by Elena Armas
About this book
Catalina Martin desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially since her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiralled out of control. Now everyone she knows – including her ex and his fiancee – will be there and eager to meet him.
She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic and aid in her deception. New York to Spain is no short flight and her raucous family won’t be easy to fool.
Enter Aaron Blackford – her tall, handsome, condescending colleague – who surprisingly offers to step in. She’d rather refuse; never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling, and insufferable man.
But Catalina is desperate, and as the wedding draws nearer, Aaron looks like her best option. And she begins to realize he might not be as terrible in the real world as he is at the office.
Book review
Overall a decent read with a reasonably paced plot and realistic characterization. However, I didn’t find it particularly memorable and it’s not a book that I will return to over time. These are the parts I did not like about the book:
- Although the title emphasized “Spanish”, I didn’t feel anything particularly Spanish about the book, apart from the family being Spanish and the occasional Spanish dialogue. It would have been more interesting to let more of the Spanish culture shine through, maybe in little details of family interaction and values, food, surroundings, etc. I would also have preferred to have less Spanish dialogue in whole sentences (which I could not understand). Pet names or forms of address (e.g mum, dad, sis, etc) are fine and would have served to add the Spanish flavour, but not whole sentences.
- The actual meeting with the ex felt anti-climatic given that this was the big worry for almost half the book. The ex didn’t seem at all an impressive character, and the fiancee (as promised in the synopsis) was not present. It made me wonder what Catalina saw in him in the first place. Also, with her being younger, having a successful career and having a good life and close friends in New York, I’m not sure why she would have worried that people would think that she was pining for her ex.
- Aaron is not my type of hero – he feels rather wishy-washy, dropping hints that he likes Catalina but expects her to guess and watches to see if she returns his feelings. I would have preferred a more direct approach, either an outright denial or a clear proclamation of his feelings.
Rin Ranger 