I absolutely loved Josie and Matthew’s story. Josie is first seen in The Long Game as the voluntary mayor of the small town of Green Oak, North Carolina - and spoiler for that book - you find out she is Adalyn’s half sister. The reveal of her long lost father has turned everything on its head - especially since he is well known in the media. Josie can’t cause any drama to draw negative attention to her father. So the fact that she’s been engaged 4 times and never married - yeah, that’s not good. Matthew was also introduced in The Long Game as Adalyn’s best friend. He is moving to town after losing his job and happens to be in the right place at the right time to help out Josie. I loved their relationship. The slow burn. How Matthew saw who Josie was behind the mask she put up for the town - and even herself. This book had all the things - quirky banter, well-meaning townsfolk, farm animals, just enough steam, and a perfect HEA.

Ahhhhh this book was amazing. I absolutely love Elena Armas and this book did not disappoint. While there were a few things I expected more of (Andrew), I absolutely loved Matthew and Josie. So so so so cute. I can’t wait for the world to get ahold of this one.

How many chances are too many? Josie has been engaged 4 times and she’s never actually walked down the aisle and sealed the deal. If her trust in men started to dwindle no one would question her, even her own dad wasn’t in the picture until recently. When said dad announced his retirement in a flashy article and Josies romantic history quickly becomes a PR nightmare. Determined to turn the narrative around Josie dives head first into problem solving. When Matthew gets into town he’s quickly dragged into a fake engagement scheme. Fifth times the charm right?

I still can’t believe I got an arc for this one!! Another one of my most anticipated reads of the year by one of my favorite authors. In my honest opinion this is better then TSLD, one of the books that reignited my love for reading. That’s a big deal.

I love a character centered book and the MCs in this one are amazing. Josie is so relatable and didn’t deserve all the heat she got for a few failed relationships. She was never the problem and Matthew helps her see that throughout the book. Speaking of Matthew, he’s too good for this world, we don’t deserve him, other opinions are not welcome. He’s so attentive, always putting her first and his grand gesture in the end. That’s hot. On a serious note Elena Armas is the queen of book boyfriends. Aaron Blackford, Lucas Martin, Cameron Cadani and now Matthew Flanagan. Are you kidding me?

The one thing I always tend too miss when it comes to Armas books is a dual POV. It totally works as is but I want to get into the mmc’s heads so bad. This is the second book in The long game series, the characters overlap and it plays out in the same small town. I suggest you read them in order because otherwise some of the backstory and references will go over you head.

No matter how long your tbr is this is a must read especially if you like the fake engagement trope, slow burn and the dreamiest mmc’s.

Read this if you like
💍Fake engagement
✨He falls first
🏡Small town
🌶️Spice
🔥Slow burn

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of The Fiance Dilemma. I've read all of Elena Armas's novels, and this one is my FAVE. I absolutely loved Josie and Matthew's story. This one is definitely a slow burn, but once it heats up, it heats UP. The whole cast of characters is amazing, but Matthew is just *chef's kiss* -- he's the best! You can definitely read this as a stand-alone, but I highly recommend reading The Long Game first, as it sets this one up beautifully.

Similar to The Long Game, the premise here is something I struggled with. Both books have a premise that is genuinely unbelievable. Here, Josie is the secret daughter of Andrew Underwood, a Miami billionaire businessman. For some reason, the fact that she has had 4 failed engagements is something that reflects very poorly on him. In an effort to rehabilitate her reputation (that no one seems to truly care about) she pretends to be engaged to her sisters best friend, Matthew. She was hoping all this would blow over and instead her father’s PR decides to jump on this engagement and plan a quick wedding. Cue secret-keeping and hilarity (maybe?) as Josie and Matthew inevitably fall in love.

I’ll be honest and say the fake dating trope is not my favorite. It’s a little too formulaic and predictable. Unfortunately, I did think this book is a bit like that, too.

I could not stand Josie at first. She felt very “not like other girls” and was kind of driving me crazy. Despite Matthew telling her over and over again he didn’t want to do a fake engagement, she kept pushing for it. It was pretty uncomfortable and I couldn’t help but thinking of if the situation was reversed and Matthew was the one trying to convince Josie to have a fake engagement. She eventually got better, but then Matthew got a lot worse for me. I don’t know what it was, but he was fine at first and then started to give me the ick.

I couldn’t figure out why Josie felt this need to allow Andrew and Bobbi to walk all over her. She owed them nothing. And similar to Adalyn in the previous book, she’s this very successful and beloved person in her town and just allows people to dictate her life for her. It took way too long for her to finally stand up for herself.

