Elena ArmasCritiques

Dnf at 85% because I’m bored to death with the repetition and endless inner dialogues.

You had me at "Smug Clark Kent look-alike."! No, really - if a man looks like Henry Cavill, that's all it takes for me to love a book (and if he doesn't look like him I'll just make it work haha).

Catalina Martin must attend her sister's wedding in Spain and has lied to her family about having an American boyfriend. It is expected that she'll bring him along, all she has to do is actually find someone to play the part. That happens to be tall, dark, handsome but brooding Aaron Blackford, her coworker and arch-nemesis. The rest can be predicted.

The film "The Wedding Date" meets the book "The Hating Game" in this fun romantic novel (one very ideal for reading on holiday). Aaron is a goof, a grouch, a sex God and a sweetheart all at once, I love him. I am a huge fan of enemies-to-lovers and fake-dating tropes so this was a perfect read. The pacing was great, I could not put it down (I recall it only took me a few days at the most).

And Lina was so real when she said to Rosie about how the Game of Thrones ending broke her heart! We don't talk about Season 8.

About the Book:
Catalina (Lina) Martin needs to find a fake boyfriend to take to her sister's wedding and to meet her whole family in Spain, and quickly. After lying to her family about her perfect boyfriend she needed to find someone. Aaron Blackford, her partner at work and quite frankly her least favorite person on earth strikes her a deal. Catalina realizes this is her only option and agrees to fake dating Aaron for the trip to Spain. Does Catalina realize there were other motives for him coming? Will her family realize she was lying the whole time?

Review:
I am not going to lie, this book took me FOREVER to finish. I don’t think I love slow burn books. It was really hard to get into in the beginning but I wanted to finish reading it and I’m glad I did. The ending really was beautiful. My favorite parts were definitely in Spain and the ball.

A nice story about a woman going to wedding in Spain and has a problem, she has told her family she has a boyfriend, when she has none. The story is entertaining, there are some issues. If the author told us once she kept repeatedly told us about the blue eyes and sea of blue eyes her date had. Some item seemed repetitive, but I liked the story.

There was so much about this book I didn't like, from start to finish, but I kept reading it. I assumed the sex scenes would be good and I was kind of right? Certainly generous in length of time and vivid description, but filled with -- for me -- total turnoffs that ruined it totally. The excessive amount of calling her baby, for example. Always a weird one to me. And things that are a mix of insulting and concerning to me like "I finally have you were I want you. At my mercy." For me that's not sexy, just an uncomfortable power issue. Anyway. Meh.

The Spanish Love Deception
The Spanish Love Deception, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: Long time on TBR

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Everand
Dates Read: 1/9/24 - 1/14/23
Stars: 4 Stars
Narrator(s): Scarlette Hayes

The Characters:

Catalina “Lena” Martin
Aaron Blackford
Rosey (Catalina’s BFF) The whole Martin Family

The Story:

How the heck Lena could not see this man was head over heels for her is mind boggling. But I guess sometimes things are easier seen from the outside. Love this couple and their chemistry. Lena gave me Becky Bloomwood vibes (IYKYK) in the beginning of the book which I think gave the story a rough start but she quickly evolved into her own character. Aaron is borderline obsessed with Lena and I’m okay with it. The Martin Clan is hilarious and full of love. I had a good time.

cute but just didn't love it probably cause i've read so many similar books

The first third was a little slow, but I enjoyed it overall.

I enjoyed the story of the main characters and the happenings in the small town, but the situation that led her to the small town seemed ridiculous and unrealistic in today's fast paced social media short attention span. The main and small town characters were likable. I liked the slow burn, the getting to know each other, the sassy parental interference. I have enjoyed Elena Armas' other books and look forward to the next!

This book has some pretty divisive ratings, 2s or 5s and not much inbetween. And honestly, I'm not even 100% sure why I liked it, but I did. Maybe more of a 3.5 star read but I went with 4.½

A mere 2 hours into this 13.5 hour audiobook I am calling it. Nope! The things I did not like about the last book are doubled down on here. Adalyn is a fully grown vile brat who overreacts to everything and apologizes for nothing including things that are clearly her fault. (This is exactly how the last book started, with an insane and dangerous overreaction by the heroine.) A falser character has never been written. Honestly, it is all poorly written. The dialogue, the pronouncements of the pompous father, the "banter" is all really awkward. I have just read several really good romances (one of which, Sarah MacLean's new historical, effusively thanks Ms. Armas in the acknowledgments) which might make me less willing to muddle through. I think Ms. Armas and I are not a match. No star rating since I jumped ship so early.

