This was my first experience with a fake engagement trope, and this book was a pleasant surprise!

I found Josie's character pretty relatable -- constantly getting lost in her head, her thoughts overwhelming, and doubting herself. I enjoyed seeing how her character progressed and took control of the situation with Andrew, and the boundaries she put in place.

Matthew's character was *chef's kiss*. I just loved him. He made me laugh, he made me smile, and he tugged at my heartstrings. He was fiercely protective of Josie, and so, so sweet to her.

The slow burn was slooow, but I believe it was perfectly timed given the premise of their story. The spice had me grinning and kicking my feet.

I absolutely loved this book!! Thank you so much NetGalley!

Thank you netgalley for this arc! 3.5⭐️ this book was sooo cute. I loved both main characters and their banter, I loooved the slow burn. This was such an easy read, *most* of the characters were likeable. Some parts of it did make me cringe though, which knocked the rating down. I really enjoyed the ending and the fact that she didn’t fold under everyone’s pressure and didn’t get married!! Girls that don’t fold to please their boyfriends>>>. I’m glad her and Matthew are getting their happy ending though.

I have to stop reading books by this author. I have read all of her books and think they are all bad. So I am not sure why I read this one. It was not good.

I read the first book of this series so I was excited to be approved for the second. This book was sloooowwww. It took me quite a while to finish it because I just had no desire to know what was going to happen next. Many times I found myself board. I wish there was more of their actual romance instead of what they were pretending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this book, I have most of Elenas work.
I have the following the Spanish love deception, the long game, and the American room mate experiment.
Let me tell y’all when I got home and found that beautiful brown package awaiting me I screamed of joy!!
This is my first physical arc and digital arc as well.
Thanks to Simon & schluster.

Book review [ MAY CONTAIN SPOILER ]
This book had me laughing A bit as well as in the feels. Our protagonist Jamie is what I like to call the runaway bride, our boy Mathew is set up lol
Jamie pretty much makes up this lie that they’re engaged, crazy right ?! But there’s A plot twist they both end up falling for each other and the rest is history.
This novel is A solid 4 stars for me, Elena is very talented and she is hilarious she’s dm me on insta and I felt like I knew her personally. Check out this title if possible you wont regret it.

The Fiance Dilemma is the second book in The Long Game series. Elena Armas is one of my favourite romance writers and I've enjoyed all her books so far, including The Long Game. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy The Fiance Dilemma so much. The male character was great but the female character didn't quite do it for me and the chemistry between them wasn't so believable. I still didn't get why the female character had so many failed engagements. It wasn't a bad read, but it was a long read. Thank you, Netgalley and Atria Books for giving me the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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

This book is an example why I tend to shy away from single POV books. It wasn't objectively bad and the book was well written. However, only being in Josie's head for 98% of the book had me scratching my head at their romance. I also found it weird that we finally got Matthew's POV only for the epilogue. The chemistry felt odd and stilted at times. While their "romance" started quickly with a fake engagement, this one had a much slower start for me. It wasn't until about 50% into the book that I actually started believing the chemistry between the pair and that they could make a go of it. The steamy scenes were well done, but the first couple felt like they came out of nowhere.

Even though I did not enjoy this book as much as I have with Elena's previous books, I liked Matthew and Josie's characters as a whole. Because we only get in Josie's head, we see how much Matthew shows up for her, even when it might be difficult. I loved how protective he is of her and how he doesn't think she needs to change or fix herself in any way. And he's so vocal about it to Josie, which was endearing. You have to love a man in glasses and his sweet acts of love (the engagement ring!) totally melted my heart. Josie is super quirky and I loved how she said whatever she thought. It just flew out of her mouth, which was absolutely awkward and hilarious. However, I found her incredibly chaotic and all over the place with her emotions. At times, she was just too wishy washy for me and I got whiplash a couple times.

There were some fantastic lines, banter, and declarations of love that were absolutely beautiful. I also loved all the quirky side characters and the strong elements of found family. Moe is a damn hoot and Maria will forever have a place in my heart. There were many redeeming qualities of the book in the end and for fans of single POV, this is one you will enjoy.

First of all, I love Elena Armas’ writing style, her adorable book covers, and mostly her engaging characters! I also enjoyed revisiting the Long Game universe, where supporting characters Josie and Matthew earned their own book. That’s where we find ourselves taking a closer look at their romance story.

I know this sequel is not perfect. Some background details about Josie's past were not fully explored, and I wanted to read Matthew's perspective earlier in the book. I liked him in Long Game: he’s supportive, reasonable, and a goofy best friend. However, I wish I learned more about his thoughts and what makes him such a compelling character. That said, he’s caring, lovable, and charming as hell from the beginning, never disappointing the readers.

Josie, with her girl-next-door charm, already stole our hearts with her kindness, putting other people first, and a mix of naivety and intelligence to fight her own battles.