This book just felt sort of unfinished to me. I ended it and still had a lot of questions. Why did the engagements with Ricky and Duncan actually end? Why was marriage so important to Josie in the first place?

I have struggled with Elena Armas’ books since the Spanish Love Deception. Her characters are just not people I particularly care about. If anything, I feel pretty apathetic towards them and their stories are not that memorable. I’m also not the biggest fan of her writing style. I find it clunky and confusing sometimes, which results in me needing to re-read a section several times to understand what is happening.

All that to say, for a book this long I don’t feel like a whole lot actually happens. I know this book was originally supposed to be a novella, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if it stayed that way.

Thank you to Atria Books, Elena Armas, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Matthew is SUCH a green flag book boyfriend. His devotion and warmth to Josie made me swoon. The slow burn was sooo slow and yet sooo rewarding.
Seeing Adalyn and Cameron was such a a treat for us too. Elena has a way of writing the sweetest little love stories.
Only missing a ⭐ because I loved Matthew so much I would have liked to know more about his background/family/history!

*Disclaimer: I was generously provided with an advance copy from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. However, all viewpoints expressed above are my own!

The Fiance Dilemma left me with mixed feelings. I absolutely adore Josie and Matthew together but their story is cringey. In the Long Game, we were introduced to this fun loving, people pleasing whirlwind of a girl that is Josie, but this story shows us all her cracks, fears, and anxieties. Don't get me started on Matthew. He is easily a new book boyfriend now. He knows when to be supportive and step back, but he also certainly knows when to take charge, both in love and life! The fake dating and slow burn was done perfection with these two and I loved that portion of the story, but the whole background fell a little flat. The PR engagement, lying to friends, and letting Shark and Andrew run the show- along with the surprise ex-fiance showing up was a little ick and turned me off to the story. It also may have been intentional, but we were introduced to all of Josie's character flaws without seeing the character development. I was left wanting with Josie. Overall, it was a cute read, but not my favorite from Armas.


Thank you to Netgalley for this Arc!!

The Fiancé Dilemma by Elena Armas is the second book in the Long Game Series. This is Josie and Matthew‘s story.
 
I absolutely loved The Long Game and was so excited to return to the Green Oak world, but unfortunately this book fell flat for me.
 
It is established in the beginning that Josie is her own person who owns a coffee shop and is the mayor of her hometown which by the way you see barely any of it. She hasn’t had the best of luck with romance and after four failed engagements, she’s given up. If those engagements were anything like this story, I can easily see why they failed. But as soon as she learns of her father and he starts interfering in her life to better his image, she is more like a puppet and chess piece to him and what I disliked most was that she just goes along with it.
 
Matthew comes to Green Oak to start over after he lost his job and only comes to Josie‘s place on a whim. He is a sweet man, but that’s the extent of it. He agreed to their arrangement way too easily and that was also a bit strange, and he seemed willingly to do just everything and that rather seemed to me that he has no backbone and is only a puppet as well.
 
The start of their relationship was very constructed and if it weren’t for a persistent pr manager pressuring her, she wouldn’t have announced her engagement to Matthew. You could often tell that they’re totally faking it and it made a lot of the dialogue absolute cringe. In addition, moments that should have been a bit more intimate like their first kiss or their engagement shoot were brushed over and labeled as them being horny or just doing it to get out of a situation. It was honestly so sad and lackluster and there were some sparks between them, but for me their relationship never got real. The whole story felt like Josie and Matthew were just puppets orchestrated by her father and his PR team.
 
Overall, The Fiancé Dilemma is my poorly executed fake dating romance for me and the story had so much more potential. 2 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

ARC provided by NetGalley.

The Fiance Dilemma is a heartwarming and sweet story of a runaway bride who is afraid of people leaving her. She talks Matthew, her sister's best friend, into pretending to be engaged with her so she can save face for PR reasons. However, Matthew has secrets of his own and he's not ready to let Josie go. Josie's growth in this story is subtle, but done very well. Her affection for Matthew grows through his actions and he gains her trust through his gestures and words. I also really love the slow burn romance aspect. It's done in a way that left me craving for more, and I was definitely satisfied in the end.

I will say I probably would've benefited from reading The Long Game, the first book in this series, because I couldn't understand why Matthew loved Josie. I knew why Josie fell in love with Matthew because I fell in love with him, but I didn't get a good grasp of his affections for her. The writing style peeved me as well. The author uses choppy sentences that worked sometimes, but not all the time.

