Liv The Book Nerd: {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

Liv the Book Nerd