I swear my heart stopped beating when I got an email from NetGalley saying I had been approved for The Fiancé Dilemma, one of my most anticipated books. I will admit that I loved Josie probably more than Adalyn in The Long Game, and was so tickled to see that she was going to be getting her own book. I thought though that it was maybe going to be Robbie she ended up with, but Matthew was even better! Fake dating is one of my absolute favourite tropes, and never have I ever wanted a dual POV better, likely the only thing that would have made this better – though getting it at the very end was a wee joy to my heart.
This book is great for you if you love:
- Fake dating
- Some spicy scenes
- Cranky, well-meaning grandfathers
- Engagement hijinks
- HEA with no third act breakup
BRB, going to go re-read The Long Game to relive Adalyn’s first time meeting Josie, because that wedding rehearsal speech *swooooon* I think I really just need more Matthew in my life.

My FAVORITE Elena Armas book to date! I am head over in heels for Josie & Matthew’s story. From their first in person “meet cute” on the porch all the way through to the epilogue I fell more in love with Green Oaks and these two crazy kids.
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First of all, I think Josie & I might be the same person (minus the engagements lol). That desire to find love, that desire to do everything yourself without asking for help, but honestly part of why you don’t ask for help isn’t because you’re stubborn it’s because you actually like doing all the things. Josie is more complex than when we first met her in The Long Game and Matthew is the absolute perfect person for her. He brings out the best in her, supports her and loves her fiercely which she deserves.
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Now onto Matthew, the new love of my life. Man he came in hot (literally and figuratively) with the jokes and the support and the not wearing a shirt. Even though we didn’t know about Adalyn’s text and that part of the back story until much later, you could tell from that first moment that Matthew was half way in love with Josie already. Then things got in motion and he fell deeper and harder every second. Not to mention his fierce desire to protect and support Josie and his absolutely feral reactions to her in times of distress, sign me up. Then to top it all off, he’s got quite the way with words if ya know what I mean. He’s sexy & takes control, but is kind and supportive while also being cocky & funny at the same time. Matthew is a Unicorn. Sign me up for some of that all day!
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OHHHHH MYYY GODDDDDD… I can’t believe I got the ARC and I can’t believe how AMAZING this one was. She never misses.
Elena and the SLOW BURN, THE EDGING, THE ACHING!!!
Love love love I love and eat up every single thing Elena writes.
Now as for the story! I loved the huge capacity of love and care that Josie has. I loved watching everything unfold. This is another great example of showing up for those you love and if they wanted to they would. Please. I love them.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this one, and thank you Elena for believing in magic and love like you do! My heart is full after this one.

Peacocking : Having a very high opinion of oneself, filled with or showing excessive self-esteem. For example, She strutted about in her new outfit, proud as a peacock.

I also might be peacocking over my latest book.

That sure was a doozy!

The Fiancé Dilemma !!!!

This book might just be my book of the year! It was absolutely wild. How will I ever live without Elena Armas, in my life?

I don’t have to, she has a backlog that will keep me busy for the week.

Check out this teaser:

Josie Moore has given the opposite sex—and love—plenty of chances. Four exactly, if you count all her failed engagements, and five if you include her no-longer-absentee father. Nonetheless, when the influential man decides to announce his retirement with a splashy magazine piece and Josie learns that her romantic history isn’t great PR for the family, she jumps at the chance to offer a solution.

Matthew Flanagan is in the mud. Literally. Not only has he been fired from his job, but after taking a wrong turn on his way to Green Oak, North Carolina, his car is stuck. So, he grabs a duffel bag with his essentials and goes in search of a place to crash until he gets his life (and vehicle) back on track. But instead, he stumbles upon his best friend’s sister, Josie, greeting him as her fiancé.

What starts as a big misunderstanding quickly turns into a fake engagement, with Matthew playing the role of the doting fiancé as he and Josie are swept into a PR whirlwind. The ring on Josie’s finger makes her stomach turn, but she knows this is only temporary. They have rules in place, and one of them is that no matter what, there will be no exchange of “I dos.” But that’s easier said than done, as lines soon start to blur, and the rest of the small town comes to believe the fifth fiancé is truly The One.

This book was the second in the series. Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book follows Josie and Matthew. It’s super cute and has a nice little twist to the fake engagement trope. I liked getting to know these characters more since we only got a little taste of them in the first book. I wish there was an epilogue to kind of see what happens down the line. Reading the podcast transcript was a little rough at times but when Matthew went on at the end it was so sweet. I also wish we got to meet Matthew’s family since he talked about them and what he would do with Josie when they met. Maybe they’ll be the next book?

Overall, I really enjoyed this sequel to The Long Game!

I was so hyped about this one and overall I’m glad I read it. Out of all of Elena’s books was it my favorite? No, but it was still a good read. Matthew definitely made me swoon but at the same time he seemed TOO perfect, you know? Like obviously I read romances and normally with that genre you’re gonna have some ideas be a far fetched (and I love that side of it.) But at the same time sometimes they make characters too perfect and it takes me out of it a bit. I can’t hold that against this story too much because I did enjoy the plot and characters quite a bit, it just didn’t hook me like her others. I did really like their chemistry and the buildup to their romance was well done.