Overall, this story is very well done. I really enjoy the fake engagement trope and the runaway bride trope is fun as well. The romance is beautifully done along with the character growth.

This was not my favorite of hers, but it was still cute. I liked the plot, the characters, and the banter. If you are a fan of elena areas you should like this one. The book is a romance. Elena's writing style is still the same

3.5⭐️ rounded up!

thank you to NetGalley for giving me the arc in exchange for an honest review!

i have struggled with Elena Armas’ books in the past. i didn’t like The Spanish Love Deception and The Long Game but i loved The American Roommate Experiment. i’m so happy to say that i loved The Fiancé Dilemma!

fake relationships/engagements have so much tension that has you on the edge of your seat and this book did just that. i really love the silly and witty characters so i loved Matthew. Josie was a little too quirky for my liking but i loved reading about their relationship.

i will say the pacing was a little weird. things would speed up and one thing after another would happen but then it felt like nothing was going on. the ending was rushed and felt unsatisfactory but i overall had such a good time reading this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Elena Armas for allowing me to read this book early and share my thoughts with other readers!

This was my exact favorite kind of romance formula - a combination of beautiful immersive imagery and the investment of feeling like you are right there alongside the characters living it while the story unfolds. This book is like all your favorite classic romance movies rolled up into one big sundae of cute and sexy in perfect proportions. It wasn't too sweet and it wasn't too sexy - it was an addictive combination. I felt like I was right there with Josie squealing along at every thing Matthew said.

Josie was an interesting FMC for me because she is very much a paradox. She is both a strong, independent coffeeshop owner, Mayor of the town, neighbour and friend who exudes confidence but also is insecure, vulnerable, has anxiety and panic attacks (loved the mental health rep!) when it comes to herself as a daughter or fiancee. This separation within her character is written in a beautiful way that shows her growth and acceptance of herself.

Matthew is straight up book boyfriend material. Like I want a sweater made of his exact type of boyfriend material! He is a classic, he falls first and harder and the slow burn is just perfectly paced. I've read quite a few of these type of books but Elena Armas does an unforgettable job of integrating book boyfriend quotes that make you want to hold your own partner to this standard!

The spice was SPICY! It is only a 2-2.5 for me since it mostly consists of pretty vanilla scenes and doesn't happen frequently. However, do not get me wrong, it was HOT. There typically aren't many books I've read that can do phone sex right, but special shoutout to Josie's bathtub scene.

Overall, there wasn't any aspect of this book I didn't enjoy. The writing was beautiful, the pacing was perfect, the characters were interesting. It was a fantastic read that I can't wait to keep recommending!

I was so excited for this book but ultimately could not get into it. I don't get why the MC keeps leaving men at the altar (and why she still has all the engagement rings--shouldn't she forfeit that very expensive thing if she's the one to call it off, ESPECIALLY if she waits til the wedding day to do it?). The voice also just did not click for me. I really love fake dating but ended up DNFing because I just wasn't particularly invested in the relationship or the characters themselves.

I really enjoyed this book! One of my favorite tropes is a fake engagement so I was excited to get approved to read this book early! The author takes us back to Greek Oaks where we see Adalyn sister, Josie, get "engaged" to Adalyn's best friend, Matthew, to fix a complicated PR issue due to Josie's last 4 engagements ending. I think the best parts were all of the scenes when Josie and Matthew together. You see how their fake relationship becomes real overtime in the slowest of burns- And it was so satisfying. I did really like Josie. I think she has a lot on her plate and never really takes a moment for herself, but rather wants to help everyone else in town. So, I loved Matthew coming into the picture because he was the perfect fiancé. He was sweet, caring, supportive, funny, and hot. The creative nicknames had me cracking up. I loved that he was really the first person in Josie's life to put her first and actually stay when things got tough. It was such a perfect ending especially having no third act breakup and Matthew getting the final word with the podcasters.

I gave it only four stars just because I don't know if I agree with the way the father seemed to be forgiven. I wish Matthew or Josie would have told him off. I think he was toxic throughout the book, and I wish he did not have a happy ending. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend!

I own all of Elena Armas' books, but this is admittedly the first of hers I've actually read. Thankfully, it was easy to follow the characters' connections to each other and to previous novels, so I never felt lost in the new world. And I did enjoy being in Green Oaks with all its kooky characters.

