This book was overly cute and heartwarming. This is the second book in The Long Game series. They could be read as standalones as well. I have officially read everything Elena Armas has written and I have yet to be disappointed. This small town romance hits you right in the feels. The main character, Josie feels destined to always be a bride and never a wife until Matthew comes along. I definitely recommend picking this book up along with The Long Game if you’re looking for a gushing small town romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 ✰’s
“To my readers (yes, you. Hi, babe),
Your expectations are not impossibly high.
Never let anyone make you believe you're asking for too much.”
From dedication, I knew this book was gonna be a good one and it didn’t disappoint.

Ahhhh, this book was the cutest!! I love a small-town romance. Especially ones where you feel at home and you’re laughing out loud while reading it and the fiancé dilemma is one of those books.

This book vibes gave me a modern-day Runaway Bride. Josie has not had luck in the dating scene she’s been engaged 4 times and never made it down the aisle. Which wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t get put into the public eye resulting in a PR crisis.

Josie’s solution to the crisis was to get fake engaged *enters Matthew. Matthew is Josie’s sister Adalyn's best friend. He recently came into town after quitting his job.

Matthew and Josie began a fake engagement and let me just tell you I can’t get enough of Matthew. Matthew fell hard and fast, he was so understanding and caring towards Josie from the beginning and throughout the whole book. Matthew was my favorite part of the book besides Grandpa Moe! I’m not going to say I dislike Josie's character but some of her actions did deserve a little side-eye. She was going through a lot and publicly at that so it was understandable why she was acting like that. I also love how Matthew was always here to “ground” Josie when she began to overthink things. I was giggling every time he would say “my fiance”. I enjoyed my time while reading this book and all the side characters!! Especially Bobbi Shark she was hilarious.


Thank you so much, NetGalley for the arc!!

i really wanted to love this one - i loved TSLD and hated TARE and thought maybe it was just a one off - sadly not. don’t get me wrong, i liked the small town setting and general plot - but from the beginning i didn’t get the vibe for matthew and josie and sadly it got worse - for me - through the book. matthew started off saying no to what josie proposed and didn’t even recognize her but 30% in he’s all about her? i also didn’t like the whole plot around bobbi and andrew - there was too many little things happening around the actual plot. And don’t get me started about when we found out about Matthew’s previous employment. I did like how Matthew taught Josie to stand up for herself and how he was all about his woman and that was the only saving grace.
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Perhaps, I love yous were meant to feel this big. To make you feel this naked. This exposed. So big you were terrified to hurt. So safe no one could touch you. Perhaps to love was to leave a mark. And perhaps I no longer wanted to run from that."

This is my first book from Elena Armas and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was both heartfelt, sometimes hilarious and ridiculous, and overall a fast-paced romance. The protagonist, Josie, reminded me of Jess from New Girl, as she was quirky, used ridiculous pet names, and got herself in sticky situation after sticky situation. I did enjoy her POV as I got used to her though, and I really loved her chemistry with Matthew, whom I really liked. This was definitely a case of instalove, but I really loved watching the passion and hunger come out of this couple, and see how they love each other exactly as they are. Also the bathtub scene??? Perfection.

I loved reading the podcast elements of the book. It was hilarious, and a great way to imbed exposition about our leading character. So entertaining!

I do wish there was more of an exploration into each of Josie's exes, perhaps with flashbacks to really understand how/why she left her fiances. Some, but not all, were explained and I really liked the concept of the novel so I would have liked to see more depth into that. A highlight was definitely Grandpa Moe, whose dialogue was hilarious every time - he simply stole each scene he was in. I also really enjoyed the character Bobbi, who was so blunt it was hilarious. I would love to see her get her own book honestly.

Overall, this was such an enjoyable, steamy, romantic and funny summer read!

Endless thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I’m the first to admit I don’t love small town romance but this one had the elements yet wasn’t overwhelming. I think The Long Game had more of a small town romance vibe to it.

That being said, this book was such a delight. I really enjoyed Elena Arms first two books but The Long Game didn’t hit for me. So naturally I was apprehensive about reading this one. I’m so happy to say I enjoyed it though!

Josie was such a likeable main character which made the book incredible. I loved her positivity, confidence, and optimism. Matthew was your stereotypical perfect book boyfriend. I didn’t really understand why he went along with Josie’s insane plan so quickly until the end and even then I was skeptical.

I did love them though. They were a very adorable couple who were just a smidge unrealistic.

Very entertaining though and I think fans of Elena Arms will devour this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! This books comes out July 30, 2024.

See link below for posted review!

“ Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this ARC! I ate this book up and immediately got the long game to read after (I know I’m doing it backwards)! I thought this was such a fun and easy romcom. Elena knows how to write and I’m here for all the grandpa moe content. I’m giving it 4.5 stars because of how ch 18 felt a tad unfinished at the end but that’s just me being picky. 👰‍♀️☕️☀️🐷🪻Off to read more Elena!”

The Finance Dilemma has an interesting storyline and great dialogue but something about the story didn't work for me. It felt incredibly rushed, yet really long. The fake engagement to real love came off very one sided though it was explained in the end that wasn't the case. Maybe if there were two POVs we would've understood there was a lot of pining that wasn't shown. It is a book worth picking up though and a lot of people will enjoy it. Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found The Fiancé Dilemma to have cute moments, but overall it was frustrating and it struggled to keep my attention.

It may just be that Ms. Armas' writing style is simply not for me.

This book was cute and I had so much fun reading it! Probably my favorite from Elena Armas so far! I didn’t connect much with the first book in this duology so I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this one. I did enjoy seeing Adalyn and Cameron as supporting characters though!

