The Spanish Love Deception

A Novel

By: Elena Armas

Narrated by: Scarlette Hayes

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A TikTok sensation, this rom-com about a young woman who agrees to fake date a colleague and bring him to her sister’s wedding has “everything you could want in a romance” (Helen Hoang, New York Times bestselling author).

Catalina Martín desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially since her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiraled out of control. Now everyone she knows—including her ex and his fiancée—will be there and eager to meet him.

She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic and aid in her deception. New York to Spain is no short flight and her raucous family won’t be easy to fool.

Enter Aaron Blackford—her tall, handsome, condescending colleague—who surprisingly offers to step in. She’d rather refuse; never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling, and insufferable man.

But Catalina is desperate, and as the wedding draws nearer, Aaron looks like her best option. And she begins to realize he might not be as terrible in the real world as he is at the office.

©2021 Elena Arma (P)2021 Simon & Schuster Audio

Fantastic

I loved it! The narration was excellent, the story so good. I never wanted it to end!

Lina is such a well written character, complex, conflicted, and relatable. Aaron is so well revealed, layers at a time by Lina as they play through their adorable predicament. Highly recommend!

Finished in one day

It’s 3am a Sunday and I could not stop listening! This book has all the things❤️‍🔥

Incredibly Captivating but annoying main character

The love story and everything in between was so fun, spicy, and intriguing. The main character was incredibly annoying only when she kept denying and overthinking. But once she stopped, everything flowed better. I Can see why other reviews say they wish there was a book with Aaron’s POV. It didn’t take seat the fact that I read this book in two days. Very good read if you’re into rom-com!

Mind-numbingly boring

Specifically, the writing is terrible. This book is verbatim The Hating Game, only written very very badly. If you liked the Hating Game, I would suggest just reading that book twice. I have only ever physically thrown a book across the room in disgust, and that was one of the Twilight books. I forget which one, but it doesn’t matter, they’re all awful. It’s a little too painfully obvious that Ms Armas is emulating Stephanie Meyer, at least when it comes to prose. At least Twilight has vampires. For all my complaints about terrible writing, Ms Meyer had a sort of original idea. But this book is the Hating Game, only sloppy, uncomfortable, and painfully boring. I’m very upset that people had the nerve the rate this book highly, on behalf of my book club who choose based on ratings. We innocently believed the 4 and 5 stars out there, and all I can comprehend is some people out there need to treat themselves to better authors. I want my week and my credit back.

7 out of 10

Overall, I give it a 7 out of 10. The story dragged in the beginning. I really enjoyed that it was funny and that regular people can identify with trauma. It’s very hard to put your guard after an individual has hurt you.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend it.

The usual

I like some rom com mind candy so this story fit the bill. The only thing I don’t understand is why the narrator of The Spanish love deception doesn’t have a Spanish accent…

Slightly entertaining

I enjoyed the story for what it was. However it was quite predictable and often way too dramatic. Definitely nice for just wanting a good distraction.

Not bad

It was a good story but kinda predictable. I enjoyed the narrator. I think she was always accurate in portraying the characters’ voices

Great slowburn

I loved the story and the characters! A bit of a slow burn, and the spice is mostly in the tease. There were a few moments in the book where I wished the main character was more outspoken, but that's just the reality of not everyone being like I'd imagine. I really enjoyed the narrator, her voice and accent were perfect for me. You don't need to know Spanish to enjoy the book, honestly, it might even be a bit of a drag if you do know Spanish because the subsequent translations to every sentence get a bit repetitive.
Had a lot of fun with this book:)

Narration =NO , Story=Sorta?

So the story as a whole was pretty good. It didnt get passionate until like pretty much the end. And by that time you could sorta figure out on your own how it will end. However it was still a cute read and as a latina myself I enjoyed the small hints towards latin culture. The story was predictable and okay imo.
The narration however was hard to glance over. I HATTED the male voice impression she tried to do. Sounded like the man was a 50y/o smoker. It definitely made aaron way less sexy than catalina was describing. I would say just read the book and slip the audio, atleast with this narration.