Rating: ★★★★
I have been a long-time fan of Elena Armas, and The Fiancé Dilemma is by far my favorite of her books! I loved it so much I cannot wait for all of you to read it. Elena once again brings us lovable main characters that you will immediately fall for, and luckily, we already know them!

We meet Josie, the mayor of Green Oaks, all around sunshine, and sister to Adalyn. When a recent article about their father put Josie’s four previous engagements in the spotlight, she was stuck in the middle of a PR nightmare. In walks Matthew, Adalyn’s best friend, who was recently fired from his job and moved to Green Oaks to hide out, with his sexy glasses, preppy looks, and charming personality. When, by mistake, Josie introduces Matthew as her fiancé, she finds herself engaged for a fifth time, and Matthew does not seem to mind playing along. Between planning sessions, long conversations, safe words, and tender moments, maybe fifth time is the charm for Josie?

One of my favorite things about this book was the tenderness and sweetness between Josie and Matthew. It felt like they found each other at the time they most needed each other and even though their relationship started as an accident, it never felt forced or fake. I really enjoyed getting to know them individually and together, which made me cheer for them even more!

The Fiance Dilemma is a follow on to the long game and is my absolute favorite Elena Armas book yet. This book features Josie and Matthew. Josie has recently found out she is Adalyns sister, and Matt is Adalyns best friend, who finds himself looking for a new start. He accidently ends up on Josie’s front step and before they know it has agreed to be Josie’s fake fiance.

I loved the character development of both characters and the ties to the long game! Highly recommend for anyone looking for a swoon worthy rom com.

Josie is minding her own business at home when she's bombarded by a PR nightmare. Her recently discovered and previously absent father turns out to be a business world celebrity, and her past four failed engagements don't look good. As luck would have it, her sister's best friend, Matthew, just happens to be waltzing up her driveway and somehow agrees to be her fake fiance in an attempt to make this go away. Well... It doesn't go away, and when gossip podcasts and paparazzi start to turn up, things get messy. Oh - and that fake relationship? It starts to feel pretty real...

💭 The cover? Adorable. The town? Super cute. The characters? Relatable. I love a good fake dating trope, and this did not disappoint. Josie has had some past struggles that have shaped who she is. She's not proud of her for failed engagements, but she's also a little afraid to fall in love. Enter matthew. Little does she know that he was destined to be the one, and he takes the time to show her that she's valuable. Did they take the PR stunt too far? Absolutely. Matthew's public declaration?? Swoon

Elena’s latest novel, The Fiance Dilemma, is the perfect feel-good love story we all need. The chemistry between Josie and Matthew is off the charts good. I loved that this was a follow-up to The Long Game, and we got to visit again with Adalyn and Cameron.

And really, our lead Matthew? Swoon worthy, perfect man material. Everything he says, everything he does. Protect him at all costs because that man will go to battle for you, wipe your tears away, and cause you to melt into the floor.

The feelings and emotions in this story were so relatable, and I’m so glad I got an early preview to indulge in. Love!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC; all opinions are my own.

This is my second book by Elena Armas and it was fun, quirky, chaotic, and cute. Josie the fmc has been engaged 4 times always has a lot going on and drama follows her everywhere. Matthew the mmc is the FMC's sister's best friend and he runs into Josie and finds himself in a fake engagement. The fake engagement aspect was so quirky because of the fmc and sometimes I was like how far are they going to go in the wedding planning before they come clean about it lol. The romance was a slow-burn and the steamy scenes were done quite well. I wish there had been more with the character development, especially in the beginning. I think the mmc wasn't as developed as I would have liked. There were also pacing issues, especially in the first half but overall this is a pretty quick and decent romcom. Thank you Atria for the arc.

