Elena Armas' "The Fiancé Dilemma" is a charming contemporary romance that navigates the complexities of love, friendship, and self-discovery with wit and heart. Set against the backdrop of New York City, the story follows Amelia, a spirited protagonist grappling with the unexpected return of her ex-fiancé, Ethan.

Armas' writing is engaging and relatable, capturing the nuances of relationships and personal growth. The chemistry between Amelia and Ethan is palpable, drawing readers into their journey of second chances and reconciliation. The novel's humor and heartfelt moments make it a delightful read for fans of modern romance.

"The Fiancé Dilemma" is a refreshing take on love and forgiveness, showcasing Armas' talent for crafting compelling characters and heartfelt narratives that resonate long after the final page.

🌸 arc review 🌸

The Fiancé Dilemma by @thebibliotheque
★★★★

✨ “Beautiful things shouldn’t be boxed, it eventually dims their light.” ✨

A swoon-worthy read that’ll make you laugh, blush, and wish you lived in the charming small-town of Green Oak, North Carolina. This is the spin-off book in The Long Game series — so even though it’s not totally necessary, I would start with The Long Game before jumping into this one. This book is about the supporting characters of the first one, Josie and Matthew.

Let’s start with small-town girl Josie — loved her since the first book! She’s such a ray of sunshine and is so quirky, charming, and funny. Totally would want to be friends with her irl 🫶🏼 and speaking of funny, Grandpa Moe is one of my favorite characters!! He’s too cute and absolutely hilarious. His humor was top notch.

Now onto Matthew 😮‍💨 this dude had me BLUSHING, I adore him!! Adding him to my list of book boyfriends 😂 but seriously, I love how he treats Josie. Let me tell you guys.. the chemistry was THERE AND IT WAS HOT ❤️‍🔥

When I first started the book, I was wishing I had Matthew’s POV as well, but as I continued to read it wasn’t something that I felt like I needed. Matthew was quick to speak his mind and say what he wanted anyways 😂

I truly loved Josie and Matthew’s story and it wrapped up beautifully by the end. 🩷 if you’re a fan of fake engagement, forced proximity, slow burn, and newfound family tropes like I am, then this one is definitely for you.

Mark your calendars — this book releases on July 30th and I cannot wait for you guys to get your hands on it! 💓

Thank you NetGalley, Elena, and Atria books for this arc! 🫶🏼

The Fiancé Dilemma was cute. It had all the fun things - fake dating, slow burn, and a happy ending.

However, I felt the burn was too slow and sometimes down right boring. It took me a while to really feel connected to the characters and at times I wanted to put it down altogether. There were parts that were so fun but majority of the book felt a little lacking. And the chemistry didn't seem all there for the characters.

The Fiancé Dilemma is a hilarious romantic comedy following Josie, and her sister’s best friend Matthew. In true Elena Armas fashion, you can expect hilariously awkward situations, and intensely swoony MMC, and incredibly hot spice.

I think I had very high expectations because I loved The Long Game. So for me, this story definitely gets off to a slow awkward start, but keep at it, because as Josie and Matthew get into the idea of their fake engagement, the awkwardness evolves into swoony hilarious hijinx. And did I mention the incredibly hot spice?

Despite the slow start, I really did fall in love with the story and zip through the rest of the book in no time. And I loved the little snippets of Cam and Adalyn that you get, though I do wish there was more! Here’s hoping for another book in this series!

ੈ♡˳ rating: 3/5
ੈ♡˳ thoughts:
i had not read the first book in this series, and i couldn’t get into the spanish love deception so because i thought it lagged a little bit but i decided to give this book a try anyway because i got the arc.

it also lagged.

which is crazy because it seemed as though the book was progressing so fast but also wasn’t progressing at all. the book is longer than it needs to be and i found myself flipping through many pages of unnecessary information and dialogue and descriptions just to get through the story quicker.

also the cover of this story. first i was giving off reverse haram. then i thought maybe her exes would come back and try to fight matthew for josie which also doesn’t happen. so all the men being on the cover is misleading and unnessary.

other than that, this is a very cute book. would buy for my collection of books but probably wouldn’t read again.


ੈ♡˳ tropes
ꕥ small town romance
ꕥ best friend’s sister
ꕥ fake dating

ੈ♡˳ fave quotes
“ೃ⁀➷ no favorite quotes because it’s an arc and everything is subject to change!

