If, like me, you read Elena Armas’s The Long Game, and found yourself fascinated by Green Oak, North Carolina’s mayor-slash coffee shop owner-slash Jill of all trades Josie Moore, and wanted her to get a happy ending after the bombshell revelation that she and Adalyn were half-sisters, then you’re in luck! Armas’s latest, The Fiancé Dilemma is exactly that and more.

The story follows Josie, now swept up into a PR crisis not of her making, after her identity is revealed in a less-than-flattering profile of Andrew Underwood, Adalyn’s dad and Josie’s biological father. A PR rep arrives in Green Oak in damage control mode, and immediately tries to take control of Josie’s narrative, and things spiral when she’s led to believe Josie is engaged (for the 5th time) to Matthew, Adalyn’s best friend who is in town for a visit.

I’m a big sucker for heroines who clearly have it together, but don’t fit the stereotypical bill of what a “woman who has it all together” looks like. For all that Josie doesn’t always seem to believe in herself, she’s obviously a beloved community leader, someone who makes sure everyone’s needs are met, and runs a successful business. She also just has so much love to give, and I admit I have a soft spot for that too.

For his part, Matthew is every bit the swoony romance hero we like to see. He’s sweet, considerate, clearly head over heels for Josie, even when she thinks their fake relationship is still fake. Really, if there’s one regret I have with the book, I wish we could have spent more time in his head. Luckily he’s the type of hero who wears his feelings openly, and communicates them, but I’d have loved to get a peek at what he’s thinking at some of the story’s more pivotal moments.

I greatly enjoyed what we did get though, and The Fiancé Dilemma was absolutely jam packed with moments that were both Hallmark-sweet and delightfully steamy, making it the perfect beach or poolside read as we head into the warmer months.

The Fiancé Dilemma hits shelves on July 30. Special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advance copy for review purposes.

I was excited to read this one but the main character was more and more unlikeable. I could not get behind a character thar would ditch 4 guys at the Altar no matter the reasons. After the first time, you'd think she would learn to at least break it off before then. And then she is roping in a fifth poor guy to trick her dad? Nope not for me.

"The Fiance Dilemma" is a companion novel to Elena Armas' "The Long Game," and it feels like it. While some companion novels can stand on their own with teeny comparisons/shout-outs to the originals, "The Fiance Dilemma" is not that. "The Long Game" protagonists, Adalyn and Cameron, have a very well-known presence in "The Fiance Dilemma." I mean, after all, Adalyn is the half-sister of "The Fiance Dilemma" main character Josie Moore and the best friend of Josie's love interest, Matthew Flanagan. That being said, "The Fiance Dilemma" is still very much Josie and Matthew's story of fake dating with just brief hints of Adalyn and Cam's HEA in the background.

I personally found that I enjoyed "The Fiance Dilemma" more than I did "The Long Game," but that is probably because I just vibed with the content more -- not that there is anything wrong with either. Both books showed off Armas' exemplary writing style. Her prose is so compelling that just drew me in completely.

The Fiancé Dilemma by Elena Armas 4 ⭐️ 3 🌶️

Josie has been engaged 4 times yet has never said I do, and when he father who was never in the picture appears and ends up being a wealthy business man and needs some damage control done. When Bobbi Shark shows up as Andrews (father) publicist. Josie fakes another engagement to Matthew her sisters BFF.

This was a cute easy read, with fake engagement and small town romance vibes. Josie and Matthews chemistry was so good, the banter and quick wit from Matthew made it so much more enjoyable and did fall flat. With a little it of spice it adds to the story and makes you feel more for what they are going though and the feelings they are developing.

This book reminded me of the movie 27 Dresses (which I love). When a fake engagement becomes a love story Matthew was such a great male character. The only thing I didn’t love was the length of the book. Some chapters definitely weren’t needed. This was still a great romance book that I’d definitely recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc of this book.

Run-a-way bride meets the modern age! It was an amazing romance novel. I do wish there was more squad time - love the main four: Matthew, Josie, Cam, and Addlyn. Thanks NetGalley for the e-copy.

