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greta_b8's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Eating disorder, and Terminal illness
savvyrosereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
mattiedancer's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
- Fans of fun romance novels
- Those who love the fake dating trope
- Disordered Eating, Toxic Relationships, Sexual Content, Swearing, Stalking, Sexual Harassment, Misogyny, Sexism
Graphic: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
maggie_hamel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Minor: Cancer, Misogyny, Sexism, and Terminal illness
brittaberry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
And one more thing, there is so much talk about dieting and disordered eating in this book that I feel isn’t addressed properly and it really rubbed me the wrong way.
Moderate: Eating disorder, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Misogyny
drtx_bwt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer
mhairi_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Spice: 🌶️
Tropes: Fake dating, hate to love, one bed, grumpy / sunshine, slow burn,
POV: Single - Catalina
The first thing I think an out when I think about this book if Mr Aaron Blackford 🥵! Yes please!
When I saw that she was a chunky girl I thought does a romance book need to be this long? Then I started reading - and let me tell you, oh yes it did. I could have done another 400 pages of Blackford alone!
We follow Catalina - who is in dire need of a date to her sister’s wedding in Spain where everyone she knows will be in attendance. Including her ex and his new fiancée. She’s told everyone she’ll be bringing her new boyfriend. The only problem is, she doesn’t have one.
Aaron Blackford - obnoxious, condescending, insufferable … tall, built and freaking gorgeous. Blackford is a colleague of Catalina’s and when her overhears her talking about her dilemma he offers himself to go back to Spain under the ruse of being her new beau. Sounds perfect, right? Wrong! Aaron is Catalina’s worst nightmare.
However with time most definitely not on her side Aaron is looking like her best option, she goes all in and does everything she can to make sure their Spanish Love Deception is bulletproof.
Throughout their time in Spain the pretending becomes much less forced and whole lot more natural. It doesn’t feel entirely like pretending anymore.
I loved this book!! From the obvious chemistry, to the banter this was just *chef’s kiss.* The more I read, the more I was totally sucked in to the story and I just didn’t want to put it down. Armas’ writing was easy and beautifully written. The dialogue was written effortlessly and it didn’t feel out of place. I will definitely be picking up more of Armas’ work. This was fantastic.
I can definitely see me picking this up again as a comfort read.
⚠️ Content Warnings: loss of a parent, sexism in the workplace, grief, unsafe dieting (restricting food)
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
chloelj27's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I adored Catalina and her whole family! She was such a strong woman who just needed someone in her corner to bring out all her fire! Her relationship with Aaron was perfect. We all love an enemies to lovers romance, right? I loved how it wasn’t rushed and we saw her questioning a lot if this was part of the charade or if things were infact real.
The sexual tension and spice in this book was unreal! There were only couple of spicy scenes, but they made that slow burn romance worth every minute! Even in the spicy scenes though, you still felt the love and romance between the two of them. The stolen glances and innocent touches added so much too!
I really liked the plot (probably because it had a lot of my favourite tropes in - enemies to lovers, fake dating, one bed to name a few), but the message behind it that your partner and your gender (in this case) does not define and build your career - you do through hard work and sheer resilience and determination. I loved learning more about both of Aaron and Catalina’s pasts. A lot came as a surprise and it was interesting to see why their characters were the way they were.
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol
culzean's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Pregnancy
itsmemiana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
he is the standard now. I will not accept less, which means I'll end up alone but that's okay.
THIS BOOK HOLY SHIT.
Just know that I read this in Spain (I'm studying here for a bit hehe), which just made it even better (even tho, the parts set in Spain are in the north and I'm in the south, it still made the experience even better).
I'm so in love with this book, if the world is against The Spanish Love Deception, I am against the world.
I could not point out a bad thing about it if I tried.
It's definitely one of my favourite rom-coms.
The writing is simple and easy to read but not too simple (in my opinion), it's the perfect amount specially if your native language isn't English or if you want to get into reading books in English.
The characters were probably my favourite part. I loved Aaron obviously, he's the love of my life, and I found it really funny how everytime I thought he couldn't get more perfect, he would prove me wrong in the span of one chapter (or less). And Lina was incredibly relatable to me, half the time I was thinking "she just like me fr". and I love the fact that she was Spanish because I'm Portuguese so we're basically hermanas/irmãs and although our cultures are different (I'm feeling a lot of cultural shock even tho I'm only 6h from home 🙃), there are still some similarities which I've never seen before in a book, and although I really wanna read about a Portuguese main character in a book like this one day, I was really happy with the Spanish rep. Nosotras somos hermanas.
ALSO, ALL THE REFERENCES TO THINGS I LOVE WITH MY WHOLE HEART???? I need Elena Armas to be my bestie fr.
I laughed a lot with this book and cried too.
And half the time I was giggling and kicking my feet, or wanting to.
I loved this book so much that I immediately ordered The American Roommate Experiment, which came out this month. I'm super excited.
I would also kill for a whole book of the Spanish love deception from Aaron's pov. GIVE IT TO ME. I'LL DO ANYTHING.
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, and Death of parent