"𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙭𝙚𝙙. 𝙄𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙢𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩."

UMM probably my fav Elena Armas book!!

To say I was swooning over Matthew is an understatement! This man was so incredibly down bad for this woman. The way he stood by her side & always made sure she was okay was adorable! Was expecting this cute lil shy man, but he was absolutely not that!! The mouth on that man?! ✋🏼 I actually can’t. He was perfect & I love him.

Josie was just everything! Between being her town’s mayor & having her own coffee shop, this girl was doing it all. Even though she’s gone through so much heartbreak & life changing events, she still managed to keep a smile on her face & moved forward. I love how much she loves her town. & her relationship with Grandpa Moe had me laughing so much.

The communication between these two?! I LOVED! This whole situation could’ve been a whole miscommunication moment, but they worked through it! Matthew was so patient with Josie, & Josie was so good at expressing her thoughts & feelings.

& the spice?! 🤭 yeah I was living for it!

tropes:
ꨄ small town romance
ꨄ he falls first & harder
ꨄ fake dating
ꨄ sister’s bestfriend
ꨄ slow burn
ꨄ no third act breakup

thank you to NetGalley and the author, publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was surprised by how much this book grabbed me from the very beginning. Typically the "oh, she's so clumsy" kinda characters are not my style, but I did very quickly connect with the fmc. There's a wonderful meet cute moment right at the get go that had me routing for this couple from chapter one.

Now here's your warning. This is a SLOW, slow burn. It builds well over the course of the book, but yeah you gotta wait for the big moment. I love that, but I know it's not in everyone's taste. There is a small conflict that, in my opinion, could have been avoided with some solid communication... but that said, I didn't mind the conflict much. This story has a very golden retriever mmc, but don't worry he's got some really good, swoony moments. I so wish we had dual POV for this story to get to know his character a bit more.

I appreciated the ending, I felt it fit the story and the characters well. This is technically the second in the series, but can totally be read as a standalone. Highly recommend!

i thought this book was cute, however, i was a little annoyed with the fmc. she just seems like she is super annoying. well written and a good way to pass time.

Thank you Netgalley, Elena Armas and Atria Books for the ebook! I loved this funny and all the feels romcom! This is everything that romcoms are made of and I really could just picture it as a movie while reading! I would love more of Matthew's story and perspective and even Adalyn and Bobbi. The characters were great and I really hope it's not the end!

💍 Book Review 💍

The Fiancé Dilemma by Elena Armas
💍
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year…and it did not disappoint! It was amazing! If you want the cutest, sweetest book with Runaway bride vibes, go read it immediately. Matthew is the new standard for book boyfriends. He wears glasses, faints at the sight of blood, has an SOS protocol with his younger sisters when they go out without him, is fiercely loyal, believes in magic and soul mates, and is an unapologetic romantic. He’s a little shy, but will do anything for his girl, and he has a surprisingly filthy mouth. I adore him. This book has everything you could ever want in a romance. The tension and chemistry are immaculate. Elena really makes you wait for the first kiss, but boy is it worth it. Parts of the book are cute and silly and funny; the witty banter is on point. Other parts are serious and a little deeper and deal with family relationships and ethics in the workplace. I loved every second of this book and I think it’s her best book yet!
💍
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
💍
Read if you like:
▫️best friend’s sister
▫️fake engagement
▫️small town
▫️he falls first and harder
▫️slow burn
▫️forced proximity
▫️found family
💍
Thank you to Atria Books, NetGalley, and Elena Armas for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Slow burn romance featuring the fake engagement trope. We met Josie and Matthew in the last book and they were fantastic side characters. Them being soulmates was fantastic. Matthew is very swoony with his words and big ending show of affection. Having to deal w/ Andrew Underwood and his PR agent Bobbi not so much. These two knocked a star off b/c of how they treated the FMC like a doormat and they never really got the punishment they deserved in my opinion.

TL;DR Spectacular, give me 14 of them of them right now!