I loved both main characters. Grandpa Mo/Maurice is one of the greatest supporting characters in the romance world, and I laughed every time he appeared.

The chemistry between Josie and Matthew is off the charts, making each chapter intense, passionate, and incredibly hot.

In the opening of the book, Josie finds herself in an awkward situation involving an old engagement ring and a PR crisis. Matthew, covered in mud and fresh from a car mishap, gets dragged into the chaos. They end up pretending to be engaged, leading to a series of hilarious and heartwarming events.

The plot is filled with palpable chemistry, and the line between pretending and reality gets delightfully blurred. Josie and Matthew’s bond grows stronger, and their dynamics are a joy to read.

Overall, I’m rounding up 4.5 stars to 5. Despite wanting more from Matthew's POV, the main characters and their chemistry were so compelling that I couldn’t help but rate it higher. I loved Josie and Matthew’s dynamics even more than Adalyn and Cameron's.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this highly anticipated romance novel’s digital reviewer copy with me. I highly appreciate it.

So I haven’t read the long game but this book was sooo good. It started off a bit slow but it get’s better! I loved the relationship between Josie & Matthew & the banter was A1. If you love a fake dating trope then definitely pick this one up!

Alsoooo, Matthew’s little quotes had me falling in love with him myself. My favorite was beautiful things shouldn’t be boxed. It eventually dims their light.” And Grandpa Moe had me cracking up!

I have so many other quotes annotated in my kindle & can’t wait to get a physical copy for my bookshelf.

Thank you netgalley for an ARC of this book!

💜💍 The Fiancé Dilemma - ARC 💍💜
The Long Game #2
By Elena Armas
✨ Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Atria Books and NetGalley for this eARC! - which releases July 30th! ✨

💜 Josie and her newly acquainted father find themselves in a pickle. A PR nightmare.
In order to smooth things over in the eyes of the media, extreme measures must be taken.

💍 Fake engagement
💜 Sisters best friend
💍 Slow burn
💜 Single POV

✨ From the dedication page I was already hooked.
💜 Hilarious, quirky, fun.
💍 These characters are something else. I adore the relationship between Josie and her grumpy Grandpa Moe - he reminds me of another stubborn grandpa I know, mine 🥰
Matthew is a bit mysterious - mainly because this is told solely in Josie’s POV and she’s a little clueless when it comes to him. I was DYINGGG to see what his thoughts were while all of this was unfolding - because like I said - clueless narrator (which I found quite fun in this case!)
💜 Matthew is the calm to Josie’s storm. I adored that he didn’t change her, but instead embraced her chaotic mind and was fiercely protective.
💍 Josie and Matthew worked so effortlessly, I cannot stress this enough. The way their relationship is written was unique and heartfelt right up until the very end.
And hoooo boy there was some ✨tension✨ going on there!

💜 I don’t usually have much reaction while reading in the case of facial expression, feet kicking, laughter, and 😍- but this book had me doing all the things.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️

This was a super cute & fun read and I’m so glad that I started with The Long Game. This book focuses on two side characters that we met in the first book ☺️ the design of the ring as the page dividers was such a lovely idea as well 🤍

Let’s start with Matthew. Though we know more about him from the first book, the reason he lost his job & comes back into town is not revealed until later. I really wanted his perspective for the story as well because I had so many questions and I definitely wanted to see where his head was with Josie from the beginning - definitely he-fell-first. Matthew didn’t just “play” the part of fiancé. He fully stepped into the role. The last chapter was EVERYTHING 🥰 I loved the nicknames he kept trying to give Josie as a joke (one of many examples is Sweetcheeks) & what he finally settled on - Baby Blue 🥹💙

Now for Josie - Josie has one of the biggest hearts. She has gone through a lot in life and built a place for herself in Green Oaks on her own with the support of her chosen family, her community. The main conflict in the story is that her estranged father she recently learned about is retiring. Now that their history is revealed alongside the fact that she’s had 4 failed engagements, Josie is seen as a “PR nightmare” or something that needs to be cleaned up. I get that Josie is the sweetest and aims to please everyone, but I just felt that the reason behind the fake engagement for her father’s sake just wasn’t justified enough, especially considering that they had never met and he had not ever been involved in her life previously.

With all of that being said, I still loved this book and I think the way things played out made sense. I’m always a sucker for a HEA and I’m low key in love with cinnamon-roll Matthew Flanagan 😍

Shoutout to our amazing side characters - Grandpa Moe (Maurice) stole the show for a lot of scenes. Between fighting with the neighbors, his side comments/threats, and refusing to open the door after pretending not to hear it - all had me cracking up. I loved having some of the Green Warriors, Adalyn & Cam present in this book as well, it really brought together the feeling of the community and gave me all of the feels from book 1 💞

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing a copy of the e-book in exchange for my honest review.

