Book Review | The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas …fun but formulaic romance

June 29th, 2022

Hi Readers!

This book, thanks to booktoker’s, has become a booktok sensation. So much so that even me, someone who once downloaded tiktok for exactly one day before deleting it again, still found out about it., and of course I had to read it!

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

Catalina Martìn 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. . .

This book is one of the many very popular contemporary romances that are hot off the press right now. It feels like everyone has read this, and I’m definitely late to the game, but here’s my two cents anyway.

The Spanish Love Deception is another fun, if slightly formulaic enemies to lovers romance with tropes like fake dating and there’s only one bed to top it all off.

My main problem with this book seems unfair, because no romance in any romance book is a surprise, but I found this one a bit too obvious. But not really just for the reader, but for the characters as well.

Five chapters in, and the main character has already been told by someone that she and her love interest have a thing for each other, and it’s obvious from the minute we meet Aaron that he’s not as uninterested as Lina so frustratingly declares. I knew it was supposed to be obvious, but this felt too much. There’s was no build up, no anticipation for me. All the time I was just thinking to myself, how if she so blind to this?

Their whole relationship feels so weirdly paced, and that goes for the story as well. We only got to the actual synopsis of the book over 50% through, and a lot of the time I was bored, and this is so long, and it dragged so much…

I didn’t find either Aaron or Lina particularly interesting or well-defined characters, by the end of the book I couldn’t tell you one thing about either of them other than Aaron is tall and Lina is Spanish. But the side-characters especially were so bland. Seeing as the sequel follows Lina’s best friend Rosie, I’m not sure I’m interested in reading it. Although the synopsis alone has developed her more than this entire book did.

What’s frustrating is I don’t know if I feel like this because I read The Love Hypothesis first, and whether or not I would feel differently about either of these books had I read them the other way around. I just feel like I have read a better version of this story.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X