The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

A TikTok sensation, this rom-com about a young woman who agrees to fake date a colleague and bring him to her sister’s wedding has “everything you could want in a romance” (Helen Hoang, New York Times bestselling author). Catalina Martín desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially since her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiralled 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.

2/5 stars

My brain is telling me to give this book three stars, because it really wasn't that bad and I'm probably being overdramatic, by my heart wants to give it two stars just because Aaron Blackford creeped me out so much. Just urgh. No. I hate possessive men.

I'm gonna sleep on this and rate it tomorrow.

Actually, nevermind. I'm not sleeping on it. I'm giving it two stars bc it's been 20 minutes my hatred for Aaron is growing uncontrollably.

Most of the time when it comes to romance books, I don't love them and I 100% know that I'm the problem. Romance books aren't for me. But this is different. As I sit and stew on what I read, I think I'm actually right this time when I say this isn't great.

Lina literally gave us an entire page about how she hates being called Catalina and what did Aaron call her the entire time? That man definitely had the audacity. If someone did that to me, since I also go by a shorted version of my name because I literally despise myactual first name, his ass would have been left at the airport. I would not be getting in a giant flying tube with that man. Please respect my basic requests.

And also the chemistry? Where was it? Nobody told me this was gonna be a Where's Waldo book. We literally went to “he hates me. I know it” to him asking Lina how wet she is for him in like .02578 seconds. Just urgh that's so awkward.

And like maybe I should judge bc I literally don't feel sexual attraction but he was so possessive? I returned the ebook to Amazon already bc I wasn't wasting $10 on this so I can't find exact moments to support my claim, but like he creeped me out. He seemed so demanding. Very much like “you're mine.
Everyone seems to skip over that? And small things like not telling her what the fundraiser was for just seemed very

dnf @ pg 8

i could not do it y'all i just COULD NOT... this book was very much not written for me in any sense, from the trope it employs to the way it's written. i might just be too old for this book (at the ancient age of 25) or my sense of humor leans towards the dry side too much

but i can't do it. like you couldn't even pay me goodbye

It's [b:The Hating Game 25883848 The Hating Game Sally Thorne https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1467138679l/25883848.SY75.jpg 45762345] and [b:The Love Hypothesis 56732449 The Love Hypothesis Ali Hazelwood https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611937942l/56732449.SX50.jpg 88674377] combined together, albeit a bit draggy at the beginning. This is, after all, a romance book, so predictability is, well, expected. But you just want to see how everything unfold for the main characters, how they come to their senses, how ultimately love will conquer all.It has got all the right ingredients for a rom-com – cute, perky (God, I hate that word!), adorable female character and of course the tall, dashing, handsome, Greek-god like, smart, considerate, romantic bla bla bla male character, chaotic family (with nosy relatives), the classic damsel-in-distress trope, the jerk of an ex, and so on.A promising debut novel.