It's settled, this is my new favorite book of 2024. AHHHH it was so good and so cute!!! I was laughing in the first 5 pages and swear I had a smile on my face the whole time reading this book. This is my first Elena Armas book and it has fully convinced me to read her other books. What was I doing with my life? This story follows Josie and Matthew. Due to a mishap/misunderstanding Matthew is now Josie's new finance. I'll leave it as that to not spoil the book. If you're looking for a new book boyfriend look no further. Excellent writing and fantastic plot and dialogue between the characters. I loved everything about this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

Fake engagement goodness! The spice was well balanced even though there wasn't a lot, it didn't need it because the romance brought it's A game!

Matthew “I’m hot as shit” Falanagan is THE blueprint for blond MMCs. Gray sweatpants, glasses, and backwards hat. 🎤 drop

That’s it, that’s my review.

Okay, just kidding. I have much more to say. 😀

I think this is Elena’s best book yet. I absolutely loved everything about it - the tropes, the story, the character development, MATTHEW (obviously), the cameos, and the small town drama and shenanigans.

I love love loved the slow burn and the tension, I mean the blindfolded wine tasting? 🥵 I felt like I was being edged the whole book 😂 and I didn’t even mind it.

“Go on, Baby Blue. It’s me you’re running to.”

Matthew is a good man (HE’S A GOOD MAN, SAVANNAH) with a filthy mouth and the confidence to do anything he puts his mind to, especially when it comes to Josie and making her fall in love with him.

“So what if it hurts a little? I’ll hurt if it makes you better.” 🥹

Possessiveness and control never looked so sexy. And to be clear, he wasn’t controlling her, but taking control of the situations she was overwhelmed or panicked in. I loved how supportive he was of her and how he kept showing up, even when she tried to push him away.

“You’ll want what I give you.” 🥵

I feel like I resonated with Josie a lot more than I expected. I too am a hardcore people pleaser (shocker). After four major failed relationships and feeling like she wasn’t good enough, I was happy to see Josie let Matthew in and give in completely to him. They truly were soulmates and no one can convince me otherwise.

“He looked so right. So very mine.”

What I loved:

💍 Small town
💍 Sloow burn
💍 So much tension
💍 Fake engagement, real feelings
💍 Sunshine x sunshine
💍 North Carolina setting
💍 Pedro Pigscal
💍 Nicknames
💍 “Where is she?” “Where is my fiancee?”
💍 Phone spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️

I adored this book. It was such a sweet story of love, found family, and hope. Josie was such a sweet, but strong woman and initially, you think she is just this manic pushover, but as the story unfolds you see her wit and strength. I love how she was written with so much compassion and empathy. Do not even get me started on Matthew, he was such an amazing character. He is my new book boyfriend, don't tell my husband. Plus the dirty talk, my word that was so fun and steamy. This book is a bit of a slow burn, but you don't really feel that as you get wrapped up in all the minutia of Josie and Matthew getting together. Again as in The Long Game(which I loved so much I had to buy it after borrowing it from the library) the town and all the side characters add levity and joy to the story. I enjoyed this story a lot and look for more from this author. Disclaimer: I received an early book copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

✨BOOK REVIEW: The Fiancè Dilemma by Elena Armas

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

3/5

We all love a good fake dating trope, so a fake engagement trope? Yes, pleaseeee. This book had all the moments that you would want in this kind of book.

⭐️⭐️✨ = 2 stars and a consideration

⭐️ I just want to say — Elena Armas made me the perfect book boyfriend. Everything Matthew was is literally everything I could want. Where can I get men like this because man is so assertively sexy. There is nothing more attractive than a guy who knows what he wants and is loud and proud about it. Also, that bathtub and then the deli scene?!?! Uhm. Yes. Just yes. I definitely found myself blushing and looking around while reading this… and some of it I may have read in public with the light very low.

⭐️ I like how unfiltered Josie is because her ability to yap reminded me of myself. She was quite endearing and I loved that she was so selfless in the fact that she would do anything for the people in her town.

✨I know that it is said this book can be read as a standalone but I really think reading the first book in the Long Game series would have been helpful! I think this is why I did completely get just WHY Matthew was so quick to go with everything. Then again, imagine if a man was in love with you from the start like that.

Thank you to Atria, Net Galley and Elena Armas for this ARC

Pub Date: July 30, 2024

Oh gosh. This book made me swoon. I truly loved Josie and Mathew. I loved how Mathew stood up for her and protected her. I love the sweet things said between them as well as between sisters. Some of the spicy scenes in public places maybe weren’t my taste but I absolutely adored this book.

My plan is to post my review on Instagram on July 29th at https://www.instagram.com/robinashleyreads?igsh=MXczYmd6bmszdXN2Nw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr the where I plan on giving it a 5 star review.