Josie, who has been engaged 4 times and walked down the aisle 0 times, finds herself in the middle of a PR dilemma when it’s found that she’s a hidden child of her famous father. She had never known who her father was until recently and now she’s thrown into the limelight with everyone trying to figure out who she is. It’s found out about her failed attempts at love and she finds herself with the need of a new fiancée who will hopefully help calm the craziness down. Insert Matthew who recently lost his job and finds himself in the hometown of his best friend.
3.5/5 ⭐️
3/5 🌶️

2.75/5 Stars

I haven’t read an Elena Armas book in a while. After being disappointed with The Spanish Love Deception and then mildly liking The American Roommate Experiment, their books are somewhat a hit or a big miss.

But I found myself surprised with The Fiancé’s Delimma, it was entertaining, at times cringe and had a satisfying ending. Basically everything you want from a good old rom com. This definitely also has Netflix adaptation potential.

The Fiance Delimma follows the story of Josie who lives in a small town and owns a cafe. She also happens to someone who has apparently been engaged four times with our ever making is down the aisle. Enter Matthew, Josie’s fifth engagement, only this one is different because it is fake. Or is it?! Well you will have to read it to find out.

The main character Josie was sweet and just the right amount of quirky without being frustrating to read about. Matthew was also not a bad character I felt there was not much personality to him, as we don’t get to know him more than the surface level details.

now playing…
the bolter - taylor swift
baby blue - luke hemmings

first of all, thank you netgalley and atria books for the ARC

after reading all of elena armas’ other books, i was so excited for this one. even though i was originally worried that the premise would be too outlandish to be believable (which it was at times), this one ended up being a fun read!

i’ll admit that, at first, this one took me a bit to get into it. the first quarter of the book felt unnecessarily slow at times, missing the mark in providing the reader with opportunities to better understand our main characters. i’m a lover of a good slow burn, but this started off even a little too slow for me.

i really wish we got to see more of matthew’s perspective throughout the book. it was difficult to understand how matthew felt so strongly about josie so quickly. it made it harder to initially love matthew when it wasn’t clear if he was simply doing josie a favor and playing pretend, or if he really had feelings for her. once this became more apparent, he quickly became such a lovable character, and this was only intensified by his actions in the second half of the book and his brief pov in the final chapter.

despite these points, i really did enjoy watching josie’s and matthew’s love story unfold as they begin to understand themselves and each other. i really did love the ending. while parts of it were predictable, it still managed to subvert expectations and leave me satisfied.

overall, i would definitely recommend this one to romance readers (especially enthusiasts of the fake dating trope). just be patient with the characters— it’s worth it!

I am BUMMED.

I wanted to love this book so much… Small town romance? Fake engagement? It was all there!

The beginning of the book moved so fast, it was kind of hard to keep everything straight. Josie was kind of unlikeable — a little too ~wacky~ for my taste. I think this book really would have benefited from more of Matthew’s POV. He was the best part of the book by far. There were some cute moments that I really enjoyed, but as a whole, it just missed the mark for me.

Also the cover is beautiful, but it makes it seem like a why choose novel. The other fiancés are so insignificant, why even include them?

Thanks to NetGalley & Atria Books for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

DNF’d this book at 22%. The storyline was just not well done. Nothing about it was captivating or realistic. I didn’t even like the main characters

4.75⭐️ Thank you to Atria Books for the ARC!!

MATTHEW FLANNAGEN THE MAN THAT YOU ARE!!! YOUR HONOR, I LOVE THIS MAN!! Elena’s Armas books keep getting better and better!! I loved the different story line that you don’t normally see with fake dating! all the side characters were great too! I seriously was hooked from the first page and could not put it down! Wasn’t a full 5 star bc of the fmc was a little too annoying at times but otherwise this may just be my favorite book by this author!

First big thanks to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Normally I absolutely love Elena Armas books. Did I enjoy this book? Yeah, it’s fun and I loved the male hero, Matthew. This book has a lot of great parts, but it wasn’t really my favorite Elena Armas book.

This is the second in the series “The Long Game” but can be read as a standalone. Josie is the stepsister of Adalyn Reyes and Matthew is her “best friend.”

It’s a Runaway Bride meets 27 Dresses with an engagement of convenience/fake fiancé and is a slow slow slow burn, that eventually gets very steamy. But there were many parts where I was like KISS ALREADY, DO SOMETHING. 75% of the book felt like it was edging everything. It has my new favorite quote, “Beautiful things shouldn't be boxed. It eventually dims their light.”

I struggled with how long it was, and it took a bit to get into, which is why it’s not my favorite book by Elena.

But if you’re looking for something fun, and lighthearted, and you really want the tension to be built up over many pages, then this book is for you.

Okay so this was super cute. The premise is a bit unbelievable, but somehow Elena made it work!

