Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Ilusão de Amor à Espanhola

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Ilusão de Amor à Espanhola by Elena Armas

13 reviews

navyaaa's review against another edition

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book infuriated the heck out of me. I have so many thoughts. When you read the description of this book you think, huh sounds like a cute little rom-com that will give us great characters and whatnot. I tell you that instead I got annoyed. Really annoyed. This is going to take a while.

First, The plot. No depth. I knew about 100 pages in how this book was going to end. Not even a little suspense was instilled. there was literally zero angst and tension or whatever. For me this was not a slow burn, this was a book being dragged out for about 200+ pages with zero plot or character development. Instead of being a brooding person if Aaron asked Lina out, this book would've ended like 20 pages in.

Second, The characters. One of the main reasons people seem to love this book is the character, Aaron Blackford. I understand why but we'll get into that a little later. Let's talk about Catalina first. When I started reading the book the beginning was cute. The typical fiery female main character who won't take shit from anyone. And then I hit the 100-page mark. I just wanted to hold Lina by the shoulders and shake some sense into her little brain because it was not working. She is blind as a bat when Aaron is like a heart-eyed emoji behind her. Lina could go hit a child and Aaron would say the child deserved it. The worst part is, Lina herself is like a 14-year-old kid. And no offense to anyone who relates to her but god I hated her as the book progressed. Then comes Aaron. this man has a tragic past and is googly-eyed for Lina from sentence one. I hated how the author did not even bother to give us the element of suspense with this. He is remembering little things about Lina that he has no business knowing. It's cute in the beginning and then it gets annoying and creepy. They have no chemistry or tension or any kind of real build-up to the things that go down between them. the side characters have literally no significance but to tell Lina how Aaron is perfect.

They go to Spain for Lina's sister's wedding which is why this book happens. Guess what? we don't get to see the wedding at all. AT ALL. And also, Aaron tells Lina the cheesiest most romantic lines and Lina just goes, This is not real he is just pretending.

Third, The writing. Super descriptive mediocre writing. but then the smut kicked in. God, it was so sudden. them being lovey-dovey was cute to read but the smut just made me cringe. except for the smut and extra extra long inner monologues of a woman who is immature and holding a grudge over the littlest thing, it wasn't all that bad. The problem for me kicked in when I started reading why Lina is so traumatized over relationships. It kind of negated it and disconnected Lina even further for me. It was super icky.

Also, compared to Aaron's tragic past, Lina's problems seem superficial to the reader. Especially after the cancer bomb was dropped twice on Aaron. Even the misogyny seems superficial.

This book was two-dimensional with a literally perfect male protagonist (it's actually a little creepy how this guy has no flaws at all.) and a literally annoying female protagonist. I see why people are obsessed with Aaron's character and I myself agree with people. The rest of the book? in my opinion, was about 250 pages too long and could've been written better. But, if you loved this book, good for you. For me, this is one of my worst-rated books and it's a bummer because I get the Aaron Blackford hype. If the author writes a book with Aaron and a female character that he actually deserves and one that deserves him, I would love that.

Content Warnings

bhavya_is_reading's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

“Mamá had taught me better than to leave things hanging over my head. Ignoring and waiting for them to go away on their own wasn’t the smart thing to do. Because they didn’t. Sooner or later—and just when you least expected them to—they’d fall off right on top of you, and chances were, they’d take you down with them if you let them.”

~ Rating- 1 star ~

Content/ Trigger Warnings- Sexism & Misogyny, Dieting & restrictive eating (causes mc to faint as she doesn’t eat for a day, possible eating disorder), Grief & loss depiction, Death of a parent, Fainting, Adult- Minor relationship (recounted), Panic Attacks (on page), Alcohol, Cancer, Bullying, Grief, Swearing & Cursing, Sexual Content (in detail)

Note- I have tried to include all the content warnings that I noticed, but there is no guarantee that I haven’t missed something.

-No Mention of these in the review-

This review has mild spoilers. It is my subjective option. Feel free to disagree and comment respectfully! Hate comments will not be acknowledged and will be blocked.

