This is the year of women written by men - romcom authors have been stepping it up. Matthew is heading up to my top 5 favorite book boyfriends. I’m not usually a slow burn girl but the pacing and payoff was so worth it. I loved the resolution of their relationship, and watching Josie fall a little more every day.

The beginning had me leaning towards 3 stars because some of the lines were SO cringey, but by the halfway point it was starting to turn around, and then Matthew’s filthy mouth really stepped it up. Plus, NO SECOND ACT BREAKUP 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 praise the writing gods.

Elena Armas has done it again! I have loved all of her books and this one is no different. The Fiancé Dilemma is a slow burn, small town romance with some of my favorite tropes! I absolutely love fake dating/engagement of convenience.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

*slams hand on table* HE. *slams hand on table* CALLS. *slams hand on table* HER *slams hand on table* BABY *slams hand on table* BLUE

this is the cutest book I have read in a while!

it was slow at first but it got so good in the middle and I loved the ending.

Loved this book so much and thank you for letting me read it early! I thought that the two leads were perfect, particularly Matthew - OMG! He's literally perfect! Story flowed well, and although Elena Armas' books are typically slow burn, I wish things would've heated up between Josie and Matthew before the 80% mark. But still loved it and its my favorite of her books now! Will recommend to my girlfriends :)

The mayor of a small town pretends to be engaged to her sister's best friend in order to salvage her reputation as the one who always runs away from weddings. Even though Josie and Matthew quite literally stumbled into this fake engagement and mostly did it to appease Josie's father and his passionate (and slightly unhinged) PR manager, they support each other and convince the town of their relationship.

Elena Armas combines the fake engagement, small town romance, and forced proximity tropes in a magical way that had me swooning and eager to figure out what happened next.

The big theme of this story, in my opinion, was parasocial relationships/celebrity gossip. Josie's father is a "famous" business man, mostly because of the hijinks his daughters get into that gain attention on social media. The fact that a whole podcast segment was based around a daughter of a businessman who broke off four engagements is baffling, especially considering Josie is the mayor of a teeny tiny town and doesn't have any kind of relationship with her father. It seemed like everyone interested in Josie's story only cared about her failed engagements and the drama rather than questioning the men she was with and why they care so much about her love life. Social media and celebrity culture is fascinating and slowly becoming more and more problematic, and I appreciate how Elena Armas showed us the consequences of this. I loved that Matthew went to the podcast, held those women accountable, and set the record straight.

Josie and Matthew are a beautiful couple, and I ADORED that there was no giant miscommunication third act breakup, and no stereotypical marriage in the epilogue; their relationship was validated by their love and connection rather than paper and others opinions, which was a refreshing take on contemporary romance.

I cannot wait for everyone to get their hands on this fabulous book. Thank you NetGalley for providing an advanced copy.

elena armas i love you so endlessly. i'm just so in awe of you.

when i saw the next book would be josie and matthew's, i just knew i was going to be absolutely obsessed and in love with their story. and indeed i was!!!

<b> "beautiful things shouldn't be boxed. it eventually dims their light." </b> I SOBBED!!! matthew is what every man should be. i fell for him instantly. he is such a sweetie pie that was nothing but kind to josie.

josie is someone i found myself comparing myself with. i think her personality and character is so complex and needs to be explained well to understand, which is what elena did. the silly all around girl we knew in book one had much deeper emotions than we thought. we learned about how she coped with her mom dying and how she has dealt with her whole life being changed with finding out who her father is, and that her best friend was actually her sister. she is an extremely strong character whom i admire.

i will never not eat up the fake dating plot. it's just absolutely genius. these two were it for each other from the start and nothing was going to change that. i truly just loved this book so much.

thank you netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review ! <3

Thank you so much NetGalley, Atria Books, and Elena Armas for this advanced readers copy of The Fiance Dilemma. This book comes after The Long Game if you haven’t read that one already I recommend it! But it can also be read as a standalone. I am a sucker for fake engagements and fake dating, it’s my favorite trope. One thing I love about Elena Armas’ writing is how she does fake dating right. We saw that in the Spanish Love deception. Her main characters always have chemistry and have witty banter which I adore. Her writing just gets better and better with time.

While this wasn't my favorite of Elena Armas' books due to its slow burn, it was still an entertaining and lovely read. If you're looking for your next beach read, I would recommend The Finance Dilemma!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

You know - I’m giving it 5 stars. It gave me so many emotions - laughs, cringe, heartache, rage, heart eyes.

I love josiematt 🩷.

Elena Armas is an automatic buy and this one did not disappoint.

3.5. It was good, but the set up felt off, a little too instant love for me. I don’t know. The chemistry wasn’t quite right, but I can’t pinpoint it. The last 1/3 of the book was really good though.

Usually I don't go for books with the fake dating/engagement/wedding trope, I've never really found one that I enjoyed. But let me tell you, this one takes the freaking cake! From the beginning, you are thrown into pure chaos. The ridiculousness of it had me hooked.

I absolutely loved the characters in this book. I loved the angst even though it almost killed me. My heart broke for Josie but I was so happy with how the story ended.

