The Fiancé Dilemma by Elena Armas

3.5-4 stars
Let me preface this review with the fact I am a big fan of fake-dating tropes as well as the slow burn, so this book ultimately had two of my favorite romance aspects. This was the second book of Elena Armas’s I have ever read and I did not read the first book of this specific series, The Long Game. I do feel that I might have benefitted from reading the first book to get extra background to some situations eluded to within this book. Although this book at least gave small recaps here and there.

Josie, our FMC, finds out in the first book that she is the daughter of a very wealthy and prominent businessman. A few months after this reveal, suddenly everyone knows her affairs, specifically the fact she was not engaged just once, but four different times and got married to none of the fiancés. In order to "fix" the negative things being said in the media, Josie pretends to be engaged once again to Matthew, her half-sister's best friend. Solid plan that of course leads to many awkward or funny moments as well as Matthew and Josie spending more and more time together.

I enjoyed the slow burn of this novel and felt the relationship between Matthew and Josie progressed very naturally. I loved that Matthew really protected and stood up for her, something we find out she has been missing and makes her realize some truths. I'm also glad there wasn't a super dramatic miscommunication between the two, I felt the issues that came up they dealt with together and made for a better storyline.

I wish there had been a bit more of her mayoral duties as it is brought up many times, but the true focus is the fake engagement and wedding planning. I think it would have added an extra layer to Josie to actually show her as the caring and helpful mayor versus having the town keep mentioning it. There were also a few scenes where something bigger was said or done and then the scene would completely fade to black. We'd get the characters sometimes several days later still thinking about that moment, but I felt it didn't make sense to just abruptly end the conversation or scene. It was jolting and ruined the flow of the book overall. I also wish there had been more background to Matthew, we don't get very much of what has shaped him and left a bit to be desired at times.

Overall, I did enjoy Josie and Matthew together and the way they developed over the story. There were some funny moments, spicy moments and even touching moments that made for a wonderful story. There were just a few things I was wishing for and sometimes found myself getting frustrated at the writing versus the actual characters.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an arc copy of this book to review.

Synopsis: Josie Moore has given the opposite sex—and love—plenty of chances. Four exactly, if you count all her failed engagements, and five if you include the absentee father who kept her existence a secret until very recently. So when her father decides to announce his retirement with a splashy magazine piece about the family, Josie realizes her romantic history is a complicated PR issue.

Matthew Flanagan is in the mud, literally. Not only has he been fired from his job, but also the tires of his car are stuck in the muck after taking a wrong turn as he enters Green Oak, North Carolina. So, he grabs a duffel with his essentials and goes in search of a place to crash until he gets his life back on track. But instead, he finds his best friend’s sister, Josie, greeting him as her fiancé.

What starts as a big messy misunderstanding quickly turns into an arrangement with Matthew playing a new role as doting fiancé. A fifth engagement—and a stunt, at that—makes Josie’s stomach turn, but every dilemma requires a choice between equally undesirable alternatives, and Matthew doesn’t seem to mind becoming one more number in a colorful list of grooms-that-never-were. Despite the ring on her finger, Josie knows this is only temporary, even if the rest of the small town believes that the fifth time’s the charm.