Reviews with content warning for Cancer - The Spanish Love Deception

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The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

331 reviews

nyquillll's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Hopeless romantic here - this book did it for me.

I did think the pacing of the story was a bit slow at times, but I think that was meant to be for this slow-burn, and I’m apparently into those kinds of stories now. In hindsight, when you consider the whole story happens within maybe a couple weeks, it’s probably not so slow.

What can I say about this book. At times I was frustrated with the FMC for how much her inner dialogue and doubts controlled her actions, but then I quickly empathized because isn’t that what we all do? I appreciated the author’s handling of this passionate, soul-consuming, pure kind of love which selflessly offered each other to one another. And, of course, as the reader, we can tell from the beginning how enraptured Aaron is with Catalina. :)

This book touched on self esteem, sexism in the workplace (working in a male-dominated profession), international romance, past trauma, power and gender dynamics in relationships, fake-dating, the things you do for the people you love, strained relationships with parents, loss of parental figures, the presence or absence of extended family, and the strength and courage it takes to trust in love and let it flow in.

I adore the love between the two MCs, even if it took them a while to admit it to one another :)

Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, and Cancer

Some of my favorite quotes:

”We are ignoring him though. You don’t need to spare his feelings, he doesn’t have any.”

"They probably thought they were not taking any side, but they were. Their silence was doing exactly that."

"Be there in an hour. best, Aaron." "What in the f-"

"What if I still want to tell you about it?"

"What's so surprising, Catalina? I pay attention when you talk. Even when you mumble to yourself."

"If you think I'm not elated to see you eat, then you don't understand how serious I was yesterday."

"Thank you, boyfriend."

"There you are."

"This was a historical moment."

"No sleeping, baby. Please."

"You'll already know that I am."

"And for a while there, it wasn't like that. All that lightness faded out, and seeing my daughter going through something like that wasn't easy...But that's in the past. She's here now, and she's okay. Happy."

"Anything that bothers you matters to me, and I want to hear about it...Nothing about you is boring or doesn't interest me-ever. Understand?"

"I'll earn my four-letter word."

"It doesn't have to be a dream you need to wake up from."

"When there's a rock on the way and you fall, I tumble down with you. We fight our way up together."

"We protect and heal each other. That's how this is supposed to be."

"Half of them wanted to file the complaint themselves..."

"...as long as I had him, my life-altering moment would never be a measurement of time....He was my moment. And for as long as I had him, my life would constantly be changing, be altered. I'd be challenged, cherished, loved. With him, I'd live."

"I'm here. I'm here. I'm running toward you. I trust you. I love you..."

"I would have come back for you, you know? I told you I wouldn't let you quit on us. You still owed me that four-letter word."

"But I finally got it. I understood how hard it'd hit him, losing Mom. How lost he must have been at the reality of not having a way to get her back."

"Your Thea,"

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

While I had quite a few issues with this book, it was ultimately fine and I did enjoy reading it to an extent. I'm confused by all of the hype praising this book though.
The writing was... not great. Clunky sentences, things were worded strange for characters, and there were whole paragraphs and pages of "filler" that felt repetitive - all of the things going on in Lina's head that seemed to just loop. I admit to skimming a lot of those sections. Also the part in Spain was a shockingly small part of the book?
I did like Aaron's character. Sure he could be stand offish and cold, definitely didn't deal with things in the right way and said "baby" way too much - but I felt like his character had more depth in some ways than Lina.

Anyways. The banter was fun, I liked the fake dating aspect. This is NOT enemies to lovers though. It was a fine read.

Content Warnings

kathrynhofmann's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

_izzi_'s review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

a_h0204's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

th3misna's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I needed to have this little breather after reading heavy fantasy for a while and this novel was just what I needed. Fast paced, funny, witty and with top tier tension, is everything a novel like this should be. I always aim for books like this because they make me feel good and airy before I embark on the journey to do some heavy fantasy reads so for anyone looking for a nice book to read and break away from the heavy stuff, this is it. Please be advise that it has a few themes of sickness, power abuse in the work/study area.

Content Warnings

megthecatlady's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I really loved the character development of Lina and loved how much we got to know about Aaron as the story unfolded. The spicy scenes, as well as the rest of the book, were so well written. The plot is medium paced but the romance is a slooooow burn, I usually don't like that but it really worked in this book.

Content Warnings

thenecromancer's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted slow-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

4.25

Content Warnings

kathis_wonderland's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas is the first book in the Spanish Love Deception series. Lina is desperate to find a fake-boyfriend to her sister's wedding in a few weeks. When the co-worker, who she despises, volunteers to go to the wedding with her, she does everything to turn his mind around. But Aaron is the only option there is and, maybe, he is not as bad has Lina thought.

This book was exactly my cup of tea. Oh, how I loved it! Fake-dating, enemies-to-lovers, THERE IS ONLY ONE BED! This was just awesome. I inhaled this book. I couldn’t put it down, and when I was not reading (because of commitments), I was thinking about this book. The relationship between Lina and Aaron formed rather slow, but I rooted for them since the moment Aaron started to help Lina at work. There had been a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication between them, but in the end, the worked it out. Oh, how I rooted for Aaron and Lina. Their relationship and trust grew so much in just a few days. Their chemistry was so steamy and the spicy scenes towards the end of the book were even steamier.

I loved all the Spanish bits and pieces that were mixed into this story. It is exciting to not only read books from US or British writers. It brings a new perspective. I don't understand Spanish at all, but I loved it and found it authentic to not fully translate some Spanish thoughts and sentences.

This book was like a warm (steamy) summer read. It warmed my heart and made me feel so many feelings! I squealed with happiness, cringed with second-hand embarrassment and was just overall giddy reading about this couple. I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Content Warnings

funshine3's review

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Content Warnings

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