Josie is a chronic runaway bride and to avoid being labeled as a having daddy issues she pretends she's engaged to her sister's best friend, Matthew. Matthew doesn't even recognize her at first but he's just a helpful guy so he agrees to this. Everything spirals out of control when they want the wedding to be in two months and these two start falling in love for real!

Now how did I feel about this book? I loved this book. Call me biased (or Bobbi Shark) all you want but I have never taken blonde MMCs seriously until Matthew. That goes to show how good of an author Elena Armas is because this book had me kicking my feet and giggling. I loved this book for real. I thought Aaron was the perfect MMC but Matthew has won that title. I also loved Josie and the whole town in general.

About it being a sequel, I never read the first book in the series and was able to enjoy this book immensely. I'm sure if I read the first one the experience would be even better but I just had a good time. I'm a girly that judges a book by how it made me feel and this made me feel great! I highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Elena Armas for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a sequel to The Long Game with Adalyn and Cameron. We met Josie in that book and her appearance caused quite a stir.
Now a podcast and pg 9 have picked up the story and have come to town to turn her life upside down. Josie is a bit of a Runaway bride (love that movie!). So this be fake engagement with #5 is probably a huge mistake.
But he is a friend of Adalyns and even though she picked him off the street she was attracted to him and his banter in their group chat.
So much was happening and I did not like Bobbi, the pr lady, but I think that was the point.
I think they had great chemistry and there were some scenes but really it was them just getting to know eachother while everyone planned a wedding around then, you know the usual.

The way this book hit me right in the heart. Those two ! I have no words.

Thank you so much Simon & Schuster Canada for an digital ARC for an honest review.

Matthew and Josie made me fall in love with love, soulmate, magic, fate. Their love story was so so beautiful.

They made me laugh out loud, their tension and chemistry had me screaming in my pillow and they made me cry at the end, because it was just so, so beautiful.

And Matthew is the sweetest but he can dirty talk all right. 🔥🔥🔥.

And Grandpa Mo, Bobby and all those amazing side characters; they made me want to live in this town.

Read this If you love :

✨ Fake engagement;
✨ Small town romance ;
✨ Sister's best friend ;
✨ Soulmates ;
✨ Sweetest MMC but dirty in the sheets ;
✨ Funny characters.

Review provided for arc from @netgalley and the lovely people at @atriabooks

If you love a good fake dating, golden retriever full sunshine love story, this is the book for you! 5 ⭐️ all around. I will be reading again soon just to experience so much love all over!

I loved The Long Game, even during Adalyn and Cam’s whirlwind story Matthew and Josie were my favorites. So the fact we got a whole book about them? Over the moon.

I loved the book and seeing the growth, we see Josie as so strong and confident in book one and we really dive into her character in book 2. We see what all that enthusiasm and big exterior is covering up and we get to see her grow through her biggest insecurities and fears. Matthew is just as fan boy, golden retriever vibes as in the The Long Game but also going to overflow your heart with sweetness.

What a beautiful story, Elena Armas is a genius and knows exactly what heart strings to pull.

⭐⭐⭐.5 🌶️🌶️.5

The Fiancé Dilemma is a charming small town romance with some endearing quirky characters and a whole lot of crazy wedding scheming! After reading The Long Game, I was excited to head back to Green Oaks and learn more about Matthew (Adalyn’s best friend).

In a book where so many hilarious & outlandish scenarios take place, I really needed to have Matthew’s POV to understand why he’d go along with it all. Because it was single POV, I struggled quite a bit to connect with their romance and it made the first half of this book hard to get into. Don’t get me wrong, Matthew said and did ALLLL the right things, but his flirting & caring didn’t pack as big a punch for me and seemed out of place without being able to dive into his thoughts.

As the book neared the end though, the story really picked up with great slow burn spice 🔥 and way more insight into Matthew’s feelings & motivations! He quickly becomes a top shelf book boyfriend and it mostly recovered this book for me.

If you’re looking for a heartfelt, fake engagement, small town romance with offbeat characters & yummy spicy moments, The Fiancé Dilemma could be for you!

There hasn't been an Elena Armas book that I didn't love so no surprise here that I fell in love with The Fiance Dilemma! The growth that Josie and Matthew go through is beautiful.

