Review: The Spanish Love Deception

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (Spanish Love Deception #1)
Published: October 2021

“Being your friend has always been the last thing on my mind.”

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.

I really love Catalina’s character. She is by no means perfect but that’s what makes her increasingly relatable and likeable. She frantically babbles when she’s nervous, hates feeling like a failure and has many a wacky idea – exhibit A: take a fake boyfriend home for her sister’s wedding. It’s rather refreshing to have such an imperfect lead character because even ones who seem imperfect have elements of “perfection” to them, making them ever so slightly less relatable. I didn’t feel this was the case at all. Over the course of the story, we get to see an air of confidence grow in Catalina and it made me rather proud. It wasn’t just confidence in herself but the confidence of being open with others, being open to sharing her feelings, her fears and wishes. It added an extra element of strength to her character which I really enjoyed.

Aaron is a rather confusing one to me. He’s so stoic and distant and very much in his own lane for the majority of the book. He remains a bit of mystery. We see glimpses of a softer interior but then he returns to this almost intimidating and cold persona. I felt a bit disappointed when this happened because I really wanted to see him open up. And then we did and it was amazing to see. We were shown just how much of a heart he has, why he appears so closed off and we get to see just how much he cares. It was strange initially, seeing Aaron more open and less closed off but I quickly grew to like it.

This book is a culmination of things I love. Slow burn – yes. Enemies to lovers – yes. Fake dating – yes. Only one bed? Yes, yes, yes! I really do love it when a book jumps straight into the action but the fact that this was such a delicious slow burn delighted me. The romance, the angst, the longing, the lust … it was all great. The story flowed from one moment to another, never lingering and feeling drawn out. I think my only gripe would be that some moments felt a little rushed or unfinished, leaving me wanting a bit more. The ending was a little like this. Don’t get me wrong, it wraps up the story rather nicely but it left me wanting a bit more of it to really flesh it all out. But, on the whole, this was not a bad book at all!

Overall, The Spanish Love Deception is a culmination of some of my most favourite tropes and knocks it out the park.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5