The Spanish Love Deception is an Erotic Contemporary Romance novel and debut by Elena Armas. It follows a predicament Catalina Martín has put herself in with a simple white lie caused by a burst of panic that has seemingly spiralled out of control. To save face, she is in desperate need of a ‘fake’ boyfriend to take as her date to her older sister’s wedding in Spain. With no other option and not enough time to find one but the one offered, she begrudgingly accepts to take her grumpy, smug, blue-eyed office enemy, Aaron Blackford. They only need to pretend to be in love for three days; after all, that should not be too difficult to manage.
I was hooked from the very first line of The Spanish Love Deception; it is mentioned in the book, but it reminded me of the film The Wedding Date, which I absolutely adore. In fact, I adored everything about this book; I am now a complete sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope, and adding in fake dating had me absorbed entirely. I will be confessing my undying love for the main characters shortly, but I have to mention that I loved all the film and TV references, everyone I knew and loved myself, so it was enjoyable being able to connect to Lina that way. Especially in Chapter Twenty-Seven, the show is not mentioned, but I knew the exact episode and the beginning narration immediately, which made Lina’s thoughts and emotions hit just right.
I could not tell you if it was her stubbornness or foot-in-mouth moments, but I connected with Lina exactly on page three. There was nothing I disliked about her character, and maybe that is because I see myself in so much of her. Because of that, I was able to connect ultimately to her emotions and thoughts, and although I have not experienced what she has, it still hit me like I had. Lina is strong and funny and outgoing, among so many other wonderful qualities, but you can see that her actions—in regard to her lie and blacklisting Aaron—are only motivated by fear: fear of the opinions of others, fear of her own loneliness, and fear of history repeating itself. My heart ached for her. And that all comes down to the wonderful writing of Elena Armas. After reading The American Roommate Experiment, I was excited to see more of the relationship Lina had with Rosie, and although their communication was not a regular part of the book, it made me laugh. You can see their love and strong bond in those infrequent communications to which you, as a reader, are privy. The relationship Lina has with her family was a joy as well because even though Lina has not been there for a very long time, you can see that the love and closeness of her family are still very transcendent.
I am not joking when I say that I have not stopped talking about Aaron Blackford while reading this book. My Instagram stories have been full of his lines or actions that had me melting, and my family is very much aware of the fact that he is now my new book boyfriend. He is just perfect for Lina. He completely gets her because he listens so closely and watches so intently as if she were the only person in every room. Aaron goes out of his way for any interaction she will give him, just waiting for Lina to realise that she might not hate him at all and realise that he never has. He challenges her because they are very similar and protects her even though he knows she is very capable of doing it herself. It was a joy to see that he was patiently waiting for her to trust him enough to open herself and would continue to do so for as long as it took, even though she had almost eclipsed his world. Aaron Blackford made my heart ache just as much as Lina did with how open he was about his life simply because Lina asked and simply because she showed interest, and he could not help but give it to her. I loved the banter he shared with Lina and how honest he was with her almost constantly, and how he always tried to care for her even when he was losing control. In Lina’s own words, Aaron is ‘So primal, so basic, so hot.’ and more. How could she not fall completely in love with a man like that?
I am rating this book Five out of Five Stars because there was not a single thing I disliked about it; in fact, I have not stopped talking about how Aaron Blackford has my entire heart and I am completely upset that he is fictional. Needless to say, I could not put The Spanish Love Deception down.
After reading the second book Elena Armas had written, I was desperate to read her debut; I know there is some debate as to which is better, and in all honesty, I am not going to choose because I love both for completely different reasons. Therefore, I have fallen for Elena Armas’s writing even more and I am so excited for her next book!
I would recommend this book to those that love a funny heart-warming rom-com, stubborn characters with foot-in-mouth moments, spicy cinnamon roll men, lip-bite-worthy scenes, enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, heavenly epilogues, and perfect HEAs. If you are one of those people, then you need to read this book because it is everything and more.
Favourite Quotes
““It’s as if you want me to beg. Is that something you’d enjoy? Me begging?” His voice sounded so…intimate. Hushed. But it was his next words that scattered my thoughts all over the place. “Is that what this is? You like bringing me to my knees?””
page 205
“A perfect world where life happened neatly and ideally didn’t exist. Life was messy and often hard. It did not wait to for anybody to be ready or to expect the bumps on the road. You just had to grab on to the wheel and steer your way back to your lane.”
page 281
“Beneath all the ways my body kept reacting to every touch and word and craving more and more all the ones to come, there festered in fear.”
page 314
“And wasn’t that part of the mystery of life? Part of what made it breathtakingly exciting? Unexpectedly beautiful? We couldn’t control and tame emotions to our convenience.”
page 371
“My heart- my poor heart- lost in the desperation in his voice. At the unfiltered need I heard.”
page 373
““As if you hadn’t already dismantled me for anybody else. As if I wasn’t at your mercy.””
page 453
Finer Details:
Title: The Spanish Love Deception
Author: Elena Armas
Pages: 468
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publication: 2021
Language: English
Rating: 5/5