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"One didn’t need to be young for their life to change in the span of an hour, a handful of minutes, or nothing more than a few seconds. Life changed constantly, wickedly fast and terribly slow, when one least expected it to or after a long time of chasing that change. Life could be turned around, inside out, backward and forward, or it could even transform into something else entirely. And it happened regardless of age, but most importantly, it didn’t care for time. Life-altering moments spanned from a few seconds to decades. It was part of the magic of life. Of living."

The Spanish love Deception is a book everyone must have heard about at least once this year (unless you are living under a rock, or are staying away from romance altogether, in which case good for you, and forget you saw this review). This book was released in February 2021, but already has 81,378 ratings and an average of 4.21 star rating (as of November 2021) on GoodReads, which is pretty high, especially for a new release. The Spanish Love Deception was showing up on my feed almost every day, which is why I picked it up in August (yes I know my review is going up 3 months later, don't call me out). I read it through kindle unlimited when I was going through stressful times, so it was a good break, but that's unfortunately all the praise I have.

So, was The Spanish Love Deception good? Well, according to everyone it was wonderful and the best book they ever read. According to me? I don't know. Majority clearly wins, so ignore my opinion and give this book a read if you want to. I didn't like The Spanish Love Deception. Actually, that's a lie. I was entertained while reading the book, but there's nothing about it that made me want to give it more than 1 star. I know most people are expecting me to rant and write a long review as to why I hated it, but frankly I don't care about this book enough to do that. I know that sounds harsh, but when I sat down to write this review I had so idea what to say. Still, I'll try. I'm lying again, this is very long and I've hit the character limit.

"Because life wasn’t ideal. It turned and bent. It spun you out for a minute and swung you right back in the next."

The Spanish Love Deception was... ok? It's almost 500 page contemporary. I even hesitate to read fantasy books that are so long. Its not because I find long books boring, I've willingly read books as long as Game of Thrones and then I gave it 2 stars, but that's besides the point, so long books aren't an instant turn-off for me.

My issue is that if I am going to sit through and read such a long book, it should be worth the read. There should be angst and yearning. There should be character development but the characters have to have a personality to begin with for that. There should be chemistry between the characters. There should be a proper plotline. The side-characters should be well developed, and not props that the MC only remembers when they need something. The Spanish Love Deception, according to me, had none of this, it was a book that fell flat on most things that make a good book. But I am in the minority, keep that in mind. I will acknowledge that I am not exactly the target audience, as I am a teenager and this is an adult romance, but since romance is one of my favourite genres, I guess that doesn't apply.

So, let's break this down.

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“We just try our best, even when, often, our best is not good enough. Blaming yourself now is not going to change the past; it’s only going to take away energy that you should be spending in the present. And look where you are now; you are here. It’s not too late.”

Catalina Martìn needs a fake date in a month for her sisters wedding in Spain. Catalina lied to her family and told them she has a boyfriend, as the groom's brother is her ex and she does not want to go alone and face everyone's judgment. Her coworker, Aaron Blackford, offers himself up as her fake date for her sister's wedding. The only problem? Aaron is her nemesis and number one enemy. Will Catalina get over her ego and go to Spain with Aaron, the boy who is obviously in love with her and spare us some unnecessary torture? Will Catalina be able to overcome her inner prejudices and go to Spain with Aaron, and maybe find love along the way? Of course she will, that's how romance books work.

“Only the truth. The reality. We weren’t friends. We barely tolerated each other, Aaron Blackford and I. We were spiteful to each other, pointed out each other’s mistakes, criticized how differently we worked, thought, and lived. We condemned our differences. (...) I wasn’t the only one driving along Hate Boulevard. It was a two-way road. Not only that, but it had actually been him, the one causing our fallout. I hadn’t started this feud between us. So, why? Why was he pretending to offer me help, and why would I humor him by even considering it?”

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➼The plot

The plot of The Spanish Love Deception was... not that great. It dragged a lot, the pacing was quite off, and it is a very typical kind of romance book. Basically, writing a 500 page book just about a love-story is not enough. There has to be something more.