The daddy issues that Josie has (which hit home hard) were hard to read because all I wanted to do was jump in the book and give her the biggest hug. She deserves the world and all the love that she shows to others to return to her tenfold.

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew!! The mouth on this man haha. I loved his character and just how much he cares for Josie and shows her. He is the definition of actions speak louder than words.

This was an amazing slow burn because when the spice hit....OH THE SPICE HIT!!!

The ending of the book was perfect and I am so glad that I got to read this book early <3

Thank you Atria for the review copy and SimonAudio for the access to the audiobook (I read this one though)! I really enjoyed this book despite not being sure that all of the plot themes and the romance were all that believable. Sometimes with a fun romcom filled with laughs and tropes... you just enjoy the ride and the laughs and the slow burn. I leaned into let's just have fun with this story, I recommend that approach for reading/listening to this one.
I laughed a lot at the set up, not because it was trite but because I think Armas wanted us to laugh as readers picture some the scenes (a hand stuck in jam, the over the top PR person trying her best to make things work and stay full energy). I enjoyed the romance even though it was a little too predictable/forced and also a little too slow burn as the romance got a little lost in the fake wedding/fake fiance plot. At the same time, the small town setting, the ideas of family and found family, and the overall romance and ending worked for me.

this is 4 stars because I think it was 100% meant to be a fun frothy summer romcom and that is what you get!

Thank you @atriabooks for our copy of The Fiancé Dilemma!🫶 This book comes out today, July 30th!!

Genre: Romance
Rating: 4 ⭐️

Thoughts: I thought this was a fun, swoony romance read and I connected with this book more than the first one in this series! If you like the fake dating trope, you might want to read this one!

If you haven’t read this author, my favorite book of hers is The Spanish Love Deception!❤️🫶

3.5 ⭐️

how cute was this! a fun, quirky, slow-burn romance between a woman who’s known for her failed engagements and the most golden retriever man to ever exist in fiction🤩

Josie is known for her (four) failed attempts to walk down the aisle. She’s never really figured out why that is, but when her famous father comes back into her life (quite unwillingly) she becomes the ‘setback’ or ‘misstep’ in his reputation according to a popular gossip podcast. To save herself, she tells his PR strategist that she’s happily engaged a fifth time to her sister’s best friend, Matthew. Queue a long-winded plan on how to trick the world they’re happily engaged without hearts getting involved and feelings getting hurt.

Josie is a hopeless romantic who hasn’t had the best of luck with dating. I liked her quirky personality and her rambling when she was nervous. Matthew is THE best gold retriever book boyfriend to exist, I loved him!!!! a blonde man with glasses??? who is also a simp??? 🙂‍↕️ I loved how much he was willing to do for Josie and to protect her from her father and the media.

I really liked the premise of the story and how it felt like a movie, it just felt super rushed and choppy in places and I wanted more development to the characters and the story!! I think this had some potential to be 4.5-5 star if the story went a bit smoother but that’s just me!

I overall really liked the book and the characters, I would recommend this if you’re wanting a SLOOOOW burn romance with banter and tension, movie-like storyline & the simpiest mmc to ever exist!

Thank you Atria Books, NetGalley, and Elena Armas for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Check it out (today) July 30th💘

The Fiancé Dilemma by Elena Armas 💍

I love all of Elena’s books, but this is easily my favorite from her. A slow burn with plenty of treats along the way.

Josie is a romantic that's been engaged multiple times, but never actually made it down the aisle. For one reason or another things didn't work out with her past relationships and she's decides to take a little pause. That's until her and Matthew end up in a fake engagement to help her case when PR about her estranged dad starts up. Josie and Matthew knew of each other from a group text chain, but they hadn't met in person before. When Matthew shows up on Josie's driveway he's immediately roped in to being her fake fiancé. Josie feels bad for dragging Matthew into it, but he's more than happy to go along with the plan. Of course, Josie has to keep reminding herself that this is temporary and isn't real, despite everything feeling so real.

