e-Audio, 14:47:49
Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya & Noah B. Perez
Release Date: September 6, 2022
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: September 2-9, 2022
Spanish Love Deception, #2
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Sexual Content, Panic Attack Disorders, Medical Trauma, Violence, Ableism, Sexism, Adult
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction, Weddings, Friends to Lovers, AdultFrom the author of the Goodreads Choice Award winner The Spanish Love Deception, the eagerly anticipated follow-up featuring Rosie Graham and Lucas Martín, who are forced to share a New York apartment.
Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks.
Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline.
*MY THOUGHTS*
After basically eating up The Spanish Love Deception earlier this year and being mad ONLY because TT oversold the “spice,” I was hella excited to get my hands on this. I really liked the writing style and I really liked Rosie, so I just knew that it was going to be good. But for some reason it just didn’t have the same magic as the other.
The fake dating in this was adorable. I LOVED every one of them. Especially the restaurant one. I didn’t know how she expected to not fall for him. Because Lordt I was falling in love with him and he was definitely fictional. Every last date I told my husband about like, how come we never did something like this? That second and third date were enough for me to legit swoon. Luke is definitely book boyfriend material. Because the cooking?! Call me weird but I have a THING with food lol And with men that cook, I love that even more. Buttttt yes it was good, but it just took so long to get there.
When I read TSLD I was hooked to the audiobook. I devoured it. Maybe because I was expecting the “spice” that everyone promised was in it. This may make me sound weird, but I have to say I was looking for it. But it really ended up being the book that made me question the “spice levels” of recommendations I got from other people. (It also made me think about the other types of books I read because TSLD was not even close to 4 lmao) But because of this, I wasn’t upset this time around. Were there some hot scenes? (The shower?!) Yes. But because I was better prepared this time I wasn’t nearly as disappointed. So it didn’t cause me to rate it any different this time around.
The writing style was ok, but good grief, it was like every trope ever was in this book. Fake Dating, Slow Burn, Forced Proximity, and I’m sure I’m forgetting one of them. I missed the writing style she had when she self-published. She was free to do whatever she wanted and I just felt that she didn’t get to do that in this one. Maybe it’s just me being picky, but I just thought this could have been better.
So I started this as a Netgalley e-ARC, but I finished it via audio. To be honest with you, I wanted to go back to the e-book. The narrator for Rosie was fine, but Luke’s? He had this weird whispery voice and it kept making me laugh vs swoon. Granted there were some times that I liked his whispering (like the times he was speaking Spanish…?!) but for the most part it was just weird. I don’t know how else to explain it. The rest of the production was ok. The final production wasn’t anything I would write home about, but just ok.
Although this was on my most anticipated list for this year, it unfortunately didn’t measure up to what I had in mind. Yes it had all the romance I was looking for, but not the smexy. And yes it had all the good writing, but it felt like she had all the restrictions. Even now I’m still straddling the line of what to rate it, so I went with my gut. So go forth and read it and let me know what you think!
Overall, I give this