Matthew might be my new favorite blond bespectacled cinnamon roll MMC. The slow burn in this book was delicious and there are so many quotable moments that I can’t wait to share once the book is released. We follow Josie who we met in The Long Game- mayor, coffee shop owner, goat yoga leader, and all around joyous human who has been engaged four times before, never making it to I Do. Thrust into the spotlight because of her father, her Julia Roberts-ing becomes fodder for a podcast that is more obsessed with the men she hasn’t married than with the woman herself. Despite all of that, she builds a real connection with Matthew who quickly realizes there will be no running this time.

This was a great book by Elena Armas! I love her writing and this was not any different! I love the banter and spicyness. This story made me feel for Josie through her happiness, sadness and insecurities. Thank you for allowing me to read this ARC!

I enjoyed this book! One of my biggest annoyances with romance novels is where there is a big fight due to miscommunication or misunderstanding. There was none of that! Even though the relationship was fake, there was never a moment where they decided that things were going badly for whatever reason or misheard something and felt great offense. I even enjoyed the glimmers of redemption it seemed that the father might be receiving. Overall, this was a happily ever after for EVERYONE.

Josie deserves all the love in the world and someone who truly understands her. In comes Matthew, sweet, funny, and wears glasses! I was instantly charmed and surprised at how much I loved this blond man! Grandpa Moe was my absolute favorite!

It pains me to rate The Fiance Dilemma three stars because I LOVED The American Roommate Experiment. So much so that it made my top books of 2022. Unfortunately, The Fiance Dilemma missed the mark with its over the top main character and lack of chemistry between the characters.

Josie was a difficult character to like. I found her quirkiness to be over the top and outright annoying at times. Let’s just say that Josie would not make it as an actor since she was not able to interact with Matthew in a believable way to save her life.

There was little to no angst or tension between Josie and Matthew. This was mostly due to Josie’s behavior. Their interactions were awkward and not at all believable. Any moment with the glimmer of angst or tension was immediately undercut by Josie’s quirkiness.

Despite this lack of tension, there were a few spice scenes that were fire hot. For this reason, I decided to rate it three stars instead of four.

Overall, The Fiance Dilemma was disappointing. I had a hard time enjoying Josie as a character, let alone connect with her. I wasn’t a fan of the daddy issues. The lack of chemistry between the characters made reading a slog to get through at times.

That's just something about fictional blonde men that I can’t seem to stay away from.
Like, every man written by a woman is perfect, but they have something more that I can't quite grasp, so now I'm apparently attracted to men with glasses. Why, I couldn't say.

Is this the best piece of contemporary romance I've read this year? Nope.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I’ve noticed that more than one of Elena Armas's books is so close to just being ridiculous, and that's probably one of the few things I really can't stand.
In my modest (and critical) opinion, “The Financé Dilemma” is just on another level in comparison to the first book, “The Long Game”, for a series of motives that I've already explained. Well, nothing to worry about here because, even if Josie is way more optimistic than she has reasons to be, and there's one character that was clearly created to just be the villain, at least we’re back at acting like normal people - and not characters from a sitcom.

And there are so many topics I could talk about - from the not-so-subtle come and go of the two main protagonists of the previous book to the lack of talk about Josie’s past, and so much more.
BUT I just love that, for once, there's no big issue for which they have to break up with some big speech about why they should definitely be together and all that. I keep thinking about it, and I can't remember if I've ever read a book where the two don't argue over something or someone, where there's no betrayal of some sort or whatever you may think.

Also yes, I haven't really talked about my love, Matthew-without-a-surname-but-who-cares, and it’s because it’s difficult to explain magic with words.
As per Elena’s words, “ Your expectations are not impossibly high. Never let anyone make you believe you're asking for too much. And that, my friends, is the beginning of a perfect love story.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

3.5 out of 5. I love Elena Armas books, The American Roommate Experiment is spectacular so any new book by her will be an automated read for me. It was also great that it was a direct continuation of the Long Game and both Adelyn and Cam feature prominently in the book. The book was a bit slow to start, but it sped itself up and the cute ending was adorable so it went up in stars and my appreciation. I think my main issue with this book and why its not ranked higher even though I enjoyed it and its a super cute romance is that throughout it it just felt too much like a copy of runaway bride. Not just inspired by but very much a retelling of the story. Its a fabulous story to use, but then the originality factor is not there. I do love the added family dynamics and that gave it a little bit of a spin.

This was a cute story that I enjoyed a lot! The characters and plot were written well and I throughly enjoyed the ending.

I loved this book! The protagonist, Josie, is literally ME! i laughed out loud, swooned and awwwed throughout the book!
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After a really long time I enjoyed a contemporary romance book! If you love a messy protagonist, fake engagement and slow burn romance then YOU HAVE TO PICK THIS ONE !!
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This book comes out on July 30th 2024! Add it to to your TBR!