Elena Armas is a Spanish write, a self-confessed hopeless romantic, and much to Mr. B's dismay, a proud book hoarder. After years of devouring stries and posting—okay, fine, yelling—about them on her Instagram @thebiblioteque, she has finally taken the leap and started creating some of her own. While she'd never describe herself as adventurous, having a degree in chemical engineering and being the Monica of her gorup of friends, this definitely qualifies as the most exciting yet terrifying project she has ever taken on. She's probably biting her nails as you read this. Heck, she's probably full on freaking out. But don't mind her, that's just a little of—hopefully healthy—stage fright. Regardless, she cannot wait to finally share her dreams with you. To perhaps gush over HEAs together, and who knows, maybe fall a little more in love with love. Because isn't that the point on all of this? You can find Elena at www.authorelenaarmas.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and TikTok. You can find more of my reviews of Elena's work here.
Catalina MartÃn 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 has only 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.
For fans of all of the romance tropes, look no further, because I think The Spanish Love Deception contains them all! There's workplace romance, fake dating, attending someone else's wedding, and enemies-to-lovers, to name a few. They way Armas is able to effortlessly combine them all is almost unseen in the genre—usually, you stick to one or two, and find ways to be creative within that combination. With her debut, Armas is able to combine the genre's most beloved tropes in an effortless way to provide a story that reads like it was made for a movie adaptation. It's just that seamless! It was very easy to get lost in Catalina's fears and anxieties about her sister's wedding; to wonder how the workplace romance will progress once it ends up back in the workplace; and how exactly Aaron and Catalina are going to pull a fake dating scheme off if they supposedly hate each other that much. Watching the entire book unfold made for a very pleasant read, and a very enjoyable reading experience.
Before finishing the book, I had no idea that it was independently published more or less a year before I bought it from my local indie. There were some hints, but I simply didn't pick up on them until the novel's completion, and I did some light insta-stalking of the author (which I feel like she would approve of). What an absolute accomplishment, to dive right in and get your own novel self-published, without waiting for anyone else's say-so? Congratulations to Elena Armas. Knowing that the novel is self-published gives me an entire new respect for some of the storylines—including Catalina's fear over losing her job because of her relationship with Aaron, and the importance of Rosie's friendship to Catalina. Despite knowing this, there was still a drawback, at least personally, that interfered with the reading experience a bit. This has to do with the dialogue feeling stilted due to the lack of contractions. For me, I was distracted by how awkward the dialogue sounded without contractions, and it took me out of the story sometimes. If only there was a way to edit contractions back in, I'm convinced I wouldn't have been taken out of the story so much.
I was really interested in the development of Aaron's character. At work, prior to the wedding, he seems like a mean, grumpy person, with nothing that makes him happy. But when in Spain, his entire character changes. He's able to be more truthful, despite his deceitful position. He opens up more—is it because he's able to spend so much time openly with Catalina, or because the two of them are just away from the office, or maybe both? I really love contemporary romance novels that don't incorporate the male perspective, because I don't think there's any way for a romance novel to feel engrossing when there's a feeling in the back of my head that's saying "this isn't how a man would think." I loved that we didn't get to see what Aaron thought, or how he thought, throughout the novel, because it made Catalina's fears feel exacerbated by the sheer inability to get out of her head and see Aaron's thoughts; and it also allowed that little air of mystery for Aaron's character. His is the one that went through the most growth, and getting to watch that from a sort of backseat was really fascinating to me. I wish we'd have seen a bit more of his character in the epilogue, in the sense that I was very curious to see how much more he'd grown since getting a family back, in a sense, and since he finally did have something that made him happy at night.
For more Elena Armas, find her at www.authorelenaarmas.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and TikTok.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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