{Review} The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Page count: 448

Publisher: Atria Books

Published on: February 8, 2022 

Genres: Adult romance

Format: ebook & paperback - personally purchased; audio via public library

Tropes: Tropes: enemies to friends to lovers; forced proximity, office romance, one-bed, slow burn, miscommunication

Spice: 🌶🌶/5

Goodreads synopsis:

Catalina Martín desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially since her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiraled out of control. Now everyone she knows—including her ex and his fiancée—will be there and eager to meet him.

She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic and aid in her deception. New York to Spain is no short flight and her raucous family won’t be easy to fool.

Enter Aaron Blackford—her tall, handsome, condescending colleague—who surprisingly offers to step in. She’d rather refuse; never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling, and insufferable man.

But Catalina is desperate, and as the wedding draws nearer, Aaron looks like her best option. And she begins to realize he might not be as terrible in the real world as he is at the office.

~~~

When it comes to The Spanish Love Deception, I really thought that I would love it. I really enjoy a slow burn romance, especially when it’s done well. My friends Paige and KJ LOVE this book. They love Aaron Blackford and I had genuinely only heard phenomenal things about this book.  Overall, I’m really not sure how to feel about this book because it had an equal amount of things that I just really didn’t like and things that I was absolutely obsessed with. 

In TSLD, the story features a Clark Kent type (sign me up), an enemies to lovers dynamic, the one-bed trope (because he broke his bed!!!), an office romance, international travel (they go to Spain!), and I was promised pining. I got all of those! What a treat! Unfortunately, we also get willful ignorance on our heroine’s part, oodles of the misinformation trope, and lackluster chemistry once the characters actually get together.

This book was incredibly engaging. I really really enjoyed the reading experience. I tandem read between the audio and an ebook. I even stayed up until 1am to finish. (For context, I haven’t done that in forever! To be quite frank, getting COVID has absolutely ruined my sleep schedule. But anyway!) Once I finished it, I just felt …empty? And disappointed, I think. The story was just missing something for me. I really wanted to love this book! It’s a book community darling! The author has impeccable taste and is a genuinely wonderful person. I wanted to love her book! 

Once I finished — and even during moments while reading — I felt like this book was too long. The lead-up to their actual trip took way too much time. There were moments that felt crucial for the story, but I genuinely think a lot of it could have been cut or condensed. At least 100 pages could have disappeared and I wouldn’t have minded. 

Let’s talk about Aaron Blackford because wow. I love that man. I genuinely wish the book had been from his perspective. He’s so stoic and quiet and I would have loved to get his internal angst and pining on page. He’s sooo sweet and he does far too much for Lina. He’s always thinking about how he can make her happy and bring joy to her life. He sacrifices so much and is so selfless; I just didn’t think Lina deserved it. She willfully ignores his affection for her. She actively disregard his plain language and the sweet things he said because it was easier to hate him. She also shut down multiple conversations that could have cleared the air because she knew what he was about to say. She was incredibly selfish and I ended up not enjoying her character by the end. 

Overall, I liked this book, but it just fell flat for me. I absolutely adored Aaron. He was so swoon-worthy and I wish I had read more from his perspective. He was incredibly dreamy. 

I’m not sure if I’ll read The American Roommate Experiment. I really liked the premise, but I’m not 100% into Armas’ writing style (unfortunately).

Happy reading, friends!

Olivia

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{Review} Go Hex Yourself (Hex #1) by Jessica Clare

Page count: 384

Publisher: Berkley Books

Published on: April 19, 2022 

Genres: Adult romance, paranormal fantasy

Format: paperback - personally purchased

Goodreads synopsis:

When Reggie Johnson answers a job ad in the paper, she's astonished to find that she's not applying to work at her favorite card game, Spellcraft: The Magicking. Instead, she's applying to be an actual familiar for an actual witch. As in, real magic.

