awesome too.

I totally recommend people to check out this book!
I will be reading the book about her sister that came out before this one!

📚The Fiancé Dilemma by Elena Areas
📕ARC Review(Copy gifted by @atria_books via @netgalley)
🚨While reviewed copy is gifted, opinions are always my own.
Status: Available July 30th, 2024, Not KU

🥰Enjoyment: This one is kind of a weird vibe from me. I haven’t really had great luck focusing on ebooks lately but this was one of those “auto read authors so I’m going to take the ARC in whatever form I can get it”. In the end it took me like 3 weeks to finish. But not because I wasn’t enjoying myself. I just had a lack of time and when I had time I had a lack of focus. In the end I really enjoyed the characters and the banter. I enjoyed the overarching plot well enough. What was missing for me, was the actual falling in love. They just kind of “were” and the reader was supposed to go “ah yes clearly”. The pacing was off for me because we were trying to fit so much hoop jumping with the fake engagement plot/PR crisis that the parts of the story that probably held the romance never hit the page.

Again I LOVED Matthew and Josie… I just didn’t love how we received their story. Does that make any sense?

P.S. I did love the last 20%

QOTD: Have you ever had a book where you just weren’t sure how you felt about it?

Elena Armas has gotten better and better with each book. While this didn't blow me away, I this is my favorite book of hers to date.

This book was fun and cute! Totally fun, sweet, and swoony 🥰🥰🥰
The set up for the fake engagement almost deterred me. I’m yelling in my head “just say no!!!”. But I persevered and wow was I happy I did. I loved seeing Josie’s character grow over the length of the book. And her and Matthew were a perfect match 😌

Thank you to Atria & Netgalley!

Thank you to Atria books & Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

Elena Armas writes some of my favorite Romance books. Although this is the second in the series, it can be read as a SA! This was a fun and unique romance read!

This took a while to reel me in but the last third of book made it worth it. If the authors goal was for us to hate Bobbi with a passion, then goal achieved. If this was a fantasy I would have hoped for her to be first picked off by a dragon. I love the fake dating trope and obviously it's never realistic but I did feel like Josie's reasoning for getting fake engaged was pretty lame. However, I did enjoy the growth of her character throughout the book. I have no complaints about Matthew but would have loved to see his pov throughout the book instead of just at the end.

When Josie falls into a predicament/PR nightmare and her sister’s best friend shows up out of no where, it seems like an easy solution to her problem.

You guys, Matthew is the BEST mmc Elena Armas has ever wrote. He’s got me over here giggling & blushing!!

I loved Josie’s character growth. She’s not afraid to be messy & take the world in her hands. The anxiety representation that her character gave us was amazing.

Even though this is Josie’s book, I feel like Matthew stood out the most. I loved how attentive he is to Josie, her emotions are his emotions. He has so much love and respect for her. The beginning of their love story was unconventional but what bloomed was so beautiful & unique. They deserve the world! .

"Beautiful things should not be boxed. It eventually dims their light."

Josie has been engaged. Four times. Those engagements have not successfully made it down the aisle for any of the weddings. When this goes viral, her rich absentee father sends a PR specialist to her door. Josie still likes to try on the engagement rings that she kept from all four relationships. When Bobbi shows up on her doorstep, Josie is wearing one of her rings. Bobbi notices and in a panic, Josie says she is engaged to Matthew who is just coming down the street. She convinces him to pretend to be engaged to her, but assures him that they won't go through with a wedding.

So there were some good things in this and some not so good things for me. I did not love Josie. I didn't like that she kept all of the rings from all of her relationships. That was just a weird detail for me. I don't think that the podcast was a real problem for her father either. I'm sorry, but who would actually care? & even then, Josie BARELY had a relationship with the dude. Who cares?

I did like Matthew as a person, but I think he just deserved better than Josie. I thought the way that he was written to handle the engagement ending was great. Totally unique that I haven't read before, but there is just something between Matthew and Josie did not click for me. I think that is definitely more on Josie than it was on Matthew.

There were too many pop culture references for me. Just not something that I personally love in books.

The cover is not great for the book you get. I thought that ALL the exes would show up. I thought there would be conflict with more of the exes. Having them on the cover is just misleading.

Grandpa Moe is my favorite character and he deserves all the love in the world.

This book was trying to sell me something, and in the end, I picked it up, considered it, but I didn't buy it.

First of all, Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in return of my honest review.

Ever since this book was announced I was super excited to read it because,
A) It is written by Elena
B) The cover is purple
C) A small town romance
D) Fake Dating Trope with slow burn

Now, for the review, The Spanish Love Deception by Elena was one of the first books that got me back into reading. I have been obsessed with Aaron Blackford ever since and naturally I was very excited for this one.

