A review by ashlightgrayson
The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

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

3.0

My parents are immigrants and it was really nice to see Catalina's perspective as an immigrant as well. Within her career she must confront discrimination because of her nationality and her gender. There are multiple examples of this within the book. She starts off disliking Aaron, the male lead, because he made a terrible first impression and comes off as cold and distant. Despite the negative impression, Aaron is actually quite helpful and professional coworker. However, for a major portion of the story, Catalina is too hard set on her initial impression of Aaron to see his more positive characteristics. As a reader, it was pretty clear from the beginning that Aaron was interested romantically in Catalina. This becomes especially clear when he is offers her a deal to go to Spain as her date to her sister's wedding for almost nothing in return. 

Once Catalina and Aaron arrive in Spain, they have many humorous interactions and the mutual attraction is obvious. The book takes its time building up their relationship and friendship before they finally become intimate. I appreciated the slow burn and I felt that it was worth it in the end. There is a subplot at the end involving a family emergency that I feel could have been expanded upon more. However, this did not take away from my enjoyment of the book overall. The side characters, many of which are Catalina's family, were super fun and felt very real. The only personal qualm I had was the conflict of interest that Aaron and Catalina dating is since one of them is the superior within the company. Again, this is just something that personally bothers me and is only a moderate plot point. Overall, if you like a slow burn romance that focuses on familial relations as well as the main couple, I would highly recommend this one.

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