Matthew and Josie, though. They were very awkward together at first. Or, rather, Josie was very awkward with Matthew. He seemed to roll with the punches, at least wanted to make their rouse convincing, but she kept balking and I eventually grew tired of her waffling. I didn't feel invested in them until the scene where Matthew explains the ring and its design to Josie. After that I was sat -- even more so after the text reveal. And I appreciate Armas not following the epilogue cliche in romance books these days; it wouldn't have felt true to the characters.

This definitely intrigues me to pick up Armas' other books, but I can't say I'll pick this up at the end of the month.

Josie Moore is a PR nightmare for her mega-rich father. The young woman has had her fair share of engagements (plus a few more), but has failed to tie the knot all four times. Her love life has become the fodder for tabloids and podcasts after her father announces his retirement in a large magazine interview. In a last-ditch effort to save face, Josie announces that she is engaged again and deeply committed to her newest beau. The only problem is that she hasn’t had a single date since her last aborted nuptials. With the help of her sister’s best friend, Matthew, Josie begins to spin the tale of love at first sight and deepest commitments. While the couple pretend to be in love and plan a wedding, they begin to realize that their relationship isn’t as fake as they thought and that this time she may have really found “the one.”

I received an advance readers copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review. My first one ever 💃 so here comes the review ( with some spoilers):

I’ve read all of Armas’s books so far and this one was my least favorite. She’s got some good spice in there and swoonworthy moments but I did not buy the beginning. The reasons for which the two fell into an engagement made no sense to me, and it sort of spoiled the rest of the book too. The premise is that after leaving 4 other men in front of the altar and that having a terrible PR impact on her rich dad, the heroine decides that the best way to tackle that is to have another wedding so she pretends to be engaged to a stranger ( at first). So her solution to having 4 incomplete catastrophe weddings is to try to have another one to fix things from a PR perspective? I know all books in this genre have a little contrived action in them but this was nonsensical. When I read the American Roommate experiment - the heroine had a huge hole in her ceiling preventing her from returning home. Sharing an apartment with the cousin of her best friend just made sense.

The chemistry between the two was good, and the arc of their romance increasing was pretty hot too. There were some good characters and villains in the story who all get good growth by the end. I enjoyed it, if I could have gotten over that initial premise thing.

Finally I think the sex could have come a little earlier in the book. It was good but a little overdue.

I would have still bought it I think, and it will make an excellent book read if you can get over the silliness of the beginning.

4⭐️/5
3🌶️/5

This is the second book in Elena Armas’ series The Long Game. It can be read as a stand-alone, but I highly recommend reading or listening to the first book for character introductions and the events leading up to this book.

Josie, coffee shop owner, the voluntary mayor of Green Oak, and Adalyn’s half-sister (FMC from The Long Game), is a PR nightmare to her estranged father’s legacy after a podcast makes a series out of her failed four engagements. Matthew, Adalyn’s best friend, arrives in Green Oak after being fired from his job and feeling unsure of his future.

Josie’s father sends Bobbi, a PR strategist, to clean up this “PR nightmare” and assumes a ring Josie is wearing is an engagement ring. Matthew stumbles upon Josie’s house after getting his car stuck in the mud trying to find his lodge and is introduced as Josie’s fiancé. Matthew reluctantly agrees and news of their whirlwind engagement spreads like wildfire in Green Oak.

The slow-burn chemistry between Josie and Matthew was swoon worthy. The people of Green Oak, Grandpa Mo, and the farm animals (Pedro Pigscal and Sebastian Stan) were all great additions as side characters. I loved Adalyn and Cameron’s appearances from The Long Game flowed with the story. I enjoyed how the transcripts from the podcast provided some context on Josie’s past. I really wish we had Matthew’s point of view, but you could easily follow his growing feelings from Josie’s POV.

Tropes: FMC POV, slow burn, fake engagement, sister’s best friend, & small-town romance.

Thank you to Elena Armas, Atria Books, and Net galley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I finished The Long Game, I was hoping and wishing Elena Armas’s next book would be about Josie and Matthew and boy did she deliver. I loved being back in Green Oak with such a great cast of characters. Josie and Matthew were hysterical together and had me giggling throughout. Such a great read that I can’t wait to recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

DNF at 20%
I think this book would have been really cute. I just really struggled getting through all the dragged out scenes. (I think Josie spends 3 straight chapters on her porch.) I found the story to be kind of boring & nothing made me want to keep reading it. I liked the characters, personally I much preferred Josie to Adalyn but I just couldn't power through. I think I'll definitely pick it up at a later date, now just wasn't the right time for it.