Elena is one of the funniest writers out there. I love the humor in her books and this one was no different. And the best part is the humour is effortless and relatable.
The story is about Josephine (Josie), 29-year old Mayor of the small town Green Oak, who has recently discovered she is also the daughter of multi-millionaire Andrew Underwood, which has resulted in her being in the media eye and now suddenly the reporters are digging everything from her past life to current whereabouts. Without giving too much away, she ends up being roped into a fake engagement set up with Mathew Flannagan, the best friend of her half sister Adalyn to solve the PR problem of her millionaire father. From there on it was such a cute, heart warming, funny and engaging story.

I loved the characters as well as the small town setup. This is how you write a small town romance with slow burn. Josie was so relatable and at times it felt like I was Josie because of how she was always on fight or flight mode as she has never known better. She has always had to be on her own and be her own support system. This made me realize how much I resonate with that feeling of emptiness when all you got is Yourself at the end of the day. I was so invested in Josie life throughout because at times it felt like mine.
Matthew was an absolute delight. Did I mention yet, he wears glasses and is a gentleman only outside the bedroom. Iykyk. The side characters were awesome. They made this story come alive. Matthew was all dreamy and sunshiny. I loved the way he made her realize everything. The way he was so gentle with her and stood by side at all times. All in all, I absolutely devoured this one. Definitely check it out for a cute (hot) romance.

🌟🌟🌟🌟•✨/5

Thanks NetGalley and Atria books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Note - I have not read The Long Game. This book does function well as a standalone but I wanted to make that clear at the beginning.

Josie has a lot going on in life. She’s the mayor of her small town, she runs a coffee shop, her famous father and half sister just came into her life, and she’s been engaged four times. Matthew, on the other hand, has very little going on. He was recently laid off from his job in Chicago and left for greener pastures to gain some perspective. Unfortunately for them, the world loves drama, and when Josie panic announces Matthew is her new fiancé to her father’s PR manager, the world becomes completely obsessed with their story.

I very much enjoyed this story. Matthew falls for Josie so hard and so fast, he cares so much about her and is ready and willing to support her however she needs. Josie is a people pleaser who just wants everyone to be happy. And then there are the side characters. Grandpa Moe is a doll who deserves all the sweet drinks and tv time he wants. Bobbi is a terrifying and necessary character for the story to work. A fake fiancé plot is always going to be a little far fetched, so much as well go all in with the PR manager/wedding planner from hell.

I wish there had been more about the former fiancés though. I know they aren’t the point, and we do see one live and in person, but I really wanted Josie to think more deeply about her relationship history before the very end. I also needed some better resolution with the podcast. The final interview wasn’t what I wanted and I’m honestly not sure it would have made it to air anyway.

The spice was great, the characters felt (mostly) real, and the outer conflict resolved in a realistic way (no one is just gonna be happy with their long lost father right away, but if they're a people pleaser like
Josie they’re going to try anyway until they can’t anymore). I look forward to reading The Long Game and seeing if that changes any of my opinions, and seeing how Josie was originally introduced, I want to know more about pre-fifth fiancé Josie. 3.5 ⭐️

I love Elena Armas books! The characters are fun, the plot is engaging, and I am so glad I got to read this! Definitely recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Elena Armas!

This book was very meh for me. Looking back, I had similar feelings for the first book in the series. I was thinking the entire time that I should really like this book, but it just felt flat. The male character was written as too perfect in my opinion and he really lacked depth. The believability factor was also very low for me. If you liked Elena's other books, specifically the first book in this series, then you will probably like this one as well. It just wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of this book!

Matthew Flannagan, where did you come from???

After reading The Long Game I was so excited to dive deeper into Josie's story and learn more about her. However, I had no idea that I would fall in love with Adalyn's BFF Matthew (who in all honesty, I thought was either gay or harboring a secret unrequited crush on Adalyn). Color me pleasantly surprised because he is now one of my favorite book boyfriends but also a perfect match for Josie! Bobbi was also a fun addition to the crew because you loved to hate her! I want another book focused on her ending up with Robbie? I can't be the only one who felt that might be a thing?

This was such a cute, fun, and easy read that left me laughing and kicking my feet. I was shocked that it wasn't dual POV. I would have truly loved to have more of Matthew's perspective on the whole thing, but still really enjoyed it!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for this charming Green Oaks sequel! ⭐️ If only we could all visit Josie's Joint and get a Sharkie!