Thank you to netgalley and Atria books for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Dare I say that I loved this one even more than the first book in the series. There were so many moments in this book that had me giggling and kicking my feet. Matthew is such a swoon worthy MMC. I am sucker for a fake engagement and Matthew and Josie were so beautifully written in this trope. I loved the small town nosey vibes, which is what got them into this mess in the first place. I also loved seeing the previous couples make an appearance in this book, and play a part in it. I am looking forward to future releases by this author.

Goodreads review is live. Instagram review scheduled for 22-Jul-2024.

I really enjoy all of Elena Armas's books, and the Fiancé Dilemma was another good read. I really like the FMC, Josie, but I wish we got to know the MMC, Matthew, better before diving into the story. I enjoy the romance between the two of them, but it feels like it was a little rushed.

The Fiance Dilemma follows the relationship between Josie, the mayor of a small town, and Matthew, her newly discovered sister's best friend. Josie has had several broken engagements and is somewhat of a runaway bride. She ends up faking an engagement to Matthew as part of a misunderstanding and pressure to improve her image. Of course, real feelings eventually develop but things are complicated along the way.

So, I could not really get into this book. I don't think I'm a fan of really sweet FMCs who have cute nicknames for their fiances and substitute other words for cuss words. There was some charm to a few characters and I liked the small town vibe. Once the spice hit, it was great! Overall, it just was not for me but I'm sure others will enjoy it.

Thank you Atria Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Love Elena Armas! This is one of my favorite books by her! The banter between Josie and Matthew were some of my favorite. This book is hilarious but it is definitely a slow burn book. It can be a bit boring if you aren’t looking for a slow burn. But an overall enjoyable read.

3.5-4 stars

Let me preface this review with the fact I am a big fan of fake-dating tropes as well as the slow burn, so this book ultimately had two of my favorite romance aspects. This was the second book of Elena Armas's I have ever read and I did not read the first book of this specific series, The Long Game. I do feel that I might have benefitted from reading the first book to get extra background to some situations eluded to within this book. Although this book at least gave small recaps here and there.

Josie, our FMC, finds out in the first book that she is the daughter of a very wealthy and prominent business man. A few months after this reveal, suddenly everyone knows her affairs, specifically the fact she was not engaged just once, but four different times and got married to none of the fiancés. In order to "fix" the negative things being said in the media, Josie pretends to be engaged once again to Matthew, her half-sister's best friend. Solid plan that of course leads to many awkward or funny moments as well as Matthew and Josie spending more and more time together.

I enjoyed the slow burn of this novel and felt the relationship between Matthew and Josie progressed very naturally. I loved that Matthew really protected and stood up for her, something we find out she has been missing and makes her realize some truths. I'm also glad there wasn't a super dramatic miscommunication between the two, I felt the issues that came up they dealt with together and made for a better storyline.

I wish there had been a bit more of her mayoral duties as it is brought up many times but the true focus is the fake engagement and wedding planning. I think it would have added an extra layer to Josie to actually show her as the caring and helpful mayor versus having the town keep mentioning it. There were also a few scenes where something bigger was said or done and then the scene would completely fade to black. We'd get the characters sometimes several days later still thinking about that moment but I felt it didn't make sense to just abruptly end the conversation or scene. It was jolting and ruined the flow of the book overall. I also wish there had been more background to Matthew, we don't get very much of what has shaped him and left a bit to be desired at times.

Overall, I did enjoy Josie and Matthew together and the way they developed over the story. There were some funny moments, spicy moments and even touching moments that made for a wonderful story. There were just a few things I was wishing for and sometimes found myself getting frustrated at the writing versus the actual characters.

Thank you to netgalley and to the publisher! Elena Armas has done it again! I felt the connection between these two MCs and can't go wrong with the fake engagement trope! After 4 broken engagements, Josie is looking for her own happy ending. Unfortunately, this is a PR problem for her father and Josie must enter into a fake engagement with her sister's best friend. I always find these books make me laugh and cry which are the best kinds of romance reads :)

I loved this book. Fell in love with the characters from the beginning. I wanted to devour the book and read it fast but had to pace myself because I knew I wouldn’t want it to end.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Admittedly, I did not enjoy the first one in this series, so I am not totally sure why I requested the second. I found my complaints about the first one equally valid here: the characters were somewhat selfish and uninteresting, and it didn't seem like an authentic connection. Oh well, onto the next!

Thank you again for the ARC!

After reading the first book in this series (The Long Game) which can also be read as a standalone. I never imagined Matthew and Josie would be the topic of book #2 but how delicious that Elena was plotting it all along.

This is a very, very, very slow burn, he falls first, fake engagement trope book that takes place in North Carolina. Josie is a small town girl, mayor of the town, with four failed engagements and a new (to her) rich dad from Miami. Matthew is her sister’s best friend who was previously in Chicago.

What happens when the dad hires PR to make his image better and ends up using Josie as a pawn? Matthew comes to the rescue that’s what!

The side characters were equally as fun, enter Grandpa Moe!

I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the book:
“Beautiful things shouldn’t be boxed. It eventually find their light.”