Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Spanish Love Deception

I absolutely adored this rom com! It was a fun trip and the perfect story to start off the new year! I loved how the characters played off of each other. Lina and Aaron's banter and chemistry was fantastic and seeing the build up of their relationship was nice.

Even though I was a little disappointed at first, I am ultimately glad that we didn't get to their trip to Spain until later in the book - about halfway through. It allowed the relationship to build up more and allowed the characters to understand each other a bit better before getting others involved in their relationship.

. It was also very pleasant to read about a loving family and not just the strained relationship families that appear more often than not in this genre. I only wish that we had been given a chance to see and experience more of Spain in the story. I also would have preferred to see more of Aaron's flaws - especially during the trip.

And while it was fun to get references to pop culture, they were used a bit too much especially the Twilight references. One or two Twilight references would have been fine but they started throwing me out of the story; it got to a point where Lina was basically pretending she was Bella and Aaron was her Edward.

But all in all it was an enjoyable story with believable and relatable characters. And most of all it made me want to visit Spain once again.

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cassie12_21's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

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

3.25

Cute but why did it take half the book to get to Spain? 🌶️🌶️/5.

smut doesn’t happen until about 80% through 😢

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culzean's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-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

4.25

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roadesntoades's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is one of the cutest romances I have read in a long time and does not deserve any of the hate it’s given. This is a book that doesn’t shy away from being a bit cliche. I mean it literally lays out the tropes on the back. It’s fake-dating, enemies to lovers, one bed. It doesn’t shy away from that it embraces it. Yeah there are some moments that are bit rinse and repeat but they are enjoyable. Plus I love that it’s made clear that Aaron has always been attracted to Catalina, or at least liked her. It wasn’t some sudden romance, or spontaneous declaration. We know how it will end and we know that Aaron wasn’t hiding it, just respecting Catalina’s boundaries. It’s honestly such a cute read, and really enjoyable

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elliepeagram1's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.75

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rensreading's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted tense slow-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

3.75

i went into this with no expectations and got a lot more than i bargained for.

i liked catalina up until the last 2 chapters. she felt like a real life person i could come across on the street. most romance mc’s aren’t very dimensional so armas did very well with hers. she was strong, stubborn, but also prone to panicking because of the rough stuff she had gone through in life.

as for aaron, i didn’t like him when he said nothing to defend lina from gerard in that meeting where she gets assigned to organize an event she has no idea how to put together, but he grew on me. it became very clear that he had liked her a long time before she ever considered him even being nice and i liked that about him, but then he started getting weird about how much she ate and about her health. it reminded me of christian gray and that is not someone you want to be compared to, fellas. he very quickly dropped that “how much have you eaten today” thing though so i was relieved about that. but then he started to try and seduce lina at weird, inopportune moments and that gave me mad second-hand embarrassment. he ended up being pretty okay in the end.

what did give me the ick was a spanish woman using the word “savages” in a playful manner when spain is just as much of a colonizer country as england and the fact that after being

groomed and manipulated by her first boyfriend/old professor

, LINA is the one left to pick up the pieces. her family give her so much shit for how she drifted along in life after being traumatized by him and all the people that jumped on the bandwagon to harass her but are cordially polite with said ex-boyfriend of hers. what the fuck?

i did like that she caught onto the fact that he groomed her when she sees him in spain again though. he says something like “we’re both adults now” and she goes ballistic “compared to when? to when we were dating and you said you loved me and made me feel so special?” GOOD FOR HER!

i hope daniel gets fucked by a cactus or something. it’s the least of what he deserves.

and then we hit the last chapter and im hit with so much cringe.

in my opinion, that very last act “breakup” was also unnecessary as fuck. there went the rational woman lina had finally worked herself into being. she had done a lot of work on herself and i get her trust issues aren’t going to be in tip-top shape, but we didn’t need a novela worthy drama arc to rush her into going where she was already headed, yknow? that was unneeded and it ruined a bit of her character development as well.

also armas, you robbed us of the martin family meeting aaron’s dad in the epilogue. ABSOLUTE CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR! JAIL!

in terms of spice, i’d give this a solid 2/5 🌶 there were 2 explicit smut scenes and 2 heavy petting, semi-public makeout sessions.

the dirty talk wasn’t all that surprising, but the mild spanking was.

it was okay though. they weren’t really detrimental to the plot but they did add a nice enough kick to keep things very interesting. not bad

i think i’d give this book 3.75 stars if i wanted to get very specific with my ratings. it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad either. a good and enjoyable experience for the most part 😊

(why were there so many twilight references btw??)

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thatswhatshanread's review

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funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.25

UM. I have many thoughts.

First and foremost, I really wanted to love this. Virtually everyone I know that has read it has gushed over it. And it had those romcom elements that usually make your heart swell and your mind go all melty with love.

Instead, this book just made me cringe. I hate to say that—but the cringe didn’t go away as the story went on. Normally, I love the enemies-to-lovers trope. The work romance trope. The back and forth. The slow burn. The one-bed trope. The TENSION. Unfortunately, all of those predictable nuances felt disconnected and forced to me. The storyline was very similar to The Hating Game—which I LOVED—and maybe that might have also been the reason this story made me so mad.

Because it had POTENTIAL!!! So much potential. But the writing in general was just so so repetitive, especially when it came to certain descriptive words and actions or thoughts made by the MC. It made the veryyyy slow burn even slower. The buildup just didn’t feel organic. And once the buildup rewarded the reader with that moment you’d been waiting for… I just could not. The love interest, which up until that point I actually grew to like, completely changed. This seems to be a common theme in certain romance novels: that the hot-and-heavy moments have to transform the characters into intense maniacs that, frankly, disturb me. Maybe that’s on me. Probably. But seriouslyyyy it felt like whiplash!! It just didn’t feel true to the characters, IMO. It felt a little like a cop-out just for the ~seductive shock factor~ idk.

I must have liked this book in some way to be this frustrated by it. The “ocean blue” eyes were mentioned no less than a thousand times. “My fake boyfriend”, or referring to any character by their relation to the MC instead of by name, drove me crazy. It wasn’t just once. It was multiple times, over and over even when you knew who they were. Also, the excessive use of names when talking to each other. No one talks like that irl!!

Elena Armas, girl, I know this was your debut book and I really do commend you for self-publishing it but— “I hate to say it, I hope I don’t sound ridiculous, I don’t know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street, I wouldn’t know a thing. Sorry to this man.”

Please don’t hate me I just gotta be honest ty!!!!

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se6500's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

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