The Spanish Love Deception

Slowburn. Fake Dating Trope. Enemies to Lovers.  If these phrases do not have you running to your nearest bookstore I don’t know what will because they definitely had me hooked. The icing on the cake was the One Bed Trope. If you are a romance junky or are looking for an easy to read romance novel then The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas is the right choice. 

From the beginning of the book the scene is already set and the reader is rewarded with a taste of the tension between our two main characters Catalina Martín and Aaron Blackford. It is apparent from the start that Catalina does not like Aaron and can hardly stand to breathe the same air as her colleague. However, the storyline becomes quite intriguing when she needs a date to her sister’s wedding in Spain. Aaron offers to accompany Catalina to which she profusely rejects him, initially. During this interaction I detected it was more of a one sided enemies to lovers situation. This is because there were moments throughout the book, whether it was when he offered to be her date, bought her more tacos than she asked for, or learned Spanish that made it clear that Aaron did not hate Catalina as much as she did him. Therefore, I do not believe they were total enemies progressing to lovers. It should still be noted that Elena Armas wrote the trope in a realistic manner and it made the book no less enjoyable. 

I have to commend Armas on the pacing of the book as well. Many time romcoms that are promoted as a slowburn have nothing slow about them, but instead burn my hopes for the book. I was excited to find this problem did not occur in The Spanish Love Deception. Throughout the book when it appeared things might progress in Catalina and Aaron’s fake dating relationship there was always push back from our female lead due to insecurities stemming from her past relationship. This allowed the book to be more intricate and created extra suspense for the reader, rather than quickly escalating the relationship within the first 100 pages.

Not forgetting about the famous one bed trope, Armas also caters to her audience of romance fanatics giving them what she knows we love. In the book when Catalina and Aaron arrived in Spain the place they were staying at had two beds. However, Armas decided to get creative when she weaved in the fact that one of the beds was broken and too unstable to handle Aaron's weight. This presented a new "dilemma" for the fake couple as they end up with only one bed.   This made the book stand out even more because usually the one bed trope starts out with simply one bed. However, in The Spanish Love Deception the reader is first reeled into believing the couple will have to part ways at bedtime, but are then excited to see the change in direction. 

The Spanish Love Deception is a book I would recommend to anyone looking for a fun and easy romcom to read. This book has few flaws in my opinion and I believe anyone else who reads it will agree!