Introduction
The Spanish Love Deception, written by Elena Armas, was published on February 23rd, 2021, by the Simon and Schuster publishing company. My friends have been begging me to read this one for ages, so on one of my too-often trips to Barnes and Noble, I decided to cave and see what the hype was about, and I’m glad I did. Fans of the romance genre - specifically the enemies to lovers and fake dating tropes - will love this book. The Thoughts section of this review does contain spoilers, so if you haven’t had the chance to read this one yet, I recommend starting there!
If you want to learn more about Elena Armas and her future work, you can follow this link to her website: https://www.authorelenaarmas.com/, and follow her on social media @thebibliotheque.
Plot
This first-person romance follows Catalina, a single businesswoman, as she is forced to accept her archrival’s offer to be her fake date to her sister’s wedding. She does this to avoid seeming as though she’s hung-up on her ex - who just so happens to be the groom’s brother.
Thoughts
One of the first things I made note of in this book was the immediate misogyny and sexism found within Catalina’s workplace. Gerald is the main contributor to this, and while Aaron and Hector disagree with his viewpoints of women’s roles in the home and workplace, they do nothing initially to challenge him and allow Lina to fend for herself. Even Rosie, Lina’s best friend at work, does nothing to help her in the meetings, both of them trying to take it in stride because that’s just how it is. Hector and Rosie are both obviously well intentioned (as is Aaron, but less obviously so), but it does make their work situation more difficult. It sheds light on an unfortunate reality. A reality that only becomes more apparent later on when Aaron gets promoted to be Lina’s supervisor, and though they try to continue a relationship that had been building over the course of the book, the shame Lina’s coworkers make her feel causes her to cut things off. It eventually does work out due to Aaron’s interference (and a trip to HR), and Gerald does get fired for his inappropriate and unprofessional conduct towards his female coworkers, but not before the point can be driven home that in situations like these, women are often treated worse and judge more harshly than the men involved.
Though Rosie isn’t the most helpful when it comes to combating Gerald’s hostility and overt sexism, she does help Lina in other ways, specifically by throwing her under the bus with Aaron. Rosie encourages Lina to take Aaron up on his offer to be her date to her sister’s wedding. The point of this is to make herself look less pathetic in front of her family, as her ex-fiancé - who happens to be the groom’s brother - will be at the wedding with his new wife. Aaron makes this offer immediately after overhearing Lina complaining to Rosie about how pathetic and hung-up she would look if she were to show up without a date, and though she resists for as long as she can - as he points out - she doesn’t have any other options. Her slow fall into loving him was cute, and I especially like that she wasn’t in complete denial. She resisted it, and she didn’t want to be in love with him, but she also acknowledged that she was falling for him. The enemies to lovers trope is one of my favorites, and I especially like the inevitable scene where the protagonist gets to hear the other person’s account of how they met. This one was relatively predictable, but it was done well, so I enjoyed it.
Catalina’s inner dialogue is wonderful. She has a very silly and charismatic personality that really shines through her narration. I really enjoyed the relationships between her and her family members. Her cousin who likes to snoop, the awkward cold she feels from her ex, and her sister who doubles as a built-in best friend. Each relationship was well developed and dynamic, which was especially impressive because not much of the book is actually set in Spain for the duration of the wedding. That brings me to the pacing. It’s not often I mention the pacing of a book unless it was notably good or bad, and this one was really good. It stayed consistently interesting without feeling overly dramatic or forced. The budding romance is of course the focal point, and I like the slow burn enemies to lovers. Each author incorporates varying levels of romance to their books, and this one was shockingly spicy. It was well written and tasteful, but I was definitely not expecting it.
Between the good pacing, important themes surrounding women in the workplace, and the character development and relationships, I’m going to rate The Spanish Love Deception a 9.5/10.
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