Matthew. 😌 I was right there with Josie drooling over that man and his glasses. He was so incredibly sweet and always knew when to say the right things to distract her or reassure her. While we don't get any chapters from his POV until the very end, I don't feel like I missed out. It being solely from Josie's POV added tension and enhanced the slow burn aspect. I was hooked wanting to know what Matthew would say to Josie next to help hint that his feelings had grown to something more. I mean this man liked to "collect" her different smiles and pick his favorite ones. Plus we get a backwards hat moment! What can I say, I'm a simple gal. I loved him.

Josie was such a sweet character as well. I feel like people may judge her for being engaged 4 times and not ending up married, I mean that's how her and Matthew end up in their fake engagement. But she's such a lovely and relatable character. She's someone who takes care of others before herself, always. So getting to see Matthew step in and show her what it finally feels like to be take care of and put first was adorable.

💍 fake fiancé
🌲 small town
🦮 golden retriever hero
🥰 soul mates
❤️‍🔥 slow burn
👓 he wears glasses
👏🏼 no third act breakup

single POV
5/5 stars ⭐️
1.5/5 spice level 🌶️

2 ⭐️⭐️

I wanted this book to be better but the premise was convoluted from the very start. First, with her having 4 previous fiances she left at the altar, then with the sister's best friend being a hot guy who literally walks by her house as she's having a dilemma and she claims him as her fiance like??????????? THE SETUP WAS JUST a lot to wrap my head around. Let alone the whole billionaire dad thing who her fake fiance also used to work for it was just A L O TTTT. I also saw the author say like you didn't need to have read The Long Game to get this book and I did read it back in January but I felt so lost having not remembered these characters Adalyn and Cam and felt like I needed to go back and re-read the Long Game before having read this and I don't like feeling that way.

The podcast cut ins that were supposed to be like really cutting and whatever were very lacking. They kept saying like 'oh there were so many insights about you in those 5 minutes' and I'm like where??? I don't really understand their purpose aside from driving the fake wedding narrative along. I just felt like it was poorly executed.

Now MATTHEW was hot. He was the only good thing about this book and we didn't even get chapters from his POV which is another gripe I have about this book lol. But he also just seemed to kind of....hm. fall in insta lust or love with her or wanting to protect her or whatever I'm not sure but there was just like he was resistant at first and then seemed to just be REALLY into her and being cute and sexy and flirty to her like a switch flipped and yeah he was being hot and those were really fun scenes to see them get right to the edge of kissing or doing all the touching and stuff but it also seemed pretty unbelievable to me. Again, the setup was just really.. yeah.

I can't say much for our protagonist who I didn't love or understand very well. The panic rambles were not my favorite. And again the 4 fiances I really.. yeah. There were some nice quotes in this book but the author had a tendency to repeat them multiple times over the course of a few pages which kind of diminished the impact of the quote to begin with, you know? I really loved The American Roommate Experiment and Spanish Love Deception but I'm not sure what happened with these last two books. This one really missed the mark for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Another banger release for Elena Armas!
I have no words but a good keyboard smash:
FNEOSNSOANDIENXISNSISNZONEZKSNNS

Josie and Matthew were the absolute cutest. I giggled, kicked my head, smashed my head into a pillow, gnawed at the bars of my enclosure. What more could I ask for? Another female character to keep in my pocket, and a male character to go feral over.

There’s something about Elena’s book that just make me.. feel good. Grumpy and sunshine characters I can relate to and have a soft spot for. The Fiance Dilemma definitely was an all around fun time for me. Mood: lifted!

So lucky to have received an advance copy through netgalley, because the wait would have killed me.

And in conclusion:
Blonde men with glasses supremacy!

Okay. Wow. This was incredible. Elena truly put so much into The Fiancé Dilemma, I am insanely proud and so so thankful for NetGalley, Atria, and Elena for the arc.

Releases: July 30th in the US and Canada / August 6th in UK, AUS, NZ

I am being so for real when I say I dropped my phone and cried when I got the email that I have been approved, like what do you mean I got an arc of one of my most anticipated releases of the year??? Like I have been obsessively checking all of Elena's posts about Matthew and Josie because I was hooked from the launch!