WOW. What an amazing book!!! This was my first Elena Armas book and I devoured it.
The Fiancé Dilemma started off so freaking hilarious, I don’t typically laugh out loud while reading but this book had me almost waking my baby up I stg 😂😂 It was SO FUNNY. I feel there are some things I’m missing so I will definitely be reading The Long Game at some point!! (Fiancé Dilemma is a spin off The Long Game!) Regardless, I am DYING to know Adalyn & Cameron’s story 😍

I doooo wish Josie had been a little more….. confident in herself. I love a strong FMC & she just wasn’t that. I don’t understand why she didn’t tell the PR b*tch to F off lmao. It’s like…. She had a strong personality but couldn’t tell the people who actually needed to be told off, off. I also wish we had gotten more on her past relationships given there were so many. I felt there were absolutely no details about her past.

The SPICE in this book was top tier. Although there are only a few chapters, Elena Armas did an insane job of building the tension between Josie & Matthew 😂 Their chemistry was hot as helllllll. “𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧,” 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞. 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. “𝐖𝐞’𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.” PLEASE 🥵
The banter between them was perfect. I swear I annotated half this book 😂 and the way he called her SWEETHEART. Matthew had me swooning throughout the whole freaking book, okay. He was such a strong & loving MMC for a quirky, not-so-strong FMC. “𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞. 𝐒𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞.” 💋

The ending was well put together. It didn’t feel rushed at all & I’m wondering if there will be another one? Seems like there could be 👀 overall, one of the best romances I have read in awhile! I will dreaming about my new book boyfriend 🫶

*As always, thank you @Netgalley & the author Elena Armas for an e-arc of this book in return of an honest review!*

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a fun little fake engagement story to read and not take too seriously.

I would have probably given this a lot higher of a score if it were not for how Josie and Matthew’s relationship started. The reason for Josie having to pull Matthew onto her porch and pretend he was her fiancée didn’t really make sense. It really complicated things way more than fixing them. The fact that she thought it was a good idea to claim to have a 5th fiancé (yes, you read that right) is actually hilarious.

What really bothered me was how many times Matthew initially said no to playing along. This girl was DESPERATE. The dude rejected her and said no probably ten times. And she kept insisting it would work and she would convince him. Girl, no means no. This really bothered me. Then we jump to like Ch 10 and Matthew is all “that’s my fiancée, back off” 😂 I was so confused by this abrupt change in him. It was hard for me to believe that his feelings for her could be genuine when he seemed so insistent not to be involved with her. Once they started figuring out how to work together and were really getting to know each other, I actually really liked their dynamic. Matthew was very endearing and your typical perfect fictional boyfriend. He respected her boundaries and gave her lots of encouragement (girl was lacking in confidence.)

I will say, I wasn’t a fan of how much time hoping their was. One minute they were about to have their first real kiss, and then it just stop abruptly and the next chapter was like 2 weeks later, just days before their wedding. Like.. did my copy lose a few pages? 😂 I also wish the reader was clued into the fact that Matthew knew a lot about Josie before he met her. The conversations he had with Adalyn were SO adorable and I feel like they should have been revealed way earlier in the story.

I also wish that we had more interactions between Josie and her dad. He is the reason, after all, that she was lying about having a fake fiancé. He and Josie barely interacted on the page and I think it would have been incredible to see her growth from working through this rocky relationship.

I didn’t mean to have so many complaints. Maybe I’ve read so many romances that I’m starting to overthink them 😂 I do have to say i would choose Matthew over Aaron (SLD) any day.

I enjoyed the beginning of the book even though you knew exactly where it was headed. About 40% through I just got bored. It was too predictable and similar to all the other fake engagements books out there. It’s a nice read but not one I would seek out again.

This is the fourth Elena Armas book I’ve read, and I’m sorry to say I think it’s my last. I liked her first book, The Spanish Love Deception, but every book since has left me scratching my head.

In this book, Josie fakes being engaged to Matthew for several reasons, none of which make any sense whatsoever. The first is because she just found out who her father is, and he is trying to navigate some bad PR and make his image look better by paying for her wedding. This reason makes no sense because Josie has no relationship with him, doesn’t like him, and no person in their right mind would go to these lengths to fix a non-existent relationship with a father they haven’t even met in person. The second reason she concocts this scheme is because she has already been engaged 4 times and has left them all at the altar. So she decides to get fake engaged again, fully intending to also not go through with this wedding, in order to fix the fact that gossip sites are turning her into a story about being a runway bride. I don’t think I even need to point out how this makes no sense. In fact, I would think someone who had been engaged 4 times and had gossip podcasts doing stories about her would avoid getting engaged another time at all costs. She would definitely not choose to make a 5th engagement with a plan to also break that off, only adding more fodder for gossip and speculation about her mental hang ups with marriage.

This being the premise of the story was impossible to get past, but I would have maybe added another star to the rating if the rest of the story was at least decent. Unfortunately it ended up being a random stream of Josie’s inner monologue mixed with a tiny bit of dialogue and plot. If someone went through this book and erased all of Josie’s inner monologue that didn’t drive the plot forward in any way, this book would only be 1/3 of the length it is. Hers and Matthew’s relationship is based on this weird, flimsy lie that solves nothing and helps no one, and in turn they fall instantly in love for no reason and continue to fall in love doing wedding planning things only. They never spend time together outside the ruse of being engaged, don’t really talk about anything important, and show no reason for their behavior. Each chapter ended so abruptly I kept feeling like I was missing something, and the next chapter just picked up days or weeks later with no explanation. We never get an explanation for why Josie’s past relationships failed, and we don’t really get an explanation for why marriage is so triggering for her.

