The Spanish Love Deception

(2.5 stars) I'm rounding this up to 3 stars only because this is the author's debut and, although derivative and trope-ridden, doesn't have many vocabulary and grammar mistakes, which is one of my personal bugaboos. But as far as characters and plot, it's very been there, done that. And, let's face it, much too long for the amount of actual plot.It' s an office hate-to-love/fake boyfriend rom-com. I think I've read enough of those to last me for a while. One of the better ones with a similar plot was Sally Thorne's THE HATING GAME from a few years back and Armas' story feels very copycat-ish without being as good. The only reason I decided to download this one was the Spanish connection, but that, unfortunately, turned out to be almost a nothing burger.Speaking of Spanish, somebody someday is going to have to figure out how to transpose to paper the flavor of speaking in another language to books and dialogue written in English without everybody sounding like that Cuban-American family in the old sit com QUE PASA, U.S.A (Am I the only one who remembers it?) or Dora the Explorer. You know, throwing in words or phrases in Spanish in a conversation just to make it feel "authentic." So far I haven't read a single book that doesn't annoy me with the way this is done, Armas' included. Inserting a SI instead of "yes" or some such does not turn it into Spanish. (Okay, I will admit that every once in a while Armas did a better job than other writers I've read, because of using complete sentences in Spanish but still...)But that's not all that annoyed me about the book. There are also the characters. Catalina's family is classic central casting Hispanic/Spanish and no one stands out as being anything but representative of a non-American culture. Yet nothing that happened in Spain was anything that couldn't have happened at a family reunion/wedding anywhere, other than the food and drink involved being slightly different and the people perhaps more exuberant than some of our more stuffy "americanos." (I'm married to a South American and lived for many years in S.A. surrounded by his family and friends and found that generally to be the case. People are people everywhere and life is life everywhere, as long as we're not talking about a totalitarian country or a country at war.)But, wait. I'm not done complaining. Let's forget about culture/country contrasts and comparisons. Let's talk about the romantic relationship here. Jeez Louise, talk about Failures to Communicate and Horridly Stubborn Behavior that goes on for much too long. Apparently attracted to each other from the get-go, these co-workers protect themselves by sending out indifference and/or hate vibes. Lina, in particular, is unpleasant and rude to Aaron because of one little thing she overheard in the first couple of days he joined the company. And Aaron, who understands him? Not me. He hides his attraction with a cold professional attitude towards Lina. Seems to me that if you like somebody, let them know. Don't act like a cold, indifferent jerk.And when Aaron finally does decide to try to show his feelings to Lina, she can't believe it's real. And a few times it's hard to blame her because he could be a bit inconsistent. Open and warm sometimes. Closed off and cold at others. At least Lina was consistently a pain in the patootie. But, not to worry, eventually these two do open up to each other and romance lovers may get all melty about it, but I thought it took way too long and made me read way too many pages with way too much circular repetition in their interactions.

This book could have been enjoyable if someone had helped the author cut about 200 pages of it. Instead we need to go through each conversation at least three times.First, have conversation, then listen to Lina recap it 1-2 times in her head, then have conversation again. Possibly follow up with “he can’t possibly have said-“ then recap the conversation again.Painful. And the amount of time Lina spends blah blah blahing random tangents and Aaron spends silently staring into space after being asked direct questions... how do these two people function in the world?It had its flashes of charm and charisma, and if we could reduce the book by about a third, I would probably have quite liked it.

Updated review *spoilers*:This book was about 100 pages too long. I ended up skipping through a lot of pages, especially towards the end. The main blocker for the two of them getting together was the fact that she dated her professor and her peers started whispers that she was sleeping her way to the head of her class. It ruined her life and she left Spain and moved to America.So....idk. Like...okayyyy. But really, that seems quite dramatic. And overall, the main female character was epically dramatic. It was actually very charming in the beginning but got very boring and annoying to read toward the end.That said, the tension was AMAZING and I had a few teary eyed moments in the early parts of the book where I really thought that the author did a great job of making you want them to be together.Was it an original story? No. Did it offer anything new to the genre? Not really. The Spain connection was nice. Traveling to a new city was fun. But the references to Ella Maise's Marriage for One really did this story no favors because it constantly made me think of that book, which is the best book in the marriage of convenience trope, in my opinion, and far FAR far far far superior to this book here.Last point – why was everyone else promoted ahead of the main female character? It kind of irked me that he became her boss and her bff also was promoted but she just stayed at the same level. Is she bad at her job? And the whole sexual harassment angle was actually nice to read about because it's a thing women in the workplace have to deal with all the time, but I did NOT like the Heroes response to it in the opening chapter. Essentially putting the onus on her for having to deal with it.Overall assessment: am I glad I read this book? eh. would I recommend it? probably not. If you're looking for a great marriage of convenience, go find Ella Maise.****So I will update this review as I finish but I just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out if this author meant to reference Ella maise marriage for one here or if this is some kind of wild coincidence or maybe this is actually EMs pen name or they belong in the same universe and there’s an imprint going on. I can’t answer most of these questions still but the author does mention an Ella in her acknowledgements and there’s an EM review quote on Amazon which probably means it’s with EMs consent so not so creepy.Overall though. Note to the author. Very distracting for me as a reader.

