Elena Armas’ The Spanish Love Deception is a romance novel that has grown very popular on social media.  People raved about the characters (especially the love interest Aaron Blackford) and said it was a great slowburn-enemies-to-lovers novel. The book portrays a classic love story between a feisty, spirited woman and a grouchy, professional businessman. Though The Spanish Love Deception is widely known and praised across the internet, some found the story to be grossly overrated.

Deception is a simple story, Catalina “hates” the man she works with, and goes out of her way to avoid him. Aaron is a handsome but cross man who insulted Catalina on her second day of work. They have had an icy relationship ever since, but now they might have to set that aside. 

Catalina’s sister is getting married, and she is the maid of honor, no big deal right? Wrong. Not only is her ex-boyfriend the best man, but he’s also newly engaged. Also, Catalina may have accidentally told her incredibly intrusive family that she had a hot American boyfriend who would  be accompanying her. With no other options, Catalina is forced to take Aaron with her as her (FAKE) boyfriend. Will Catalina and Aaron be able to keep up the charade long enough to survive this wedding?

Deception was incredibly overhyped. It was a very basic story without any special elements. Even though it got immense praise on social media, we could easily go to the library and find several books with almost an exact replica of the storyline; two love interests are head-over-heels in love with each other but neither wants to admit it, they spend more and more time together until one of them finally cracks and confesses. The characters are happier than ever and live the rest of their lives hopelessly in love. While we hoped The Spanish Love Deception would be different, it sadly did not seem to escape this monotonous pattern.

“Romance? More like gross-mance,” said Evelyn Edlund (26’). “Do not read The Spanish Love Deception.”

The basic story of the bold, confident, extroverted woman falling for the stuck up, introverted, irritable man has been told many times, and this version was nothing special. The book is most widely known for being an enemies-to-lovers story, but it didn’t read like one. The very first line of the book is Aaron Blackford offering to do something very sweet and kind for Catalina. We both appreciate a good love story, which we think is one of the reasons we were disappointed by the storyline. 

The characters in this story weren’t especially important to the story, and didn’t go through any character development or change in any way that made them better (or worse). On social media there were many great things said about the main love interest Aaron Blackford, how he was hot and mysterious, but upon reading the book, there was nothing extraordinary to be found about him. He is a stereotypical grump, who quite clearly is fond of the main character, though she is unwilling to believe it.

The book was also marketed as a slow-burn romance novel, but we found it to move very quickly. Both of these tropes, when done well, can make a great story, but altogether the storyline was rushed and lost any sense of suspense. Some people enjoy the cookie-cutter rom-com story, but this book had the potential to be much more, and it was disappointing to find it didn’t deliver.

Deception had a lot of potential, and clearly many people felt it was a great book. However, we found it to be basic, and lacking an aspect of suspense that could’ve made this book better. Deception’s storyline was unentertaining, and the characters were too stereotypical, which made the book underwhelming and boring. The book didn’t capture our attention enough–or provide anything unique–to allow us to enjoy it.