I think the Fiancé Dilemma is my favorite of Elena Armas’ books. It’s a great romantic comedy. Josie is thought to be a runaway bride. She had been engaged 4 times and never went through with the marriages. Matthew was fired from his job and comes to live with his best friends sister who is Josie. Josie’s extremely wealthy father came into the picture and threw her and Matthew for a loop. The story looks at why Josie never got married. Josie and Matthew decided to pretend to be engaged. They went through planning the marriage and all of the family dynamics that goes along with it. In the end it was revealed that they were faking the engagement. However Matthew admitted in a speech that the moment he saw Josie in person, that she was going to be the one he married. In the end, Matthew and Josie were really both in love with each other and chose to stay together without a formal wedding. I really enjoyed their story. Thank you to NetGalley for an e-copy of the book.

i enjoyed this one. i was really invested in josie and matthew’s story from the jump. read if you enjoy engagement of convenience, small town, fun light hearted rom com, quirky fmc, and dreamy mmc.

This story can be be summed up as "fake-dating." If fake-dating is your favorite trope and you read books solely based on that, you may enjoy this.

But, while one always has to suspend their disbelief a bit with fake-dating stories, this one stretched beyond my limits. We're thrust right into the fake dating with almost zero backstory or explanation. I had read The Long Game, but it's been a while. Since this was said to be a standalone, I would have expected more explanation of things without needing to refresh myself on the characters.

Similar to The Long Game, I never understood the why behind the setup. The entire premise for why the main characters need to pretend to be engaged in flimsy to me. If the setup doesn't work, I'll have a hard time believing the rest of the story. The setup possibly could have been improved with more of that backstory early on, but honestly, it just felt like the justification for everything was "this is a fake dating story therefore the characters need to pretend to be dating."

Not for me, but if you really love the fake dating trope, you might enjoy this.

I really really loved portions of this book. I loved that it took nearly the whole book before the two main characters finally got together. I loved the intimate moments between the two when they were alone several times in the book. I loved that she chose not to be married in the end. I love that their love was enough.

There were things in this book I didn’t love. Sometimes it felt like the book was too quirky. It also felt longer than necessary. Some plot lines didn’t add up or come to fruition like I wanted. But overall I really enjoyed reading this book.

I wanted to like this one so much. But the main female character got on my nerves so much and I just felt like the dialogue and chemistry fell flat. I just don’t think Armas books are for me. Giving it 3 stars.

Elena Armas, the woman that you are!!!! I absolutely adore all of her books but this one might be my new favorite (or #2, idk i can't decide)!! I loved Josie and Matthew and their slowww burnnnnn (if this trope has no fans, then i am not on this earth anymore). The love between them was so good and the spicy scenes were great, as always. I LOVED ALL OF THE NICKNAMES TOO!! overall, i loved this book, if you couldn't tell,

It should be illegal to have a slow burn this good.

He falls first
Slow burn
Fake Engagement

These last 4 books in a row i've read by Elena Armas have been unique and lovely. I cannot wait for what she tackles next I NEED IT