This was a great debut romance novel. I am beyond excited to read the next book in the series. ⁠⁠I am a complete SUCKERRR for anything romcom, how can you not be? They are fun and highly enjoyable and TSLD is definitely now up there with some of my all-time favourites. ⁠⁠TSLD starts of with Lina desperately needing a date for her sister's wedding back home in Spain, she has two problems; 1) she told her family she was bringing her boyfriend butttt she does not have one. 2) Her ex just happens to be the brother to the groom AND the best mate. This Ex is also a part of her reasoning for wanting to start fresh in America! ⁠⁠Enter: Aaron. ⁠⁠pain in her arse, stuck up, Aaron. Lina annoying work colleague. Yes, he is gorgeous but that doesn't matter when he is constantly making your life hell. Aaron offers, insists in fact, to help Lina out, by posing as her date for the wedding... what could go wrong?! ⁠⁠This has some of my all-time favourite romance tropes and honestly, Elena NAILED the sexual tension between Lina and Aaron. OH MY GOD, It was killing me, I couldn't wait to finish this book so I may have read it in less than a day hahaha BUT it was totally worth it! ⁠⁠GO BUY THIS BOOK for some much-needed escapism.

gebte comecei no sábado à tarde, fui dormir 2 horas da manhã, e hj (domingo) já terminei.meu sonho viver um romance desse, obrigada autora, por escrever algo que eu nem sabia que precisava ler.

Nossa... que decepção!! Que livro chato!!!Muito, muito, muito lento!!! Catalina é muito chata!!! Ela passa dos limites da teimosia.Tinha tudo pra ser bom. Mas ficou muito focado no quanto a cabeça da Lina consegue pensar em tantas coisas ao mesmo tempo.Acho que abusou do limite. Teve horas que o diálogo quebrava em várias páginas, exemplo: ele me perguntou tal coisa: "Lina..." e o livro enrola duas páginas com a ideias viajantes da cabeça da Lina para depois continuar: "Sim - respondi".É loucura!! Isso aconteceu demais e deixou o slow burn um completo chato burn!!!Nossa... que tristeza de livros assim.

This was a book that I bought purely because it was all over Instagram, but I am so glad I did. After it was compared to The Hating Game, one of my all time favourites, I instantly had high expectations and Spanish Love Deception met every single one.This book is about Catalina Martin who moved from a small Spanish town to New York City. When she tells her Mother she will be bringing her American boyfriend home to her sisters wedding, there is only one small problem... She doesn't actually have an American Boyfriend. This is where Aaron Blackford enters. Aaron, despite being Catalina's work enemy offers to be her fake boyfriend for the trip. Realising she has no other choice, she takes him up on the offer. One event after another, it becomes clear hate isn't the only emotion at play here. Will these two enemies be able to convince her family they are happily in love, without actually falling in love?I loved everything about this book. It was so well written, the plot was so good. I loved how Elena revealed small bits and pieces throughout the entire book that made me love Aaron more and more. I can absolutely see why this has blown up on instagram, if you haven't already read this then I would recommend you do! Overall it is a very funny and sweet enemies to lovers, slow burn book. I can't wait to see what Elena Armas comes out with next.

I've heard a lot about this book and it is as great as everyone says! A cheesy but cute romantic story with a little bit of spice.It is predictable but i like that! You know what's going to happen but then there are a few obstacles thrown in the way which kept me reading.I loved all the Spanish... the whole book reminded me of Jane The Virgin!! The characters were written well and to be honest, i would read this whole book again if it was in Aaron's point of view!