"Because Aaron was right. Finding a date in such a short amount of time was perhaps a little optimistic. Believing I’d find someone to pretend to be my made-up boyfriend was probably delusional. But accepting that Aaron was my only choice and taking him up on his offer? That was straight-up insanity."

The first half of the book dragged a lot. It takes about 200 pages for Lina to agree to go to Spain with Aron for her sisters wedding, and that's not a spoiler as its obvious from the burb. Then when they go to Spain, we don't get to see the wedding. Yes, you heard that right. WE DO NOT GET TO SEE THE WEDDING. The whole purpose they were going to Spain was the wedding, and we get scenes before and after, but not the wedding itself. That was disheartening, as one of the reasons I was so excited to read this was so I could read a wedding set in Spain. I decided not to tag this as a spoiler, because I don't want people to have wrong expectations before going into the book, like I did.

"Your family loves you, and that’s a kind of bond you can’t force. It’s a kind of love one doesn’t find anywhere else. It can be overwhelming, but that’s only because it’s always honest."

Apart from all this, the plot entirely lacks depth. While it explores some social issues like facing discrimination at work as a women from STEM, being in a toxic relationship in the past etc well, it falls flat due to the fact that there's nothing going on except the romance. This would have been fine had the book been shorter, but the higher the page count the more I am expecting from a book.

➼The writing

The writing for this book was ok. I liked quite a lot of quotes, but I wasn't a fan of the way the characters communicated in certain scenes (specifically the ~steamy~ ones). Sometimes the dialogue came off cringey and cliché, but since this is a debut I do think there is scope for improvement.

"I couldn’t know how or why. Didn’t even have the slightest idea. 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."

The paragraphs were defiantly long and wordy, and hyphens were used a lot. There are a lot of word repetitions (no, I did not make a list this time) I also think this book would have been better as dual POV. I am hoping Elena Armas's work gets better, as I do think they have potential, though I don't know if I will read more by the author.

➼The characters

➡Catalina (Lina)

Lina is our main character, and the one who's perspective we are stuck in. Lina's inner monologue was repetitive at times, which is understandable as there is literally no plot, so her thoughts only comprise of Aaron Blackford, his abs and his blue eyes. I found Lina annoying. I could tolerate her in some scenes, and was also sympathetic to her situation, but she really dug her own grave with the number of lies she kept telling. It was difficult for me to keep excusing her behavior.

“So, was it that silly of me to want to stand there and look good? Not just fine. Not just getting by. To everyone watching, I wanted to look complete. Beautiful, flawless, unaffected. I needed to give the impression that I had my life back on track. All figured out. Happy. With a man on my arm. Objectively, I knew how dumb all of it sounded, how much I shouldn’t be measuring myself in terms of having a man, looking thinner, or having clear skin. But, God, I knew that was what everybody else would be doing.”

Lina is also an adult, but I didn't feel like that while reading. Lina is not that mature for her age, and sounded like an angsty teenager. I found her perspective boring and sometimes tiresome to read. I also didn't like the way most of the conversations she had with her friends and family were about Aaron (more on this later). I wish Lina's character had a bit more depth.

➡Aaron

I know people are going to come after me with pitchforks when I say this, but I'm not a huge fan of Aaron Blackford. Yes, yes I get why people like him. He is the typical 'brooding love interest who is misunderstood and has a tragic past'. Such characters show up in almost every book, and unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of this trope (Declan Murphy will always be the exception).

“Aaron didn’t do nonsense. He pointed out facts; he stated verifiable truths. He had been disciplined to do that, just like every other engineer in the consulting company where we worked, me included.”

Aaron is alright. I'm quite indifferent towards his character. He does have some likable qualities. I also found him more interesting than Lina, and wish we got some chapters from his perspective. I don't really have much to say about Aaron.

“I’ve never been scared to work for something, Catalina. Even when all odds are against me.”

Of course, some things about him got on my nerves, like the way he knew so many details about Lina and her life, due to him 'eavesdropping' conversations as Lina 'talks too loud'. It was cute in the beginning, but eventually I found it kind of creepy. I also didn't like the moment he started calling Lina 'baby'. It was awkward to read. I'm quite neutral towards Aaron otherwise, but I defiantly don't think he is the best love interest ever or something along those lines, but I'm happy for you if you liked his character!