Quick summary:
Josie is the ultimate people pleaser. So much so, that when her past love life becomes a publicity nightmare for her estranged father, instead of telling everyone to fuck off, so pretends she's engaged to her sister's best friend, Matthew. Matthew for his part is a saint.... a hot saint and goes along with it because we ALL know he is in love with her. We all know except Josie, who wont sit still long enough to notice. It all blows up in their face and everyone comes clean-- especially Matthew via the best mic drop pod-cast interview. Read it, you'll get it!

This is definitely a slow burn that is so worth the wait. There were some wonderful laugh out loud moment followed by moments that made me almost shed a tear.

Thank you #NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Do you like being edged? Then this book is for you haha. Josie’s father has created a “PR disaster” that in her mind is up to her to fix - even though he’s the root/cause of the issue. In walks Matthew to help Josie save the day. This is all supposed to be pretend but you can’t help but see the chemistry and heat between them - cue the edging. And holy cow when your girl Elena Armas finally gives you that release - that was not the Matthew I was expecting, woah Nelly! Great book, loved that we got to see more progression of Adalyn and Cameron’s relationship as well as Ada and Josie’s story as new found sisters. Wished there was an epilogue, but who knows maybe she’s leaving the future open for a further story?
Thank you to Atria Books for my ARC.

I don’t know that this book was for me. I definitely know some people who would really enjoy this book and it was good. I do wish there was a Matthew POV because I had a hard time understanding him.

Meh this one did not work for me right from the beginning. The set-up just didn't feel realistic or plausible. Two virtual strangers. Josie pretends Matthew is her fiancé and he just goes with it? And they instantly get all flirty and jealous? The marriage of convenience trope relies on mutually benefiting scenarios or secret pining. We get a bit of understanding at the end, but it wasn't enough to really have it all make sense to me. Maybe would've been better with a dual POV for insight. But then the story felt formulaic rather than character driven and I found myself just waiting for the end for the conclusion.

Note - I have not read The Long Game so maybe I would've felt more connected to the characters if I had?

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

There are no words to express the love I have for Josie and Matthew's story. Elena Armas didn't shy away from complex family dynamics, anxiety, or unresolved hurts. Josie is a perfect example of a strong, independent, lead female character and Matthew is the perfect blend of emotional maturity, strength, and vulnerability. I genuinely felt grief over the ending of the book - I could have read for hundreds of pages more. I cannot say enough about how dear and beloved Elena Armas's characters and worlds have become to me!

4.25/5

This was truly so much fun and if there's anything you should take away from my review, it's that Matthew Flanagan is your new book boyfriend.

I loved reading The Long Game and I was so excited to see the story continue with Josie! I really liked the premise throughout, and I felt that the media storm really spurred the action of Matthew and Josie's predicament and fake engagement. I thought that Elena did such a fantastic job with solidifying the small town antics and the quirky side characters that were sprinkled throughout The Long Game. At times I did want some more shenanigans, but overall it truly added charm and realism of the novel.

I am IN LOVE with Matthew Flanagan. He is truly the most perfect book boyfriend and I loved how thoughtful yet seductive he was throughout the story. The mouth on that man truly sent me into another orbit. The tension was immaculate and there were so many moments between Josie and Matthew that had me SWEATING. Matthew is genuinely the sweetest and sexiest man I have ever read.

I really enjoyed the journey that Josie went through to find her voice and the bond that she and Adalyn shared. I thought that she was a fantastic FMC!

I did wish that we had a moment with Matthew's family from all the backstory that was said about them! I feel like they could have added a whole other level to the story that could tie up nicely at the end.

I really hope that Elena continues in this series of interconnected stand-alones!!! I low key want a Bobbi redemption story where she has to stay in Green Oak for an extended period of time.

Overall, truly such a fun read and perfect for the summer!

Thank you Elena Armas, Atria, and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Although this is technically a standalone, I HIGHLY recommend reading The Long Game first. A lot of knowing who Josie and Matthew are come from that book and, although there is not enough Cam and Adalyn for my liking, I believe it is important to read first to understand who these people really are.

That being said, I feel like I spent a lot of the book trying to understand how Matthew came to feel strongly about Josie previous to when we did, as it really is a beauitful and tender reveal of not only Matthew's character, but his and Adalyn's relationship. More time should have been spent at the beginning of the book recapping the last year or building on the connection that got one line in the epilogue of The Long Game. I needed one of three things: more Matthew POV, more development and the start, or more info from Adalyn about who Matthew is as a person.

The chapters end abrupty and I didn't find the podcast snippets to add much substance to the story. This is not Armas' best work, but a Not Great book from Armas is still a Good book. Three star book, four star vibes.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Elena Armas consistently writes novels filled with compelling characters set in unique situations while still drawing on several beloved tropes. Her latest is no exception.

I was intrigued by Josie, “The Long Game” so I was excited when I found out she was getting her own book.

I was surprised a bit by her arc and by her instant connection with Matthew but enjoyed it nonetheless.