◡̈ ◡̈ ◡̈

Without reading The Long Game first, I did feel a bit lost throughout this book, which was disappointing. I’ve read a lot of interconnected standalone books out of order, but felt that this didn’t have enough background provided to really understand Josie/Matthew, their relationships to the side characters, and why their fake relationship mattered as much as it did.

Matthew is the definition of “a man written by a woman” (almost to a fault) and was really sweet to Josie, who had no idea what was going on for majority of the book. Seeing them fall for each other was a slow burn, but so rewarding in the end!!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this in exchange for my honest review!

This was THE perfect rom com! Fake dating, friends to lovers, small town romance, found family. The MMC was swoon worthy and the FMC was the perfect combination of needing what the MMC had to offer but also being a strong, independent woman. All of the references had me hooked: Bridgerton, Disney, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Taylor Swift…this was written for millennials! A must read! This is a sequel to another book but the author states you don’t have to read it first. I didn’t, and I didn’t feel like I missed anything.

I fell in love with Elena Armas and her writing after reading The Long Game and it's beautiful Ted Lasso vibes. I couldn't wait to dive into Josie and Matthew's story after getting a peek of them in The Long Game. Although I love the Long Game more than this one, I still enjoyed it. Learning about Josie's past relationship woe's and how she became such an integral part of the town was so beautiful. I was completely shocked to learn how spicy Matthew could be and died for his absolute loyalty, love, and protectiveness of those he loves. This is definitely a book I can recommend to fellow romance readers with confidence they won't be disappointed. I look forward to what Elena produces next!

This book is absolutely hilarious! I love this author’s humor, and having read the first book in the series, I can confidently say that both had me laughing out loud.

I had such a fun time reading this one! I was staring at my shelves, trying to figure out what to read next, and found this gem sitting in my Kindle library after being approved for the ARC. I decided to give it a go until something else jumped out at me, and I’m SO happy I did!

This is such a cute small-town romance. Josie, our funny, quirky, and cute AF female main character, narrates the entire story, and thankfully, she’s never annoying. Her perspective keeps the story fresh and engaging.

The chemistry between Josie and Matthew is fantastic! They’re both a little nerdy but also hot (my favorite combination) and they meshed so well right from the start. Matthew always knew exactly what Josie needed and showed up for her in the best ways. His confidence perfectly complemented her quirky nature.

Matthew is climbing the ranks of book boyfriends for me—he was PERFECT! However, the circumstances for the fake fiancée trope felt a bit too unbelievable, especially since it came so early in the book when Josie and Matthew had just met in person for the first time.

Overall, while there were moments I absolutely enjoyed, I struggled to find the connections as a full story. Nonetheless, the humor, the characters, and the cute small-town setting made it a delightful read.

DNF @ 30%. A pet peeve of mine in books is when the dialogue is too modern, or there are references to pop-culture, because it dates the book. I liked The Long Game by this author and was looking forward to this one, but I couldn't get into it for that reason. It reads a bit too millenial for my taste unfornuately.

Omg I Loved This Book!! It made me cry so many times. There were a lot of funny moments, heartfelt moments, and moments where you wanted to punch some of the characters in the book lol. I would definitely recommend it. You will absolutely love it if you’re into cute and spicy romance.

ELENA YOU HAVE ME DOWN BAD FOR A BLONDE. HOW?

The Fiance Dilemma was a lotta slow burn and even more mess. Josie's doing damage control - not for her reputation (although it may seem like it is) but for her father's. Josie's been in four failed engagements and it looks like because her father is well known, it is now everyone's business. Everyone's got something to say about her past love life and when Andrew (Josie's dad) PR rep finds herself at Josie's door, Josie finds HERself wanting to be anywhere but there. Unlucky for her she is caught spinning the tale of her most recent engagement that most definitely has not happened and even less so with her sister's best friend, Matthew, who unknowingly stumbles into this lie.

They decide to see this lie through because surely they won't have to do it for that long but when things get bigger than they would've expected - feelings included - they're not too sure how they'll come out on the other side.

Of Elena's work so far, I don't think this one was my favourite all around HOWEVER, I do think that Matthew is one of the best. He was trying to break every narrative Josie had to worry about, including the ones spun in her head. He was just trying to be that guy so she could feel even a little herself. He was so attentive and Josie needed him SO BAD. The people pleaser gene was so real in her and I wanted her FREED FROM THE HELL. It was great. They were great.

