The Spanish Love Deception

By Elena Armas

Hello and welcome to another edition of Tropes & Cheese!

Yes, we have another alarmingly orange book on our hands! No, I promise I haven’t done this on purpose. But don’t worry, the next one is green-ish so get excited. But for now, let’s dive into…

Book: The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Spice Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Much spicier than I expected!

Content Warning: Cancer

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Rivals, Fake Dating 

🇪🇸🍷💃🏽🤵🏻‍♂️✈️

The Spanish Love Deception was one of the biggest romance novel hits of 2021, so I’m definitely late to the game, but that’s okay! Truth be told, I sort of pushed it down my TBR list because, as I’ve mentioned before, enemies-to-lovers stories aren’t my favorite. BUUUT, I do love a good fake dating plotline, so I finally gave it a shot.

What’s It About?

Catalina is the Maid of Honor in her sister’s wedding, and upon finding out that her ex-boyfriend (and Best Man) is happily engaged, she tells her family that she has a super hot, super serious, very real boyfriend, and she’ll be bringing him to the wedding too. Only problem? There is no boyfriend.

Enter: Aaron. Her hunky, brooding, irritating work nemesis… and her only viable option.

Full disclosure, this one took me a while to get into, but I blame that on the enemies aspect. By the time I was wrapped up in the story, it was a fun ride and WOW makes me want to go to a wedding in a small town in Spain.

Content Warning

Cancer: Although not discussed graphically, it does come up. Can we all just agree, #CancerSucks ?

Spiciness: I’m actually going to give a quick spiciness content warning here, even though, hi, it’s romance so you probably know what you’re in for. But with The Spanish Love Deception, the first 75% of this book is really tame. So much so that I assumed maybe it was going to be a closed-door romance and some spicy smooching would be the most of it. WELP I WAS REALLY WRONG. The final 25% of this book will have you feeling verklempt.

Now, how to make your reading experience a bit more fun?

🍷 Drink Pairing: I have to suggest a nice Spanish Tempranillo wine here. If you like a rich, full-bodied, red wine, you’ll love a Tempranillo. My favorite is from Cooper’s Hawk, but all of the options on this list are probably delicious too… guess we’ll have to try them all 😉

📱 Activity Suggestion: Start learning a new language on Duolingo! In the book, Aaron sneakily picks up some Spanish to impress Catalina’s family. He doesn’t mention Duolingo explicitly, but we all know exactly which handy app he’s referring to!

👰🏻‍♀️🤵🏻‍♂️ Wedding Activity: A fun scene in the book is the “Wedding Cup” where the bridesmaids and groomsmen face off in a day full of outdoor activities. I haven’t always considered myself a huge fan of joint bachelor/bachelorette parties, but this one seemed sweet, and then sent me down a rabbit hole reading up on current wedding party trends. This article has 9 great joint party ideas from a board game night, to an alcohol tasting, to a day at an amusement park!

Happy Reading!

As always, I encourage you to see if The Spanish Love Deception is available from your local, indie bookstore. Don’t know where one is? Try this Indie Bookstore Finder! You can also purchase it directly from Elena Armas’ website. 

Your local library is also a great place to look for this and other books. And, of course, all the big-name booksellers will certainly have what you’re looking for.

If anyone needs a fake date for a wedding in Spain, I’m happy to volunteer. 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

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Happy Reading,

Sarah