Read if you like:
- Fake engagement
- Small-town romance
- Rom-com's
- Slow burn

Thank you to Atria Books & NetGalley for the ARC. I have read all of Elena Armas’ books and I have a bit of a hard time with them. I keep chasing the love I had for the Spanish Love Deception but nothing she writes ever gets close for me. After reading the Long Game I really liked Matthew’s character but when I started this book I feel like we lost him and he was replaced with another character named Matthew. I feel that because Josie is a character that incessantly talked & is so quirky that Addison’s quick & witty best friend got overshadowed. I feel that her editors should have pushed for a dual POV because he shows up at her door and all of a sudden you are second guessing his motives. I think knowing about Matthew’s text thread with Addison about Josie and him completely and utterly in love from the jump WHILE Josie was needing him, and unsure about him would have been ten times more romantic to know his real intentions and feelings. Also, I get Addison has other things happening in her life but to have the dual POV of Matthew & Josie where Addison is within those POV’s communicating with both Josie & Matthew about the situation and if she would have been in on the scheme as a go between, knowing Matthew is completely in love, would have added some depth to the story. Anyway, as a positive her spicy scenes are good. I will give her that. Also I really did love Matthew’s character and just wish I could have heard from him. Josie was sweet but lord does she need A LOT of therapy. Even just agreeing to a fake engagement for a father she doesn’t know and having 4 broken engagements is wild. The girl needs help, I will keep reading her books though to hopefully get another Spanish Love Deception so the jokes on me.

Oh boy not only is Elena Armas a must read author for me but boy it boy does she knock it out the park every time I read one of her books. I absolutely adored this book and the follow up with the characters from The Long Game.Josie is the small town mayor of Green Oak, NC with four past fiancés behind her when Matthew (Josie’s sister best friend) moves to town after he get fired from his job in Chicago. This is a small town, fake engagement, he falls first romance that gives you all the warm fuzzies and leave you laughing along the way. I’m so beyond grateful for this ARC and devoured this book in one day.

I haven’t read Elena before and let me tell you she has a new fan! I loved everything about this! It has been a while since I’ve had a 5 star read! Thank you for letting me be part of the story!

This book was a fun read with some emotional moments. Runaway bride mixed with a fake fiancé.

Josie has just met her long lost father. Fast forward one year and she has only met him through video chat. Josie also has a history of being a runaway bride leaving a trail of broken hearts. Four to be exact. So when her father’s PR manager shows up on her doorstep while she is trying to remove one of her old engagement rings what is a girl to do but invent a fake fiancé. Who better to play the role? None other than her new sister’s best friend Matthew.

This story is told from Josie’s point of view. Matthew is a great character and is great at protecting Josie. He is patient with her and balances out her quirkiness.

I was frustrated at times when Josie would let everyone steamroll her. I really wanted her to act like an adult and stand up for herself.

Overall I thought this was a cute story. It had a lot of similarities to the runaway bride movie and there were chapters that i felt like ended abruptly. It almost felt like whiplash, something would happen and then you would end up two days later without actually knowing what the resolution was.

I also recommend reading the first story. I felt like I was missing pieces to the story.

Thank you Simon & Schuster LLC for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I have loved all of Elena Armas’ previous books and this one is no exception! I read the whole thing with a smile on my face. Matthew and Josie have great chemistry and I love the “fake dating” trope. I enjoyed seeing characters return from The Long Game as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC!

Another duo executed beautifully by Elena.
We met Josie and Matthew in The Long Game, along with a handful of other side characters who continue to move this story along and give us laughs and maybe a few cries. This picks up about a year after the conclusion of The Long Game. Elena really has us falling for a blonde hair MMC who says yes to Josie’s chaos like one says yes to ordering fries with a burger. You can’t help but enjoy their antics throughout Green Oaks and how she ties things up at the end with *the texts*, in the feels.

Adalyn texting “my best friend and my sister” gave me all the Ross Geller from Friends vibes. I laughed out loud. (Although we don’t see much of her and Cameron in this).

Elena was not kidding when she said she was delivering her horniest book yet. The mouth on Matthew. He can sweetheart me anytime.

