At our last Nobel book club meeting of 2022, we had Fun at Work discussing a contemporary romance novel – “The Spanish Love Deception” by Elena Armas. It was a rather unusual choice for the Christmas holiday season, but it helped us get transported to sunnier places and into a lighthearted frame of mind.

“The Spanish Love Deception” is the story of Catalina Martin, who moved from Spain to the USA a few years ago after a heartbreak. When her sister is marrying Catalina’s ex-boyfriend’s brother, our protagonist decides to bring to the wedding a fake American boyfriend. But who could he be? This is where Aaron Blackford, her coworker, shows up and the Spanish love deception starts unravelling.

At our virtual meeting in Zoom, bookish team members from different parts of the world shared their impressions about the book and bonded over their common passion for reading. We found this particular book to be a light, quick read, with a predictable storyline and some easily recognizable tropes, like the enemies to lovers, the fake dating and the grumpy-sunshine couple tropes. Nevertheless, the book opened a few interesting topics for discussion and we think it’s a good choice for an animated book club chat.   

Members of N.A.R.A. (Nobel Anonymous Readers Association) are looking forward to all the reading and bookish discussions that 2023 has in store for us. Our next book choice – “The Remains of the Day” comes from a Nobel Prize winner, Kazuo Ishiguro.