Tag Archives: Elena Armas

Aug28

The Long Game by Elena Armas

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The Long Game by Elena Armas

Armas, Elena. The Long Game. Atria, 2023. 384 pp. ISBN 9781668011300 $18.99

***

The plot reads a little like Ted Lasso fan fiction: imagine if Roy and Keely didn’t like each other and got paired up to coach a U-10 girls soccer team, but with less swearing, goat yoga, and a caffeine-hawking mayor. Disgraced after her takedown of the mascot of her father’s pro-soccer team goes viral, Adalyn Reyes–no nicknames or terms of endearment, thank you very much–is exiled to take on a charitable project. When she arrives in Green Oaks, a series of unfortunate events unfold, and it turns out the hot, grumpy, incognito UK pro soccer star Cameron Caldani (who lives in the Pinterest-worthy cabin next door to her AirBNB hovel) is the coach of her rec league team, having been voluntold by the mayor to take over the role. Adalyn fires Cameron fairly immediately, but given the PR nightmare she incited, the local PTA doesn’t trust her moral influence on their impressionable girls, so Cam stays on to help, even though he and Adalyn gravely dislike one another. The dialogue is witty and there are a couple of funny “out of the mouths of babes” moments where the girls are innocuously and unintentionally hilarious.

Armas’s enemies-to-lovers romances are notable for their slow burn, angst, banter, and a lovely influx of Spanish culture and language. I really appreciate that she doesn’t do a straight translation, but writes so well you can glean the meaning from context and from how the other characters respond to the dialogue. I was a little muddled by Cameron declaring Adalyn is a game, pursing her, and then telling her it wasn’t a game; and by his refusal to call her by her name, without endearments; BUT he also becomes her champion and supporter. She’s irritable and buttoned up, and it’s borne of guilt, shame, and anxiety, but the rudeness off the bat was a little hard to take (sidenote: this might be the first grumpy/grumpy pairing I’ve read). The characters were not entirely likeable at first, but they grew on me, and it was worth sticking with.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #TheLongGame from #NetGalley.

Jan2

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

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The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Armas, Elena. The Spanish Love Deception. Atria, 2022. 488pp. ISBN 9781668002520 $17.99.

****

Catalina needs a date to her sister’s wedding. In Spain. And her ex and his fiance are attending. Desperate for a date, the least-likely prospect ever–her annoying, humorless, cold, (handsome) colleague Aaron–volunteers to go with her. They’ve rubbed each other the wrong way since his first week at InTech, the engineering consulting company they both work for. She says no, but… then she’s is voluntold to put on a full day fair for prospective clients (since women know all about party planning and socializing, ugh, misogyny) and Aaron doesn’t come to her defense in a meeting. He DOES step up to help her plan the event though, and after a bout of stubbornness, she accepts his offer. In return for being her date to her sister’s wedding, she agrees to accompany him to a social engagement, which turns out to be a bachelor auction to raise money for an animal charity. Then they’re off to northern Spain, where there is #JustOne!Bed, a Wedding Cup to compete for in the bachelor/bachelorette party games, and much drinking. They present a united front that fools her ex, her family, and themselves. The physicality of their relationship is sultry, slow and sexy.

Enemies to lovers works best for me when the characters are not out and out mean to one another. There is snarky banter and bad feelings but it turns out these two have just been misunderstanding one another from their first meeting. Lina’s attraction is slow growing and confusing, made more complicated by Aaron’s recent promotion.

I loved the Spanish phrases sprinkled throughout (generally easy to decipher in context when left untranslated) and Spanish cultural and geographical details, deftly defined within the structure of the narrative. Also we get a hint of Lina’s coworkers crush on her cousin (a teaser for Rosie and Lucas’s story takes place in The American Roommate Experiment).

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #TheSpanishLoveDeception from #NetGalley.

Sep26

The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

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The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

Armas, Elena. The American Roommate Experiment. Atria, 2022. 400 pp. ISBN 978-1668002773 $18.00

***

This is a sweet, sultry international flavored romance that I liked a little better that it’s prequel. While Lina is on her belated honeymoon, her apartment is a natural refuge for her best friend when Rosie’s apartment is uninhabitable. But Lina’s cousin Lucas is in town as a tourist on the last weeks of his visa, and Lina promised him a place to crash. Rosie, a closet romance writer, has been harboring a secret crush on Lucas ever since she started following his Instagram after they failed to meet at the Lina’s wedding due to his barely disclosed surfing accident that has taken him off the national circuit. Lucas must be feeling some vibes too, because he suggests Rosie crash with him, and offers to help Rosie through her writer’s block through a series of dates designed to take them from acquaintances to lovers.

Not so much an enemies to lovers romance, there is an initial meet not-cute when Rosie thinks Lucas is breaking into Lina’s apartment. Frankly, there might be more deception here than in the Spanish Love Deception: Rosie with her crush and new career, both with their feelings and pasts, Lucas with his injury, and hiding their relationship from Lina.

Still, the romance novel plot while not unique is well-done, the writing is good, and the tension palpable. Spanish culture and the New York setting round out the details through language, food, familial expectations and geography. This is a solid spin-off.

A tiny quibble: the last book by this author was The Spanish Love Deception… why isn’t this called The Spanish Roommate Experiment, since it is a Spaniard encroaching on an American’s territory? Why isn’t the Spoiler Alert series called Guardians of the Gates? Why I am not making a lot of money working in publishing instead of moonlighting as an unpaid reviewer? The world will never know.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #TheAmericanRoommateExperiment from #NetGalley