“Give your fiancé a little scream. Tell me who’s making the fucking world disappear.”

“…If someone fails to see all of that, or who you really are, then good.” A throaty sound left him. “More of you that’s just for me.” Okay. Again. Matthew.

Grandpa Moe with the jokes.
“Croquembouche,” he repeated.
Jesus Christ. “You’re unbearable.”
“And you’re cranky,” he pointed out. “You’re a crankembouche.”

Is Josie going to make him shortbread cookies?! No. She never did. JOSIE!!!! How could you after he told you they’re his favorite?! This, along with a few gaps around the previous fiancés kept this from being a true 5 star read for me. (Really though - how could she not make him shortbread cookies?!) A solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (like a 2.75)

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Atria Books

This was not my favorite. Perhaps all of this author's books need to be read in order? I felt like I was missing some background on the characters. And sometimes there would be a lapse of time between chapters that I had to sit and think about what happened in between the last chapter and this new chapter. I did feel some sparks between the characters, and eventually I was invested in the outcome, but for 3/4 of the book I was struggling to decide whether to finish or not.

The Fiancé Dilemma was hard to get into, because everything was moving so fast. it was fine, but overall not my favorite by elena.

I’ve been waiting for Matthew and Josie’s love story since I finished The Long Game. I was excited to see Elena’s take on the fake dating trope. I really enjoyed the small town setting again and I loved the two main characters. I didn’t care for some of the secondary characters, specifically Josie’s dad. I understood why he needed to be in the book because he had so much to do with why the characters are the way they are. Overall I thought this was a fun/easy read.

This is my first Elena Armas book, I've seen so many good things about The Spanish Love Deception and I have yet to read it, I know :( so I ran so fast to request this and thank you to Atria Books and Elena Armas for accepting!

I did think the beginning couldnt keep my attention, it was kinda slow but I pulled through and continued and it picked up in the middle to end. I loved how Matthew gave Josie the courage to love and to not run away and he would be there no matter what fighting for them .

In "The Fiance Dilemma" by Elena Armas, we dive into Josie's world as she faces her reputation after four failed engagements. To dodge her father's publicist and shake off the engagement baggage, she ropes in her sister's friend, Matthew, for a fake engagement.

Matthew is like a human golden retriever—sweet, sexy, and head over heels for Josie. Their fake engagement journey turns into something real, filled with hilarious, swoon-worthy, and sometimes awkward moments.

Josie's fun-loving personality and Matthew's protectiveness make for a charming read that's both heartwarming and entertaining. If you're into fake engagements with a dash of slow-burn romance, "The Fiance Dilemma" is a must-read that'll leave you smiling and rooting for Josie and Matthew's happily ever after.

I binged this book in a day, it was honestly so good! Thanks NetGalley for letting me read the ARC 💜

If Elena Armas writes it, then I will read it! This book is about the lovable and quirky mayour we fell in love with in The Long Game, Josie. When a sudden mishap and miscommunication due to her estranged father comes back into down, she is suddenly stuck in a little lie she told and now must scheme with Matthew, her new sister's best friend and also the extremely cute guy with glasses *swoon*. She ropes Matthew into a fake engagement scheme to get her father's publicist off her back due to her past of 4 failed engagements. Matthew, being maybe the sweetest guy ever, goes along with it. Although he is reluctant at first, he is quickly persuaded as it is so obvious he is already down bad for Josie. Thus we are gifted many funny, awkward and sweet moments between the two the involves them turning from friends into lover and so much more.

Matthew is the definition of a golden retriever. He would literally do anything for Josie and just wants her to be happy. We see that time and time again when he literally drops everything he is doing over a simple text she sent, Not only is he sweet, but oh so sexy as well.

Josie is just as fun as she was in the first book. I am so glad we got to learn more about her and see her find her true happily ever after with the right man.

