Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Spanish Love Deception

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

70 reviews

blackveilbeccy's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

This was an enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract, fake dating romance between two engineers. Lina is vivacious and a little flighty, Aaron is serious. He offers to play fake boyfriend to Lina and accompany her to her sister’s wedding, but it turns real along the way. Lina’s family are big and loud, and they add colour to the story. I wasn’t convinced about either the FMC or the MMC as Lina annoyed me a bit and Aaron was two dimensional. He was also super possessive and it came out of nowhere? The book was just okay.

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liabl_28's review against another edition

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challenging relaxing medium-paced

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

2.0

i have looooow standars, but even i can see when the guy doesn't have a personality.
also, google translator and footnotes exists so chill out explaining everything in both languages, as a ~~bisexual~~ bilingual is annoying

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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.

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beebowbabe's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

Enjoyable read. I found the FMC to be a bit annoying, but adored the MMC. I loved the cultural components and the emotional depth between these two characters.

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alexxmichelle's review against another edition

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lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

4.0

Its a cute fun read, some cringy moments and pretty slow to start but its overall fun and enjoyable!

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stephmcoakley's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

3.5

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cielosiluminado's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

~~where is my irl version of aaron blackford??~~

this cheesy, frustratingly cute story would have been rated higher but it was too slow paced at times, even for my own liking. ~~they didn't even kiss until like the last quarter of the book!!~~

i really wish i had a co-worker who looked like clark kent who is secretly in love with me and is willing to be my fake boyfriend to my sister's wedding back in the homeland because my ex is engaged and i don't want people pitying me if i show up alone. AND then said fake bf learns my native language on his own...??? truly wish that was me.

like i'm a picky bitch with very high standards. and to be honest, this book really made me realize that the bar is set so low for men because aaron blew everything out of the water and was too perfect. this book constantly had me swooning and kicking my feet and twirling my hair..

it was very obvious from the first sentence of the book that aaron is in love with catalina and of course, she has no idea of this. and i understand why she pushed him away ~~AAAAAAA because of course there's a third act breakup~~ but i really wished she wasn't so harsh towards him 24/7. their "beef" was always one-sided,

BUT!

i get it because of her trauma. his one flaw was being too scared to even ask her out to begin with.

“I’ll give you the world,” he said against my mouth. “The moon. The fucking stars. Anything you ask, it’s yours. I’m yours.”

so if you like typical slowburn books where there's strong emotional connections, hot sexual tension, bed sharing trope, and the male mc being hopelessly in love with the oblivious female mc who thinks he hates her, then i recommend this one.

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kristinallard's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

2.5

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fkshg8465's review

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emotional funny hopeful 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

3.5

I was ready to hate my book and took my eyes start to finish. I had tried to read this book once before, but I’d DNFd it the first time. But it kept coming back to me from one must read list to another, so I gave it another chance. So glad I did. Aaron is the perfect man in so many ways. Despite my desire to hate the book, I kept finding myself charmed. I even laughed hard at few times. And OMG, the first sex scene in the book - I was fully present and there for it and for quite a while afterward. That was an unexpected and delicious surprise. But then, after that, I started liking him less. It was almost like he was a different character - less attuned, less perfect. He got crass, insensitive, patronizing, closed off, and needy. Carolina went from smart and respectable to a hero to root for, to needy herself and simpering. But they eventually became two characters I could like and respect by the end of the story and my disappointment was lifted. For all these reasons, the book started out a 2, climbed to a 4, and landed as a 3.5.

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witcheslovingwitches's review against another edition

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funny 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

3.5

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