I thought the ending was wrapped very nicely. There was no third act breakup (romance readers rejoice!!!!) and the drama was not over the top and unnecessary. Honestly, it was a ticking time bomb until we'd gotten to that point. I do wish she had had more of a moment with her grandpa, who was one of the few she had in her corner. I felt he deserved as much. But that's my biggest issue in this cast of characters.

This book was such a fun read. It was easy to tell from the start that Matthew liked Josie - who wouldn't, she's easy to like. But after seeing all the ways she takes care of the people around her, I knew she needed to be taken care of and I was so happy to see Matthew step up in that way. Andrew and his antics were annoying, of course, and the fake dating did feel very obviously forced, but I still enjoyed seeing these two open up to each other and find their happily ever after.

This book was a great 3.5 stars read. Josie finds herself in her 5th engagement, this time it’s a fake engagement, but no less complicated or stressful. Matthew just got fired and needs a break from it all so he goes to Green Oak and finds himself engaged to his best friend’s sisters.
This was a nice if not a bit too long read. I don’t get why Josie would just allow herself to be used by someone who has not done much for her. She could have easily said no when Bobbi came and said that she had to do this or she would have to move to Miami. There was no actual valid reason to go along with it other than she was told she had two options and she went along with it. After everything she saw her sister go through, why would she allow Andrew back into her life? I wished she had more valid reasons for going through with this.
Mathew was giving some mixed signals in the beginning saying no to having to do anything with her or for her and then calling her sweetheart the next second. Luckily, he quickly went all in and that was a lot more fun. He was great for her, I loved that he defended her, and fought for her. I loved the Twilight reference, I was laughing way too hard, but I found it hilarious. I loved the little futbol references throughout the book.
I received an ARC of this book. Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books eGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

So full disclosure, I go into each of Elena’s books looking for the magic of The Spanish Love Deception. I absolutely loved that book and to be honest they usually fall flat for me. I did struggle to get into this book a bit, but this quickly rised in ranks and I really enjoyed it.

This book had everything you can expect in Elena’s books and then a little more. Matthew’s dirty mouth had my jaw on the floor I was not expecting it. It’s always the quiet ones in glasses. I loved the familiarity of Adalyn and Cameron. I do wish we got a little more of Andrew as he was the main focal point of why everything was going on and at times his presence seemed random? But I loved the small town vibes. Grandpa Moe. The close knit community. It was so incredibly well done.

Maybe it was just be but I also expected there to be more with her ex fiancés with them being on the cover?

Infinite thanks to Net Galley, Atria books and Elena for letting me read early!!

As much as I love Elena Armas and her books, I couldnt fully get into this and had to unfortunately DNF. Thank you so much to Atria Books for providing me with the eARC!

Wow! I must say I loved this book and liked it more than the first! Josie deserves all things love and happiness and I’m so happy she got this here. This book had everything! Romance, comedy, tension, fake dating, etc. The slow burn in this book may be much for some but for me it was perfect. Josie is scatterbrained, quirky, and all over the place (kind of like me) so I completely relate to her in so many ways! Matthew was the perfect guy for her and I’m so glad we got to see their story play out! 💜

Thank you NetGalley, Elena Armas, and Atria Books for this ARC and allowing me to review this book early! 🥰

This delightful romcom is a worthy addition to the author's novels, and features characters from the previous novel, The Long Game. I found the main characters, Josie and Matthew, immediately engaging, and was soon absorbed in the improbable but fun storyline. Josie's estranged father, Andrew, makes a reappearance here, as does her sister Adalyn, and the tension between Josie and Andrew makes a good plot point in this novel. Andrew's PR person, Bobbi, also provides conflict and tension as the story unwinds. I like how the relationship between Josie and Matthew develops throughout the story (it doesn't seem too 'insta'). The added hurdle of being stalked by social media podcasters as their fake relationship develops into something real also kept me thoroughly interested in the story. Family dysfunction, the destructiveness of small-town gossip, and the pernicious nature of social media contribute to Josie and Matthew's struggles with lies, shame, and the weight of other people's judgment as they work their way towards their HEA. While this isn't my favorite novel by this author, I enjoyed it a lot and found it a great summer read to take on vacation with me.

What can I say, Elena Armas has a way of crafting books that enter deep into your soul and lodge themselves there. This was as amazing as her other novels, an absolute delight and a perfect summer read.

Thank you, Elena Armas, Atria Books, and NetGalley for access to an early copy.

This one could be read as a stand-alone but I highly recommend reading after The Long Game. It's a highly enjoyable sequel.