These two together are just two golden retrievers finding one another. They are so sweet and the best part, no true third act break up. There is a bit of miscommunication as Josie at times can't see what is right in front of her with Matthew being completely smitten.

Overall, I really loved this book and can't see what Armas comes up with next!

Thank you to Atria Books and Elana Armas for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Atria for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
3.75 but rounded up because I love Elena Armas!
The long game was such a fun read for me last year so I was super excited to dive back into the town green oak. You definitely don’t need to read the long game first. They are an interconnecting stand alone but I always recommend reading it!
At first, I would pick it up read for about 10 minutes then put it down but I was hooked around the 40% and couldn’t put this down afterwards!
Our MFC, Josie is such a mess but in the best way. It made her so relatable as a character. I felt like I was reading about my best friend. The star of the show for me was grandpa Moe!! I loved every single scene he was in or even mentioned! It would have been a 5 star read for me if it was duel pov. I really wanted a peak inside Mathew’s head to see what he was really thinking. In the beginning the whole “mysterious guy” vibe wasn’t doing it for me. The more I saw/read and learned about him, the more he ended up really growing on me.

So I was really hesitating between a 3 and 4 for this, but ultimately, I did enjoy parts of the book a lot, even if others fell a little flat for me.

First off, I loved seeing Adalyn and Cam again, The Long Game has been my favorite Elena Armas book. There's an editors note at the beginning of the book saying this can be read as a standalone and that's not technically wrong, but I think you would get a lot more from reading TLG. There are a ton of repeat characters and I enjoyed getting to know Josie and Matthew in that book before seeing their story in this one. I did really like Josie and Matthew in this book, as well, although Josie was a lot at the beginning. because the plot needed her to be. It's not just anyone who will grab a person who is barely her friend and essentially force him into being her fake fiancé. I think Josie shined more when she was just interacting with her friends and family and not actually having to deal with the plot.

That's actually my major issue with this book. The plot is that Josie found out her father is a famous rich celebrity and the she's being seen as a mistake and a problem for his legacy, so a PR manager has been hired for her. Josie has had four previous engagements that have been broken for one reason or another, but this obviously (to the media) means she has daddy/abandonment issues. Josie panics when the PR manager appears at her house and ends up grabbing Matthew to be her fake fiance. The pacing really struggles with this plot. Ultimately, the end problem is they are being forced, or at least pushed, to get married very quickly. That means there's a long stretch where everything that's causing problems is the wedding planning and Josie's relationship with her father, which is tied into that. It ended up getting a little samey and at some point, a lot of the plot was just hinging on Josie's inner turmoil.

I did like this book, but unfortunately, I think it's the weakest of the author's bunch. I'm still really looking forward to whatever she puts out though!

I loved The Long Game. So much so that I have six copies of it, including one in German that I can’t even read. To say I’ve been excited for this book featuring characters I loved in that one is an understatement. Ultimately, it didn’t *quite* live up to my expectations, but it was still fun to go back to Green Oak.

One thing I did love without fault in this book was Matthew. That man is a tall drink of swoony water. He’s got a mouth on him, he’s got a sense of humor, and he has the strength to stand behind his convictions and behind the people he loves. He shows up. It would be impossible not to fall in love with him. He was without a doubt the best part of this book, and I wish we would have gotten his POV like we did Cameron’s in TLG.

Josie was complicated for me. So much of her personality that I loved in TLG felt like it was lost here. I had to keep reminding myself that so much of her world got a major upheaval with the Andrew reveal and she’d been thrust into a spotlight she never asked for here. I felt for her as her past was put under a microscope for the world to judge without really knowing her. I was happy when some of her personality made a comeback later in the book. Her life spiral made it kind of difficult to feel the relationship development between her and Matthew, but Matthew carried it with his steadfastness.

Even though I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, I’ll still be adding a copy of this one to my personal collection when it releases. Elena Armas could release a dictionary and I’d want to read and buy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.