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.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Atria Books for this advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. I own her other three in paperback so I was super excited be choose to read this book early!!! Fake engagement turns into love. 💕 coming from a small town I always love the small town everyone knows everyone romance which makes the story even more fun!!

Josie is a vibrant character and loved her in The Long Game but even more so in The Fiance Dilemma. Matthew is a man after my own heart. Elena Armas is so good at creating characters that compliment each other

3.5/5 - I really really wanted to love it but something just never clicked for me. Josie and Matthew’s banter was fun and I enjoyed their nicknames for each other, and of course I loved having Adalyn and Cameron make appearances. It just felt like something was missing the whole time and I never fell in love with the story or characters.

“I fell in the love the minute I saw you… “

Josie is your favorite small town girl. Lovable, runs a coffee shop, and also happens to be the town Mayor. But she’s got a reputation…. For always being the bride.

Josie has been engaged not once, not twice, but FOUR times. Each time ending in a happily never-after… until Matthew.

Now wrapped in a PR stunt and a fake engagement, Josie must tackle not only her newly discovered daddy issues, but also her commitment issues as well.

Will she or will she not marry fiancé number five??

Review - I thoroughly loved this book! The back and forth of “will she marry him or not?”, kept you hooked! The development of Josie and Matthew’s relationship was done so well and kept you reading and wanting more. And the smut!!! Definitely worth a read and if it’s not on your TBR list, it is now!

In Book 2 of The Long Game series, Josie fakes an engagement to her sister’s best friend to avoid PR issues with her father who has recently come into her life. Josie is great at engagements…in fact she’s had 4 previous engagements which when uncovered on a podcast, becomes a new PR nightmare for all involved.

Characters are funny and like-able, especially Grandpa Mo (Maurice) but I think my new favorite rom-com leading man might just be Mathew Flanagan. He was so intuitive to Josie’s needs, said the right things, and of course had the sexy glasses vibe going on.

There were some emotional scenes that had me teary and the intimate scenes were pretty darn hot!

Looking forward to book #3. Will Robbie Vasquez find true love or maybe Grandpa Mo…Golden Bachelor season!

I got the ARC and couldn’t be more thrilled because this is one of my fave authors. I love her FMC’s, always, and this is no exception. While you can technically read as a standalone I’d highly recommend reading The Long Game first. Josie is too lovable a character to not have all that back story. The MMC is the epitome of “if he wanted to, he would”. If I had a complaint it would be that I wanted more. More love scenes and an epilogue

Elena Armas, the Queen of Slow Burn, has done it again! Matthew Flanagan is the ULTIMATE golden retriever book boyfriend. Returning to Green Oak was an absolute blast and I fell in love with Josie and Matthew. I was laughing out loud at the precarious situations they often found themselves. I was SWOONING many many many times over the things coming out of Matthew's mouth. The only thing I wanted, was more! More Matthew!!! The nods to Tangled, the subtle Taylor Swift references, and Josie's people pleasing tendencies made me think Elena used a crystal ball to look into my childhood and turn those things into a romcom!

I thought Josie & Matthew's story was predictable but SO cute! I enjoyed the backstory of her estranged father, her hilarious grandpa, and the podcast/radio show element. I enjoyed the author's writing, and this is the 2nd book I have read of hers. I also really loved the MCs connection and the spicy scenes. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I am getting this book 4 ⭐️’s I really thought that it would be a five star read, but unfortunately the third act brake up in the second to last chapter was not it for me. All and all aside from that I really enjoyed the book. I would like to thank atria paperback and ELENA ARMAS for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

Let’s just get this out of the way: the premise is terribly unrealistic. All fake relationship tropes are. It is in the title of the book, so like, you can’t complain about that if it bothers you.

Now…let’s chat. I am new to the Elena Armas group. In the first book I read, my complaint was about the FMC and how she wasn’t super likeable. This book does not have that issue. Josie is adorable. She is hardworking, funny, embarassable, and so loving. I really enjoyed reading her story. She had a wild life even before the start of this book, and it was just really heartbreaking and entertaining and relatable. She is the uncringey definition of quirky, and I was here for it. And Matthew?!? Woah. I cannot appropriately convey how much I enjoyed reading a character like this. First of all, his love of food is so cute. I cannot get over him eating everything in her pantry and being jealous of some guy for getting muffins. Characters who like food seem 100x more real. Secondly, he is a goof in a good way. Seriously…twerking while setting up an event, having a man crush on his best friend’s man? Perfection. Thirdly, dude is sexy AF. Glasses and buff? Stahp. Fourthly, confident and open?!? Someone get me a fainting couch because I cannot trust my knees.
This story was so enjoyable and the ending?!? Ooof. It is without fail that there is a miscommunication or misunderstanding or failure to express feelings in books like these. It is the three-quarters break up or some rom com formula thing. This book?!?!? The three-quarters moment was FLAWLESS. I am in love with how that scene was written. I will think about it forever.

Anyway, I highly recommend. OBVIOUSLY.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me have an electronic advanced reader copy of this book. I am forever grateful.