Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Spanish Love Deception

It was going really well for the most part, I was excited and basically ate through the first 85% of the book. Having read hate to love romances, I still have some doubt that this can be categorized as such. *Spoiler ahead*

Aaron liking her beforehand but him just being cold did not make much sense, and the way he quickly changed, almost instantly, and without much fight felt somehow naïve to me.

*Spoiler ended*
I don't expect romances to be mind blowing by any means, I do read them just for pleasure and as a palette cleanser from other harder topic books, and I was very happy with the first bit of the book. The ending however, especially the chapter before the last, felt like it went on forever, and without much substance really, the same words being spoken over and over just had me skimming.
Overall, worthy of a read, it was spicy and sexy and fun.

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kalokairi22's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

2.5

TW: fatphobia, ED

There are two major plot points driven by fatphobia, which ultimately made me not like this book. The first plot point is that a coworker of the main character is unforgivably rude and sexist to the main character, and the coworker's only defining physical trait is that he's overweight. Why was that a detail that the author had to mention at least twice? The second plot point is the main character engages in poor eating choices (skipping meals, etc.) and the love interest comes in and saves her by giving her tacos. The main character is also described as having a never-ending appetite, which I think is a tired trope perpetuated mostly by millennial women. In 2021, can't we have women characters that don't make their eating habits a central part of their personality? Some people might disagree with me and that's fine - I'd love to hear other thoughts and open up this conversation.

I also think the main couple didn't have any chemistry in the whole book. Their story of how they became "work enemies" felt unrealistic, and I hated how he didn't stand up for her when their coworker was making extremely offensive remarks to her during a small staff meeting (he goes, "you don't need anyone to fight your battles" but c'mon would it have killed you to tell your coworker to eff off? As a man, you're complicit in sexism if you don't fight against it).

If you're looking for smut, it's a decent book. For plot, I recommend you look somewhere else.

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nav26's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.0

Everyone RAVED about this on TikTok so I had to read it, but honestly it wasn't my favourite. Some of the writing, especially the dialogue, felt choppy. And there was a lot of repetition that I felt didn't really work for the book. But some of this is probably bc the author self published so it may not have gone through the same editing process it might have. I did however really enjoy the story, and I would do anything for Aaron Blackford.

They spend like 1% of the book actually in Spain which was very annoying...the pacing was just not great.

Ok ALSO it was SO similar to The Hating Game, like basically the same plot. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I couldn't stop comparing!

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keatonslowlyreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. As an aroace person, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did. It took a moment for me to love the main character, but I ended up loving Lina almost as much as I love Aaron. The writing and character development kept me engaged throughout the whole book. I never found myself bored with it. I even cried toward the end, which no one warned me about. Overall a very cute book that I’d definitely recommend.

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hlradner's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.0

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alyanthea's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

this is a slow burn, low heat workplace rivalry contemporary romance that was paced a little too slow for me. with a single POV romance, I think it’s difficult to thread those hints of what the love interest is thinking/feeling while having the protagonist remain oblivious to them. what ended up happening for me was that it was frustrating to see these very obvious hints of his interest—to the point where he says things that are really difficult to construe otherwise—go completely over the protagonist’s head. i wouldn’t call this an enemies-to-lovers because there really isn’t enough establishment of the ‘enemies’ part, or very much build-up in tension in that aspect, but it’s a decent workplace rivalry romance. i wish this book had been 20% shorter but in the end it just wasn’t for me.

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analozanomo's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

This book reminded me that i'm in love with love. A great romantic comedy with the correcto amount of spice.

It lacked diversity though, and it had a bit of a fatphobic context at the beginning

Importante TW: binge eating, food restriction

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laurenmahoney25's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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