➡The side-characters

The side-characters did not play any major role in the story. Their only purpose was for Lina and Aaron to have romantic moments, and it was beyond infuriating. SC's are not there just so the main characters can use them to their convenience. SC's deserve their own stories and characters apart from the MC's, and no-writing another book with them as the MC will not excuse their lack of personality in the main book.

“every person is different. We all have our own pace to put back together our lives after going through something like that. Some people need more time than others. And if you haven’t managed to get there yet, then there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

I was so immensely disappointed with this, as this book had more than enough page time to incorporate the side-characters own arc well. Rosie is Catalina's best friend, but the only times she shows up is so she can tell Lina that Aaron is totally in love with her, or so that Lina can gush or rant about Aaron. Her only purpose is be Lina's support system when something goes wrong. She doesn't have a life apart that, as Lina never bothers being a good friend and asking about Rosie's problems. In fact, Aaron found out that Lina needed a date for through her conversations with Rosie (not a spoiler, happens in first chapter). It was irritating.

Lina's family also plays a similar role for the most part, where majority of what they say makes Lina realise how much of a good person Aaron is. All this would have been fine if the side-characters had personalities and arcs apart from the romance, but since they didn't, it was vexing.

➼The Romance & The Relationship

Lina and Aaron are an ok couple, but I never saw chemistry between them. I also don't think they will be compatible in the long run, but that's just my personal opinion. The thing about them that bothered me the most was that they were so entirely dependent on each other. Every single scene was about Aron and Lina and developing them as a couple.

“You always find a way to catch me completely off guard. And that’s not something many people can do.”

Lina flew to Spain for her sisters wedding, and yet we don’t get her bonding with her family much. The entire thing was about Aron. Its all about Lina and Aron, Lina and Aron, Lina and Aron. They also don’t have any character development apart from their relationship. If I’m reading a 500 page book, character development is the bare minimum. It also isn't really enemies to lovers, more like sort-of-rivals-to-lovers. As a whole, I'm not a huge fan of their romance.

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➼Tropes in the book-
➡Slow-Burn
➡Rivals-to-Friends-to-Lovers
➡Office Romance
➡Fake Dating
➡Only One Bed

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"I was over Daniel. My singlehood had nothing to do with that. I simply … struggled to trust somebody enough to give myself completely. I managed to keep myself one or two feet from anything that had the potential to hurt me. And that always ended one of two ways. I either walked away, or I was the one who was walked away from. But at least, I did come out of it wholly."

Overall, The Spanish Love Deception was obviously not for me. However, I did enjoy reading a bit and would recommend it if this interests you.

"In the real world, there was a consequence to every decision I made. To every choice that I ever took. A perfect world where life happened neatly and ideally didn’t exist. Life was messy and often hard. It did not wait for anybody to be ready or to expect the bumps on the road. You had to grab on to the wheel and steer your way back to your lane. And that was all I had done. That was what had brought me to where I was. For better or for worse."

Review written & uploaded on 14th November 2021.

P.S.-I tried a new reviewing format, would love feedback! This took me 3 hours to write. BR with Mariem!

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DISCLAIMER-All opinions on books I’ve read and reviewed are my own, and are with no intention to offend anyone. If you feel offended by my reviews, let me know how I can fix it.

How I Rate-
1 star- Hardly liked anything/ was disappointed
2 star- Had potential but did not deliver/ was disappointed
3 stars- Was ok but could have been better/ was average / Enjoyed a lot but something was missing
4 stars- Loved a lot but something was missing
5 stars- Loved it/ new favourite

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Lowering to 1 star. RTC.

......................................

2.5 stars maybe. This was entertaining, but it didn’t need to be long. This is probably the first time I’ve read an almost 500 page contemporary book. This was super hyped up so I was expecting something better, and while it didn’t disappoint, it didn’t blow my mind either. Review to come soon.

Content Warnings

hide4's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

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