Review // The Spanish Love Deception

 

The Spanish Love Deception - Elena Armas

Published: 23rd February 2021

Source: Purchased

Genre: Contemporary Romance

My Rating:

The first book I read in 2023 is to be my first review of the year and also my first review in who knows how long. Thank god my first read was such a winner because I’d hate to be posting with negativity when I’ve only just come back.

 

I admit I did start The Spanish Love Deception expecting to DNF so I suppose I started my year with a bit of a negative mindset but I was wrong. I’m always happy when that happens. I’d bought it a while back after it had appeared in my Twitter timeline and I’m sure I saw Nick raving about it. I mean, it’s fake dating so it was obviously an insta-buy for me in that way but the first time I attempted to read it last year I’d put it down as that first chapter did nothing for me. I figured it was a mood reading thing as I did buy it during the slump season of 2022. But, again, when I started it this year those first few chapters were rough and I had my doubts. Once things got going though I soon got what the hype was about. So I guess you could say there were a few pacing issues but honestly once you get invested in Lina and Aaron’s romance you won’t notice it.

 

As a romance novel told from a single POV, I did find I struggled a little with the character of Aaron. I loved him and it was obvious from the start he had feelings for Lina, she was one oblivious woman when it came to men, but I did feel he could have been developed slightly more from the beginning as he only became a fully fleshed human within the second part of the book. Until then he was a cardboard cutout of a romance hero. Maybe this was deliberate to show Lina also began to see him as a real person and not some fictional antagonist in her life but it meant I struggled to feel fully invested in this book until later on. That could have been a me issue, it just made me feel a little less invested in their romance and is probably why I struggled to get into the book. I did really enjoy the slow burn of this romance. Lina was always going to take a while to realise Aaron’s feelings for her were anything but pretend so it was fun seeing the ways she twisted things in her head to fit the narrative until she finally realised she was an idiot.

 

One thing which made me want to keep reading, despite the rough couple of chapters, was the casual sexism Lina had to suffer through at work. I’ve worked in an office for a while now and seen situations like this play out, not to the level seen in the book but those casual moments of sexism which make your blood boil. Like female members of staff being asked to make coffee for a group of managers when there were men in the room too and the manager's office was nearer to the kitchen and they could have done it then damn selves. It was infuriating seeing Alina go through that at the start and it definitely helped endear her to me because I wanted to see her do well. I admit I did want to see a bit more of her work situation than we got but since a lot of the book takes place in Spain I could see why that wouldn’t exactly fit well with the rest of the story.

 

This was a new to me, but this certainly won’t be the last book I read from her. Luckily for me, it took me so long to get to reading this release she has another book out already so that’s going on the shopping list. First, I need to try and get through a few more books but I can’t wait to read The American Roommate Experiment, fingers crossed it works just as well for me.

 

Have you read The Spanish Love Deception? I'm sure I'm the last one to get to it, what did you think? And what are your favourite fake relationship romances?