Woah, I have so many thoughts on this book. I don’t even know where to begin.
First, this book is said to be an interconnected standalone, book 2. It is NOT! There is so much context that is referred to but clearly missed if you hadn’t read The Long Game. After a while I figured that I had to just give the FMC a little bit of grace because clearly, I just didn’t understand anything having not read the first book. But yeah, this is not a book you can read without reading them in order.
Second, I would have DNF’d this book by like 30% if I wasn’t for NetGalley giving me this advance reader copy to review. I severely wanted to DNF by 63%. By 75%, I looked up other reviews just to see if the ending was worth continuing. The main reason I could not stand this book is it is a single POV, our FMC Josie. SHE IS SO ANNOYING! Why does she feel so obligated to a man (her biological dad) that she never even met. He clearly has no cares in the world regarding her. (Is this something that would get addressed in books 1? Possibly) How is she a successful business owner AND the mayor and yet everything freaking situation and conversation makes her a deer in headlights?!?! Like what??? Also, her assuming things about what Matthew is thinking or feeling is just annoying, have an honest conversation. The amount of times that this was written “ ‘such and such’, I lied”. Like why do you answer every damn question with an outright lie? Miscommunication is such a horrible trope but I think I hate even more when the main characters just outright lie to each other.
Third, the only redeeming quality was the MMC, Matthew. I loved him. Besides him magically going from: I don’t want to be fake engaged to clearly infatuated with Josie, which I guess could happen although it felt like it happened overnight. (This does get addressed in the last few chapters but I’m guessing there was also somethings in the first book. If we had his POV from the get go this would have made a lot more sense rather than trying to tie things up at the end.) Matthew was fun and flirty, funny and sly/sexy. He seemed to understand what Josie was feeling and was able to distract or redirect her to calm her down.
This book made me so mad that my husband literally asked me if he had done something to upset me because I was clearly mad. I had to tell him that it was just these characters and this book.
The ending was not enough to make me like this book. Maybe it would have been better if I had read book 1 once but the FMC-- *in Grinch voice* hate, hate, double hate, loathe entirely.
Would be a 1 star but giving it an extra star since I might have liked it better if I had read book 1

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me. While I really enjoyed The Spanish Love Deception, this book just had too many personal dislikes for me to truly be invested.

We all know that romance books follow a formula, and they are oftentimes predictable, but this one was too much for me. From the second the MMC is announced, I could predict the beats to follow, and all of it felt too good to be true. It was sudden in some ways, but the burn was so so so slow that it dragged on in others, and the back and forth between those two feelings made it hard to settle into the story.

Also, him calling the FMC 'sweetheart' from the very beginning (even though he admits to not knowing who she was at first) throughout just felt like a nickname for a nickname's sake, and it bothered me. It just felt like one more thing the author was attempting to throw into the book to appease tropes and readers.

I love a good fake dating, small town situation, but this felt like two many jumbled tropes and ideas stuffed into a predictable outline for it to be believed, and therefore I just didn't find myself rooting for the MCs and their happily ever after.

This is probably my favorite Elena Armas book. The ending was absolutely cute and kept me engaged the entire time!

Very cute fake engagement book. I love the small town setting and liked Josie in The Long Game as we happy to see she got her own book. This was probably my least favorite Elena Armas book. Still enjoyed it, but found it much harder to get into the story and wanted much more Matthew. Still would recommend to any favs of Armas, Emily Henry, etc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC.

Matthew + Josie


I read The Long Game prior to this to give this novel full benefit of the doubt--I will say The Fiancé Dilemma was definitely better... however:

This story is about Josie (secret love child of the father from our FMC from The Long Game) and she is a serial fiancé--she has always been a bride, and never a wife (4 times!). She then finds herself accidentally signing up her sister's BFF (Matthew) to be her next fiancé (number 5!) when she is caught of guard by her father's PR rep (who is in town to try to smooth our her father's reputation).

Long story short--I thought the idea of this novel was a fun way for the fake-dating trope to commence, however I did not feel like it was well executed. The drama was ridiculous and unbelievable and I don't know how Josie thought she would get out of a wedding without just proving the press right by ending up with 5 failed engagements?!

The saving grace of this novel was Matthew Flanagan. Armas was able to write a BLONDE MMC that any reader could fall for! This story doesn't give a lot of chances for depth for him, but the way he is there for Josie throughout this whole story and how much he wants her is SWOON-worthy.

Read this book if you want:
+He falls first
+fake-dating
+small town vibes
+funny barnyard animals
+coffee shops and pies

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced copy of this book for review purposes, curtesy of NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. Much like Armas’ other books, this story is swoony and funny. It helped get me out of a reading slump and is a solid ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The slow burn…the spice…this book was everything!! It took me a while to get into and finish, but I’m so glad I stuck with it.