The new job has a few perks - great room and board, excellent pay, and she's apprenticing to a powerful witch. Sure, the witch is a bit eccentric. And sure, there was that issue with the black cat Reggie would prefer to forget about. The biggest problem, however, is warlock Ben Magnus, her employer's nephew and the most arrogant, insufferable, maddening man to ever cast a spell.

Reggie absolutely hates him. He's handsome, but he's also bossy and irritating and orders her around. Ben's butt might look great in a crystal ball vision, but that's as far as it goes. But when someone with a vendetta targets the household, she finds herself working with Ben to break a deadly curse. Apparently, when they're not fighting like cats and dogs, things get downright...bewitching.

✨ Rating: 5 stars

Spice level: 🌶🌶🌶 /5

Tropes: grumpy/sunshine; enemies to friends to lovers; forced proximity

CW/TW: financial insecurity, death of parents (historical), toxic & manipulative parents, abandonment, mention of suicide (mention, side character, historical), murder (hist.), blood, knives, blood, death of parents (hist.)

This is probably one of my top favorite books from this year. I absolutely loved this spicy paranormal romance so much. Reggie and Ben had the best chemistry and I loved getting to experience how they fell for each other. This book was giving me cozy mystery, spicy witchy romance, paranormal goodness. Needless to say, it was everything I could have ever wanted.

If you can't tell from the cover, this book is essentially a Reylo fanfiction. I can't say that I'm part of that fandom or ship, but I definitely loved what I got from this book. (To clarify, I really enjoy SW, but it's not one of my main fandoms. I'm definitely knee-deep into the Reylo fandom. I'll leave that to my best friends.) If you're not familiar with Ali Hazelwood and her debut, Love on the Brain, first - wow! Welcome! You should definitely read it! Second, I saw that she raved about this book soon after starting and I have to agree with her! Masterful and everything you could want. 10/10. Love on the Brain is also a Reylo fanfiction that has been published. So I guess maybe I should just be pursuing witchy Reylo fic now? I'd honestly love more.

Anyway!

This book was exactly what I needed in my life. I'm absolutely desperate to get book 2. I need that couple's story so badly. Again, I'm desperate. I won't spoil who it is because I think it's worth reading AAAALL of Go Hex Yourself, getting acquainted with the characters, and being just as excited as I am when you read the synopsis to book 2. This is your push to read GHY. I mean, you can continue reading this review, but I insist! *nudge nudge* Get on it, little chickadee!

I loved Reggie and Ben so freaking much. One of the best parts of this book (for me) was that we got chapters from both of the leads' perspectives. I noticed that many people didn't enjoy Ben's POV, but those chapters made me absolutely feral. He's such a softy and I love his constant angst and devotion to Reggie -- even during the moments where he had no recollection or awareness of it.

Reggie was such a lovely, spunky MC. I usually have a love/hate relationship with characters that are described as "spunky," but I adored how her character was developed. She was strong, and she was a little obtuse, but she worked so hard and she does everything she can with the cards she was dealt. Her backstory is riveting and I loved seeing how she grew from her circumstances. Her parents can choke and Reggie deserves so much better. (Reasonably, yes, these are fictional characters with potential mental health issues, but just from their actions alone -- they should know better! They refuse to change and that's just horrible!)

I really appreciated how the conflict was handled throughout. There were multiple issues that cropped up throughout the story and there were facets of the plot that tied into the overarching conflict, but they weren't overdone. Sometimes it feels like some romance novels just have too many points of conflict that affect the characters. It gets overwhelming and strange and it usually messes with the flow and pacing of the novel. I'm happy to say that this book didn't do this AT ALL.

I also adored the world-building incorporated throughout. I'm obsessed with the magic system and the concepts discussed throughout. Magic users are descended from the children of the gods? That genuinely sounds plausible! Tell me more! I can't wait to learn more in book 2. Gimme gimme.

This book just ticked every box for me and I cannot wait to read more witchy romance from Jessica Clare. I'm unfortunately not her target reader for her other books (cowboys do not do it for me and neither do billionaires typically). I definitely need more witchy romance recs so please comment below if you have any titles you recommend.

Happy reading, friends!

Olivia
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