A review by lovelymisanthrope
The American Roommate Experiment, by Elena Armas
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I read "The Spanish Love Deception" last year, and loved it, so I was so excited to pick up Elena Armas's newest release. Overall, I thought this book was fine, but I did not love it as much as her debut book.
"The American Roommate Experiment" follows a young aspiring author named Rosie. Rosie has recently written and published a successful romance novel under a pen name. She has decided to take the plunge and go for her author dreams fulltime, so she quits her job and begins trying to write her second book, under a strict deadline. Unfortunately, she has extreme writer's block. Even more unfortunately, her apartment becomes unlivable, so she goes to stay at her best friend, Lina's, apartment until her apartment is fixed. Lina is currently enjoying her honeymoon and failed to inform Rosie that her very attractive cousin, Lucas, will be in town...and crashing at Lina's place. With nowhere else to go, Rosie and Lucas are forced to live together until they both can catch a break and go back to their normal lives.
With companion romance novels I often see that we get a taste of the other characters from previous books, but they are never a pivotal character to the new story. With this book, Elena Armas made Lina important, and I loved getting to see more from her and see that she is still in love with Aaron just as much as she was in "The Spanish Love Deception". I also really enjoyed seeing how much Rosie loves and cares for her little brother, however, his story takes an extreme and unnecessary turn that I did not enjoy seeing. I feel like I keep seeing this trend in romance novels of extreme plot twists that are really dark or really violent. I know these types of stories have an audience, but I do not like seeing them in romance stories that are pitched as a lighter, fluffier romance.
This book is well written and engaging, but I did think it was a little longer than necessary. I enjoy a slow burn from time to time, but this book takes a LONG time to finally get there and there is a lot of unnecessary plot that I did not want to read about. Rosie also began to annoy me because I felt like Lucas was so clear with his intentions and she was not getting it. I did enjoy that this book does alternate between both of their perspectives.
I will definitely pick up more from Elena Armas in the future, and I hope to find similar magic in another book of hers.
"The American Roommate Experiment" follows a young aspiring author named Rosie. Rosie has recently written and published a successful romance novel under a pen name. She has decided to take the plunge and go for her author dreams fulltime, so she quits her job and begins trying to write her second book, under a strict deadline. Unfortunately, she has extreme writer's block. Even more unfortunately, her apartment becomes unlivable, so she goes to stay at her best friend, Lina's, apartment until her apartment is fixed. Lina is currently enjoying her honeymoon and failed to inform Rosie that her very attractive cousin, Lucas, will be in town...and crashing at Lina's place. With nowhere else to go, Rosie and Lucas are forced to live together until they both can catch a break and go back to their normal lives.
With companion romance novels I often see that we get a taste of the other characters from previous books, but they are never a pivotal character to the new story. With this book, Elena Armas made Lina important, and I loved getting to see more from her and see that she is still in love with Aaron just as much as she was in "The Spanish Love Deception". I also really enjoyed seeing how much Rosie loves and cares for her little brother, however, his story takes an extreme and unnecessary turn that I did not enjoy seeing. I feel like I keep seeing this trend in romance novels of extreme plot twists that are really dark or really violent. I know these types of stories have an audience, but I do not like seeing them in romance stories that are pitched as a lighter, fluffier romance.
This book is well written and engaging, but I did think it was a little longer than necessary. I enjoy a slow burn from time to time, but this book takes a LONG time to finally get there and there is a lot of unnecessary plot that I did not want to read about. Rosie also began to annoy me because I felt like Lucas was so clear with his intentions and she was not getting it. I did enjoy that this book does alternate between both of their perspectives.
I will definitely pick up more from Elena Armas in the future, and I hope to find similar magic in another book of hers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, and Injury/injury detail
Moderate: Toxic relationship