ETA: I went back and skimmed the rest of the book and my thoughts have not changed. I hate these books where the women are assholes and the men are all "go ahead and kick me in the face because I love you." There is nothing sexy about a doormat or a jerk regardless of where on the gender spectrum the players fall.

Holy balls my heart!! The connection both Catalina and Aaron had was absolutely amazing and omg the things Aaron would say to Catalina "You always have my undivided attention, Catalina" and him calming her when she started panicking once they got off the plane in Spain truly made me cry happy tears

There were some very cheesy lines that took me out of the story a bit but this was a very fun novel overall. I loved the dynamic between our main characters. This had three of my favorite tropes, hate to love, fake dating, and there’s only one bed.

I can’t wait to see what the next book has in store for Rosie!

There were some very cheesy lines that took me out of the story a bit but this was a very fun novel overall. I loved the dynamic between our main characters. This had three of my favorite tropes, hate to love, fake dating, and there’s only one bed.

I can’t wait to see what the next book has in store for Rosie!

Bratty adults pretend to date in Spain. These characters were having another bickering match, and then suddenly, it got super sketchy and unnecessarily dirty so quickly that I got whiplash. Also, grammar errors are left, right, and center. And way too many Twilight references.

Romance readers, this is THE BOOK for you… if you love reading almost 300 pages of miscommunication from the POV of a very annoying MC who probably assumes that the world waits for her while she debates herself in a highly self-doubting internal monologue that makes up for over 50 percent of the story.

It almost seemed like the author took extreme measures to make us love the alpha male (Aaron) at the expense of her (Catalina). @althatism told me that there is an abridged version of the book where some raunchy descriptions of Aaron Blackford were cut out. If only they would cut the annoyingness out while they were at it.

Hell, If I had a dollar for every time they make progress with their feelings towards each other only to dump it all in the garbage and go back to pavilion, I would most likely purchase all the copies of TSLD and cut the annoying self talk myself.

Ik, I am being harsh but I am disappointed at the representation of Spanish characters and women in general. I am not saying that we need strong and flawless MC’s to idolise all the time. We deserve some we can relate to as well but WHO SPEAKS TO THEMSELVES SO MUCH WHILE OTHERS ARE WAITING FOR REPLIES???

On the bright side, Catalina often acknowledges that she is stupid and irritating. So, at-least she had that going for her I guess.

Real talk, Aaron’s childhood friend, TJ made a stronger impression on me in the 10 pages that he appeared m.

There were some good things too that prompted me to give it 2 stars. For starters, Aaron Blackford is totally crush worthy and not only because of his looks but with the way he treated Catalina. He remembers the minute details of things she just said in the passing and genuinely cares for her well-being.

The last 150 pages of the book do make it a worthy read in a way. It felt like the author wrote the two parts with completely different mindsets. I was tempted to give it 3 stars but the ending ruined it for me and I settled at 2.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster India for the review copy in exchange for an honest review!

SPOILER AHEAD: They have a romantic and heartfelt conversation outside Aaron’s dying father’s hospital room and for some reason I couldn’t wrap my head around it even though he gets a little better later on.

1 star only for story which gets long winded and boring towards the end. Additional star only for Aaron and his absolute devotion.

parts of this i enjoyed - the concept, the setting, the family dynamics, the falling in love bits, some aspects of the writing. but other parts of this were infuriating. i hated the possessiveness of aaron; he kept saying "your mine" like it was sexy and not creepy. and really the juvenile lack of communication between them - until suddenly they were completely and totally open with each other - was too much. just apologize if you made a mistake and regret doing something. you're an adult. it's stunning that someone can be rude and then regret that for almost two years and, even seeing that person nearly daily at work, never say anything. the communication issues, which had to be central to the plot, also made them behave in ways that didn't fit their characters all the time. the characters that weren't making those ridiculous mistakes for the sake of the story, were great, and fun to be around. this was kind of all over the place though, and so i found it frustrating, while also still fun to listen to.

I didn't love the relationship between Catalina and Aaron. Seemed pretty toxic.½

I need more angst!!!!!!

I closed the book when "milking" was mentioned and I'm glad I did.

Too wordy, stilted language

Listened on audio book and hated the male voice for this. Also felt the plot was lacking for as long as this book is.

Okay i totally flew through this during the last few days but this was SO great. It was wholesome, it was steamy, it was funny and it made me shed a few tears. I need more of Lina and Aaron