The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

e-Audio,  14:33:01
Narrated by: Scarlette Hayes 
Release Date: December 2, 2021
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: January 29- February 1, 2022
Companion to The American Roommate Experience
Source: Library’s Libby App
TW: Sexism in the Workplace, Verbal Harassment
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Adult, Enemies to Lovers, Workplace Romance, Fake Dating

  A wedding. A trip to Spain. The most infuriating man. And three days of pretending. Or in other words, a plan that will never work.
     Catalina Martín, finally, not single. Her family is happy to announce that she will bring her American boyfriend to her sister’s wedding. Everyone is invited to come and witness the most magical event of the year.
     That would certainly be tomorrow’s headline in the local newspaper of the small Spanish town I came from. Or the epitaph on my tombstone, seeing the turn my life had taken in the span of a phone call.
     Four weeks wasn’t a lot of time to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic–from NYC and all the way to Spain–for a wedding. Let alone, someone eager to play along my charade. But that didn’t mean I was desperate enough to bring the 6’4 blue eyed pain in my ass standing before me.
     Aaron Blackford. The man whose main occupation was making my blood boil had just offered himself to be my date. Right after inserting his nose in my business, calling me delusional, and calling himself my best option. See? Outrageous. Aggravating. Blood boiling. And much to my total despair, also right. Which left me with a surly and extra large dilemma in my hands. Was it worth the suffering to bring my colleague and bane of my existence as my fake boyfriend to my sister’s wedding? Or was I better off coming clean and facing the consequences of my panic induced lie?
     Like my abuela would say, que dios nos pille confesados.
     The Spanish Love Deception is an enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating romantic comedy. Perfect for those looking for a steamy slow-burn romance with the sweetest Happily Ever After.

*MY THOUGHTS*

When I first found out about The Spanish Love Deception, I had just made my TikTok account and EVERYONE was talking about it. So naturally, since it had an illustrated cover and it was a diverse contemporary romance, I bought it. Listen, I will never turn them away ok. I had to. So once I secured it, I put it on my shelf. And that’s where it stayed. (Why am I like this?!) But then my job got the e-audio once Simon and Schuster picked it up, and I knew it was finally time.

Catalina’s sister is getting married. And the groom is brother to the best man. Who also happens to be her ex. Her ex who’s now with someone else. Now, Catalina refuses to go all the way to Spain to this wedding alone. And man, who could blame her? But at this point, the wedding is a few weeks away, and she’s still single. But for some reason, she tells her family she has a boyfriend that she’s bringing and they will love him… Enter Aaron Blackford. The guy from work who she’s deemed a total asshole. He’s places himself in her business and said he’d be her date. But it has to be anyone but him right?

There was a lot of good in this, but there was also some personal preference things that bothered me about this. For example, this solidified that I don’t like enemies to lovers. They argued about the same things 651874614 times. She justified that she didn’t like him 45135451 times. Even though everyone but her knows she does. It was just getting annoying at some places. I wanted to smack them. Like a good chunk of the beginning could have been cut out if they weren’t continuously fighting over whether or not she should let him go with her. But of course, that’s just me. If you’re someone who likes enemies to lovers, this probably won’t bother you as much as it did me.

The other thing I had a problem with was the spice factor? Everyone on TikTok kept calling it a super spicy book and I think that’s why I bought it. Yes, there were some scenes that made me blush a little bit, but that was after I was like 60% in the book. The people on TT were forgetting to mention that it might be a little spicy (I gave it a 3) but it’s definitely a slow burn too. Now again, this is my personal preference. The way people were talking, I was expecting this to be a book where there is a scene at 16% like I read in a book late last year. It didn’t make me take anything away from the rating because of this, but it was just annoying lol I already don’t care for enemies to lovers, so I found myself anticipating when they weren’t going to be enemies anymore.

Other than that, I did really enjoy this. I got sucked into Armas’ writing many times while I was reading. I once started a load of laundry at midnight so I could have a reason to listen to it while I did it. For the world to be contemporary, she did an awesome job showing us what certain scenes were like. Like the gala, and the soccer game, and the broken bed thing lol I did want to see more of Spain, but that was only because I had never been and wanted any glimpse I could get.

I did understand what everyone has been saying about Mr. Blackford tho. It was obvious from the start how he felt about Catalina and I wanted to yell at her for being so dumb. How can you not tell this man wants you?! lol But I enjoyed watching him pine for her. And man, the man likes, animated movies?! Yeah I clutched my pearls at that one. lol (Fun fact I did the same when I first started dating my husband. We went to the movies and it was an animated one at my request. I couldn’t believe he said ok and I was clutching my pearls lol) As for Catalina tho…….. Yeah, she was not my favorite. She was stubborn to the point of, if I were in that situation, I would have said, “Aight. Bye.” lol maybe it’s just because my patience is thin, but it was annoying. And she kept that one thing over his head for so long. Like I get why it irked you when it happened, but I don’t think it was enough to carry on for a year. It was just annoying lol (Can you tell I really don’t like enemies to lovers?) But Rosie doesn’t seem like that. She balanced her out. [Which is another reason why I can’t wait for TARE. ] But the two of them together?! When it finally happened, it was HOT. The romance itself lived up to the hype. And the epilogue?! ARMAS, WHY YOU LEAVE US HANGING LIKE THAT? Please tell me you will tell us what happens in TARE! I need to know lol

Last but not least, the narrator, Scarlette Hayes, did an awesome job with this story. Maybe she was also the reason I got so hooked in to the story? I really felt like this was Catalina’s voice and that made me enjoy it even more. She was able to change her voices and distinguish between her sisters, her mom, her abuela, her ex, and some others. I thought that was pretty cool because with some narrators you can tell that it’s the same person with each voice, but with Hayes, she had a distinguishing characteristic for everyone. She did a fantastic job.

I guess the moral of this story is to not get too roped in by the hype. (And don’t judge a book by it’s cover lol) Still read it so you can form your own opinion tho. (Especially if you’re just nosey and want to know what the fuss is about.) But anyway, how am I supposed to wait until August now? I guess I can put my bid in now…. Hey S&S, if you see this, I just recently finished the audio for TSLD so it’s fresh in my mind, and I’ll be happy to review the audio of TARE…. Too soon? Probably. lol

Overall, I give this