All in all, I feel like Elena Armas books are not for me. She seems to pick a couple tropes and decide to write them without even trying to make them make sense, and while this is fiction and I can suspend disbelief a bit for the sake of a story, there’s only so much I’m willing to overlook. If you liked her last 2 books, I’m sure you will like this one as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love a good fake dating trope. But a fake engagement?! Even better! This book was fast paced, swoony and so cute. If you love Elena Armas and her other books then you’ll love The Fiancé Dilemma. Get ready to fall in love with Josie and Matthew.

Knocked it down a star for the number of times “sweetheart” and “silly” are in this book 🙃


Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Although I really enjoyed this book, it did feel a bit too long and dragged out at certain points. Matthew was extremely swoon worthy though!!!

"Fiancé Dilemma" by Elena Armas is a delightful romantic comedy filled with humor, engaging characters, and steamy chemistry. Josie, the secret sister of Adalyn, finds herself in a hilarious predicament when she pretends to be engaged to Matthew, Adalyn's best friend, to save face amidst a PR crisis involving her father, Andrew Underwood. Despite the slow start, the story picks up as Josie and Matthew navigate their fake engagement, leading to heartfelt moments and palpable chemistry.

The dynamic between Josie and Matthew shines as they tackle the challenges of their fake relationship. Josie's quirky personality and Matthew's charm make them endearing protagonists, and their journey from pretend couple to genuine partners is both entertaining and heartwarming. Despite its flaws, "Fiancé Dilemma" is a charming romance that will leave readers swooning and laughing along the way.

Elena Armas has done it once again. The Fiance Dilemma was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and it did not disappoint. I have read every one of her books, each is better than last. Thank you NetGalley & Atria Books for allowing me to receive an ARC of this book. I loved reading Matthew and Josie's story, from start to finish I read this book in one sitting. I was so excited to read this book after The Long Game and it exceeded all expectations. Josie and Matthew were absolutely perfect for each other and I loved seeing the development of their relationship throughout this PR move.

I enjoyed this a little less than earlier Elena Armas books. The scenario felt too far fetched the way the fake engagement came about and was maintained.

First of all, THANK YOU to NetGalley for this Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review. I really, really loved The Spanish Love Deception and The American Roommate Experiment. However, after reading The Long Game and now The Fiancé Dilemma, i am beginning to wonder if the lightning in a bottle will ever be caught again.

I found this book enjoyable enough, and the tension at parts was PALPABLE. However. While I love me a slow burn, I’ve begun to find that Elena Armas’ slow burns are S-L-O-W B-U-R-N-S to the point where, as a reader, it’s almost frustrating. I think that she does a wonderful job at writing romance and writing tension, I just feel like it might be better for her to get the ball rolling a little bit faster. I will continue to read her work, always searching for the sparks from the first two books.

Thank you, AGAIN, for this ARC!

I read this as a stand alone but didn’t feel like I missed out on the plot too much. This book was well paced, and had some of my favorite rom com elements. It was very reminiscent of The Runaway Bride! This was another great read by Elena Armas.

I love fake dating tropes and was super excited for this book.
But I feel the storyline moved slow, Matthew didn't entice me and I just wasn't feeling the particular storyline.
About seventy percent through the story picked up, but maybe a bit too much of a slow burn for me!
Gave it 3 stars still since it was funny, I did like our female lead and the end was nice!

I read the prequel to this book and loved it, so I was super excited to dive in! It was fun, fast paced, and sexy!! I look forward to more from this author.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Josie Moore has experienced 4 failed engagements. She also has an absentee famous father who kept her existence a secret until recently. When Josie's father decides to announce his retirement in a widely read magazine, her romantic history becomes a complicated PR nightmare.

Matthew Flanagan has lost his job, and ends up in Josie's town, Green Oak, North Carolina. Josie and Matthew develop a plan to be fake engaged to offset terrible rumors. Even though the arrangement is only temporary, the town believes that this engagement will stick.

I am giving this book 3.75 stars but rounding it to a 4. I loved Elena Armas' writing and this was the third book I have read of hers. The story was so cute and I really enjoyed reading about Josie and Matthew's chemistry and growth. I loved the small town charm. This is definitely a slow burn romance, which is not what I expected, but I did enjoy it. There were points where I was yelling at my kindle wanting them to finally kiss. I wasn't sure these characters belonged together at the beginning, but by the end I was in love with their relationship. I also loved the spice scenes. Elena Armas knows how to write a good spice scene.

I recommend the Fiance Dilemma if you love the marriage of convenience trope and small town vibes, or if you are a words of affirmation type person, because Matthew has a way with words.

The Fiance Dilemma by Elena Armas comes out on July 30.