First Impressions: The Spanish Love Deception

It’s been some time since I’ve read a book not connected to university and I have very strong feelings about the start of the story, so here is my first impression of The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas. I actually discovered this book on TikTok, which is so funny to me because I usually see TikToks of all the books I love, but this one was about great romance reads and since that is not my genre, I didn’t know a single book – anyways, here’s my first impression!

Why I was interested in this book in the first place

Romance is usually a genre I either read at the beach or very randomly between fantasy and non-fiction. I saw a TikTok on awesome romance books and this one stuck out because it reminded me so much of The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. The Unhoneymooners is about “enemies” forced to take a fake honeymoon together so the trip doesn’t get wasted and this book is about work nemesis going to the protagonist’s sister’s wedding so that everyone thinks she has a boyfriend. Both fake relationships turning into real ones – enemies to lovers, one of the best tropes to ever be invented. Understandably, I was invested in the story and immediately ordered it.

How it turned out

The book is over 400 pages long and I’ve so far read three chapters, 50 pages. I am annoyed because of two things.

1. The protagonist’s behavior: Lina is a grown woman, working at a company – she has to be a minimum of 25 years. Mature, right? Yet somehow she manages to talk to her nemesis – rather letting her best friend respond for her – with her back turned to him for a 10 minute conversation because she refuses to turn around. I get it, you don’t like that dude, he was rude to you when you first came to the company – but does that mean you have to act like a petty teenager without manners and dignity to talk to someone face to face?
2. Unnecessary scenes dragged out: As I said, I am 50 pages in, three chapters each depicting one scene. Unnecessary conversation, the scenes are dragged out too much, the “enemy” status is layed on way too strong in my opinion and the conversations just seemed so unrealistic.

This may sound harsh, but I am super disappointed. I was extremely excited to start this book and these two crictical points just keep nagging at me. I will, however, continue in hope of a great plot and maybe a bit more mature behavior. The protagonists aren’t even in Spain yet, so I might be in for a treat there!

That’s it: tell me, have you read this book and if so, did you enjoy it? Happy reading everyone!