The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas #BookReview

A wedding in Spain. The most infuriating man. Three days to convince your family you’re actually in love. .

Catalina Martín desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially when her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiralled out of control. Now everyone she knows – including her ex-boyfriend and his fiancée – will be there.

She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic for her and aid in her deception. NYC to Spain is no short flight and her family won’t be easy to fool. . . But even then, when Aaron Blackford – the 6’4″, blue-eyed pain in the arse – offers to step in, she’s not tempted even for a second. Never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling and insufferable man.

But Catalina is desperate and as the wedding gets closer the more desirable an option Aaron Blackford becomes. . .

I couldn’t help myself indulging in one of my guilty pleasures, an enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating romance.

I’m going to beat you to it so yes, it does show similarities to The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, some might even find it too similar but I don’t get why would they be disappointed, I couldn’t be happier. When I had finished reading that first office romance novel I wanted more of it, much more in fact, and my prayers were answered when I discovered The Spanish Love Deception.

This novel had everything I wished for, the slow burn, the attraction and I adore novels with major love declarations. I want to be cocooned in love and feel the emotion dripping from the pages. Elena Armas certainly made the characters say the right things, they would melt the coldest heart.

The only small fault I found in this novel is that hating is rather a strong word to use this time, Lina shows some hostility towards Aaron but I never sensed any retaliation from his side, or anything that made me dislike him. Okay, maybe the fact that Aaron’s tall was also repeated a few times too many but other than that I had a pretty good image how this Greek God with blue eyes looked like. I fell for his gentle and caring character even more than for his features though. I believe Lina was a bit naive when she didn’t know if what they were saying and doing was fake or real but I could only root for her to open her heart and let Aaron in.

This is an existing trope done so many times over so I’m not going to say it’s the most surprising novel but there were a few special touches to it, like Lina being Spanish (I loved the sparse Spanish spoken here and there) and part of the story taking place with her family in Spain as well as the topic of her experience of having a relationship with someone in a position of power. It explained Lina’s fear and struggle in the present and made me more understanding why she was holding back.

Overall a great debut with a HEA (that scene in Seattle!) that was more emotional than I expected. I’ve put the follow-up The American Roommate on my wishlist to read next!

I received a free ecopy of this novel from the publisher Simon & Schuster via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

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