Fake dating (or engagement in this case) isn’t usually my favorite trope, but I feel like it was done well here. Josie and Matthew were both such likable characters and I was excited to see how their story would unfold.

Also, how pretty is this cover?!

Thank you Atria & Net Galley for the advanced ebook in exchange for an honest review 💜

I want to start by saying thank you to NetGalley for letting me have an ARC of The Fiancé Dilemma! Elena Armas is always a go to author of mine and I always love reading her books! Josie and Matthew’s chemistry was amazing and so cute to watch unfold. The way Matthew was so supporting of Josie and there for anytime she needed and vice versa was so sweet and real. I loved this book so much I’ve already ordered a hard copy for my own library!

This has seriously got to be one of my new favorite romcoms - these characters were so perfect together. I could not stop reading and legitimately lost sleep over this book. Fair warning, I did not read the first book and did not realize they were connected, so I’ll be jumping into that one next. This was the epitome of fake dating with the pining, he falls first and hard, and adorable shenanigans. Some of my favorite scenes were the ladder and walking home from goat yoga. Nothing can top the SOS text, though. I was giggling throughout that interaction. Everything about this book is adorable and was everything I did not know I needed for a summer read. I definitely recommend it if you’ve enjoyed Elena’s books in the past or are a rom-com fan! I only wish there was an epilogue so I could see how the characters were doing after the events of the story and handling their personal challenges.

3.75 stars rounded up. This is an enjoyable follow-up to The Long Game, but can be read as a standalone (in my opinion).

This is purely a love story where he falls first, and it has no third-act breakup. It was great to experience Adalyn and Cam’s story while being immersed in Josie and Matthew’s.

I normally have more to say on books generally, but when I tell you I LOVED The Fiance Dilemma I am not exaggerating. From the introduction of both Josie and Matthew in The Long Game I was in love with both their characters and the tiny hints that Elena Armas gives that they would be book 2 had me screaming, laughing, crying. This book was my most anticipated for 2024 and it did not disappoint! My favorite part about this book was that the author managed to write a couple of really quirky characters without making it seem forced or faked. Their personalities are dynamic and their chemistry is sizzling. I love the small town settings, the wide cast of characters, and the overall vibe that the author gives in this world that makes it feel lived in and cozy. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves romance! I can't think of two characters who deserved their HEA than Josie and Matthew.

3.5 Stars -
This book took me until over 50% to really be committed to the plot. I enjoyed Josie in book 1, but felt like her story came from left field and honestly was a little unexplained. It felt had to connect to her, like there wasn’t a depth there and I kept waiting for the shoe to drop as to why Matthew just ended up in town and left his job.

By the time we hit 50%, the answers started rolling in but weren’t fully revealed until the last few chapters where they became more redeeming which is why I put this book at 3.5 stars. I am curious to see if this will remain a 2 book series or if there will be more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Publishing for the ARC of this ebook, in exchange for my honest review

Josie & Matthew
• Fake engagement
• He falls first
• Slow burn romance

Josie and Matthew find themselves in a mess of a situation when they fake their engagement after Josie finds out about her long estranged father. There is only one problem, Josie is a chronic runaway bride. She has 4 previous, failed engagements.

Will Josie and Matthew make it to the altar? Or will history repeat itself?

This was my first Elena Armas book and I thought it was overall cute! I felt like the pacing was a little off?? And also Matthew kind of gave me the ick with how he talked to Josie in the spicy scenes. I found myself bored more often than not. Perhaps I would’ve enjoyed it more had I read The Long Game first? I just felt like there was something missing from this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

I am officially done with Elena Armas books. One can only read so many heroines that feel so far from real people and heroes that all feel the same.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this earc in exchange for an honest review

I DESPERATELY needed a 5 star read, and Elena 1000% delivered that to me. A book has not made me this giddy in a long time. The couple in this book; Josie and Matthew, were just so cute! While my favourite book boyfriend by Elena will always be my king Aaron Blackford, Matthew is a very very very close second. Thanks Elena for another slow burn banger.

Thank you netgalley and Artria for a chance to read this eARC of this book.

Although I loved love loved Spanish Love Deception and this was one of my most anticipated reads for this year. I had an extremely hard time relating to this MC...in fact...she was insufferable at times. Her quirks was just too much and her reactions to every situation was always too big for the situtation. It is hard to believe that I am not reading a book about a women in her late teens/very early twenties with how impulsive her character was.

Regretfully, I DNF at about 43%. I just couldn't continue on with the the story.

I would also like to note that I didn't realize that this book was a second in a series and states it is a standalone, but I did not feel as this was the case. I felt like I started in the middle of the story. Perhaps I will read the first and feel the need to pick this one up.

hooked from page one!!! I looove Elena Armas's writing style and how she always jumps right into the main story line. I like that we get background and learn about the characters as the chapters go on!
I relate to the main girl in so many ways! From struggling to find love (I finally found mine) and just the clumsiness. I also love the MMC, he was thoughtful and caring. From the beginning I knew they were meant for each other!

The Fiancé Dilemma is the second book in the Long Games series, and while not my favorite Armas book, it is an enjoyable read. Matthew is by far the best part of the book, and possibly my favorite Armas character to date. He’s sweet, goofy, caring, funny, and seriously romantic. Matthew, while reluctant at first to engage in the fake dating scheme, jumps in full steam ahead pretty quickly. He stood up for Josie throughout the book and was intent on letting her decide her feelings at her own pace. The tension and friendship between the two really hooks you. Definitely recommend a read.