What's up, Hivers? It's makiyumee here! Today, I'm back again with a new blog and this is going to be the first blog to my new book review blog series named "Maki Reads". The first book to be reviewed is a novel that I had read about a month ago and this novel had also been on trend on TikTok. The book for today is entitled The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas.
“Catalina Martín, finally, not single. Her family is happy to announce that she will bring her American boyfriend to her sister’s wedding. Everyone is invited to come and witness the most magical event of the year.”
That would very probably be tomorrow's headline in the local newspaper of the small Spanish village from from which I come. Or the note on my tombstone, witnessing how my life had changed in the course of a phone call.
Four weeks wasn't lengthy enough to find someone willing to go across the Atlantic from New York City to Spain for a wedding. Let alone someone who is prepared to participate in my charade. But it didn't mean I was desperate enough to go up to the 6'4 blue-eyed pain in my ass standing in front of me.
Aaron Blackford. The man whose primary career made my anger boil had just offered to be my date. After poking his nose into my business, calling me insane and claiming to be my best option. See? Outrageous. Aggravating. Blood boils. To my utter dismay, he was also correct. This left me with a nasty and extra-large predicament on my hands. Was it worth it to bring my coworker and the misery of my existence, my false lover, to my sister's wedding? Or was it preferable to come clean and face the consequences of my panic-induced lie?
Like my abuela would say, que dios nos pille confesados which means God help us. (Source)
Elena Armas, a passionate Spanish author and self-confessed romantic, has received recognition worldwide for her captivating writing. She is the renowned author of The Spanish Love Deception, a global bestseller and Goodreads Award winner set to be made into a film. Her subsequent works, The American Roommate Experiment and The Long Game, became instantaneously New York Times bestsellers. Elena thinks it hilarious that her works, which are beloved by readers all around the world, are being translated into over 30 languages.
Elena Armas' debut novel, The Spanish Love Deception, was originally self-published on February 22, 2021. The book garnered tremendous popularity on TikTok, which caused Simon & Schuster to purchase the publishing rights. The audiobook version was released in November 2021.
This book was so famous on TikTok and a friend of mine also recommended it to me. Since I was also looking for a new book to read and plus it was also a romance novel, I took the opportunity to read it and boy, I was surprised. The trend was worth it but overhyping this novel? Not so much.
Now to start with my review, let's begin with the negative side. Let me spoil you a little with this one line. The first scene of the first chapter starts with Aaron saying, “I'll be your date to the wedding."
Yes, it starts just like that and it left me wondering, "Dude, is there no backstory or maybe a little flashback of how their rivalry started before this Aaron guy offers to be Catalina's date to her sisters wedding?"
Sure, Catalina's point of view later narrated how she and Aaron were at each other's throat but that was all and I was looking for something more that could spice things up during the first few pages of the book. I was looking for something that could keep me interested. The trope of this book revolves around enemies to lovers and fake dating which means the novel should contain scenes that the characters are fake dating to show the people that they are a couple when they're not and also it should have scenes where they would seriously (well, not too serious) fight or argue since they were enemies before they turned to lovers.
But as I read the book, I wasn't contented with the scenes that the author had wrote. Surely there were some, but I could hardly remember if those scenes really happened in the book. If I would rate it, I think the characters’ arguments would only be around two over five. Why? Well, the characters were just exchanging dialogues to show that they were enemies and nothing more. I was looking for some little action (maybe a little throwing papers or light pranks) because there were too much dialogue and fillers that almost occupied the entire book with almost 500 pages—yes! Almost 500 pages and it almost took me a week to finish reading the book.
Another thing, Catalina always says she doesn't like Aaron, she hates him and she always says this to herself implicitly but after a week of spending some time with him and with her family, she suddenly realizes that she likes him. For a slow burn novel, this seems to be a bit fast. I think it would be better if Catalina could spend and get to know Aaron for a month or two or maybe more before she would realize that she likes him to establish the slow development of their relationship from enemies to lovers. Plus, the drama at the end of the novel made me think: “What the hell? How did this one get in here?” because of how it was introduced when it was never even mentioned once in the entire book.
On the positive side, even if there were a lot of dialogues, some were not that bad though. There were also scenes that made me feel the butterflies and made me scream on top of my lungs because of how the lines were delivered with so much emotion. I thought to myself as I read, "I don’t think guys these days would say these words to their woman but who cares?! I am reading Catalina and Aaron's story anyway.”
There were even times when I would just ignore the fillers and focus on Catalina and Aaron’s moment while listening to Taylor Swift’s This Love. Every time an intimate or scene full of tension would come and I would always find myself reading each line slowly with emotions and imagining that Catalina and Aaron were playing the scene inside my mind like a movie with Taylor Swift's song playing in the background. It's a headache but it was fun. In conclusion to my review, I will rate the book 3 stars because even if it's lacking a bit in some parts, some dialogues were killing it and that still made me feel satisfied.
I have highlighted my favorites lines from the novel, and I am going to be sharing these to all of you. Feel free to read it or not since some lines might contain spoilers haha!
If only this was acted in a scene where they would throw things or scream at each other to add more tension, I would never forget about it and it would make their development a whole lot better.
This was one of the lines where Taylor Swift's This Love played on my earphones on repeat! Girl, I was screaming so much that I felt the sparks and the butterflies!
No more pretending here coz' they're gonna make it real! This one's got a lot of spoilers just by reading these few lines. I still like it though haha!
See? She doesn't hate him because she realized that she likes him! She likes his enemy y'all and she's not denying it anymore! Haha!
Those were some of the lines that made me feel satisfied when I read the book and that ends my first book review blog. Did you guys had fun while reading it? You can try reading the book if you want to know the full story. Don't let my review tarnish your beautiful and curious mind because we are all unique and we have different perspectives when it comes to things, so give this book a try! Hope you guys like this book review and don't worry, there will be more. See all on my next blog, everyone!