Matthew and Josie had my jaw drop. Like fake engagement, small town romance, runaway bride x4, slow burn, phone sex, etc. I mean the cards were on the table and had me aching for more. And hey, a man who wears black rimmed glasses can do what he pleases and say what he wants, because goodness I was eating out of Matthew freaking Flanagan's palm. Whatever had Elena writing him, gimme a billion more. Everything this man said was perfect. Literally hit after hit, there were no errors in his making. His dirty mouth, sweet-smooth talking, consideration, fun and carefree attitude (unless you mess with Josie), all of it just perfectly embodied him and oh I just know I will be re-reading him forever as I adored him in The Long Game and even more so here.

Josie, my girl, the trust issues and second-guessing were definitely there. But I have to say I love fmc who genuinely speak their minds and get so flustered that they mess up what they say and in turn end up embarrassing themselves, because, hi, hello, I am the same (which of course, I am embarrassed about). I loved seeing her build the relationship with Adalyn, Matthew, Cameron, and herself. (Also, pause, Cameron and Adalyn are so underrated, I adored seeing them appear in here, and if you read The Long Game, you know Matthew's feelings toward them, iykyk). No, but seriously, Josie was cute in The Long Game but to get the full depth of her and Matthew in here was so important and made their character arcs that much stronger and better. Seeing her open up and begin to accept that "hey, that's right, I should have been treated better during this and that," was super important, especially seeing Matthew pull that out of her too.

In another note, their relationship was everything!! I fear I may have gone deranged, because I have 270 highlights... we will not speak of such other than how was I not to highlight all the cute moments between them that had me giggling and twirling my hair as if I was on the receiving end...? All those important little things in a relationship? Highlighted. All the ways he spoke about her or defended her? Highlighted. All the sexy things he said? Highlighted. etc etc etc.

The forced proximity, the slow burn, the angst, all of it was done beautifully by Elena for Matthew and Josie and truly I am so happy I got to read them so fast. "Beautiful things shouldn't be boxed. It eventually dims their light." Tears! <3

Thank you, Atria, NetGalley and Elena for the arc, I love y'all so much and am so thankful I got this!!! <3333

Happy publication day (July 30, 2024)!
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC! My opinions are honest and my own.

The Fiance Dilemma - Elena Armas
3/5 Stars

Josephine “Josie” Moore is the mayor of a small town, owner of a cafe, and known for having been in not one, not two, but FOUR engagements that did not end up in marriage. She finds out that her father is the infamous, rich Andrew Underwood and now somehow finds herself - and her engagement history - under the scrutiny of the entire world. In hopes of trying not to embarrass her estranged father, she pretends that she is engaged (once and for all) to Matthew Flanagan, her sister’s best friend, who just happened to be visiting.

----

This was a cute book! I hadn’t read "The Long Game," the book prior to this which is about Adalyn, Josie’s sister, and I wish I had since there is character overlap. It was still pretty enjoyable and not absolutely necessary to read the first installment before this one (the author states this in the introduction), but I think it would have been helpful.

The predicament in the beginning of the book that Josie finds herself in was pretty unbelievable and honestly I was cringing the first couple of chapters. It felt chaotic. And I didn’t understand how yet another wedding would save Josie’s reputation.

But the saving grace to this book was Matthew. Honest, sweet, supportive…yet knows exactly what to say to heat things up. I absolutely adored his nicknames for her and how he knew when she needed a distraction from her swirling emotions. Because of him, even though the engagement was supposed to be fake, it didn’t feel that way at all. I wish we had more chapters in his POV!

Key Elements:
Fake Engagement
“Baby Blue”
Sister’s Best Friend
Sunshine x Sunshine
He Falls First
Small Town
Estranged Father

Spicy Chapters: 14, 20, 23

Quotes:
“Maybe I would help any stranger. But it’s you I’m going this far for.”
“Beautiful things shouldn’t be boxed. It eventually dims their light.”
“I don’t need her to walk down an aisle, wear my ring, or sign her name on a dotted line. She’s my happy.”