Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsLess than I had expected. Nothing new here.
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2021
(2.5 stars) I'm rounding this up to 3 stars only because this is the author's debut and, although derivative and trope-ridden, doesn't have many vocabulary and grammar mistakes, which is one of my personal bugaboos. But as far as characters and plot, it's very been there, done that. And, let's face it, much too long for the amount of actual plot.
It' s an office hate-to-love/fake boyfriend rom-com. I think I've read enough of those to last me for a while. One of the better ones with a similar plot was Sally Thorne's THE HATING GAME from a few years back and Armas' story feels very copycat-ish without being as good. The only reason I decided to download this one was the Spanish connection, but that, unfortunately, turned out to be almost a nothing burger.
Speaking of Spanish, somebody someday is going to have to figure out how to transpose to paper the flavor of speaking in another language to books and dialogue written in English without everybody sounding like that Cuban-American family in the old sit com QUE PASA, U.S.A (Am I the only one who remembers it?) or Dora the Explorer. You know, throwing in words or phrases in Spanish in a conversation just to make it feel "authentic." So far I haven't read a single book that doesn't annoy me with the way this is done, Armas' included. Inserting a SI instead of "yes" or some such does not turn it into Spanish. (Okay, I will admit that every once in a while Armas did a better job than other writers I've read, because of using complete sentences in Spanish but still...)
But that's not all that annoyed me about the book. There are also the characters. Catalina's family is classic central casting Hispanic/Spanish and no one stands out as being anything but representative of a non-American culture. Yet nothing that happened in Spain was anything that couldn't have happened at a family reunion/wedding anywhere, other than the food and drink involved being slightly different and the people perhaps more exuberant than some of our more stuffy "americanos." (I'm married to a South American and lived for many years in S.A. surrounded by his family and friends and found that generally to be the case. People are people everywhere and life is life everywhere, as long as we're not talking about a totalitarian country or a country at war.)
But, wait. I'm not done complaining. Let's forget about culture/country contrasts and comparisons. Let's talk about the romantic relationship here. Jeez Louise, talk about Failures to Communicate and Horridly Stubborn Behavior that goes on for much too long. Apparently attracted to each other from the get-go, these co-workers protect themselves by sending out indifference and/or hate vibes. Lina, in particular, is unpleasant and rude to Aaron because of one little thing she overheard in the first couple of days he joined the company. And Aaron, who understands him? Not me. He hides his attraction with a cold professional attitude towards Lina. Seems to me that if you like somebody, let them know. Don't act like a cold, indifferent jerk.
And when Aaron finally does decide to try to show his feelings to Lina, she can't believe it's real. And a few times it's hard to blame her because he could be a bit inconsistent. Open and warm sometimes. Closed off and cold at others. At least Lina was consistently a pain in the patootie. But, not to worry, eventually these two do open up to each other and romance lovers may get all melty about it, but I thought it took way too long and made me read way too many pages with way too much circular repetition in their interactions.
