By Alyna Rei, thebirdonfire Book Critic

Today, I will compare two of my favorite books, both of which have changed my way of seeing romance: Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas and Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. Both of these books are popular for the younger adult group and the rom-com readers. Spoiler alert! If you are planning on reading these books, read a different article on thebirdonfire.

Spanish Love Deception~

Backstory-

The book starts off with our female character Lina (Catalina) Martin and her “enemy,” Aaron Blackford. Both co-workers vie for the same spot of team leader. Both work as engineers with high ranking jobs. Lina is struggling to find a date for her sister’s wedding. Aaron is willing to be her plus one, but Lina automatically declines due to them not getting along. They have no chemistry, she thinks. As we dive deeper into the story, Lina realizes she’s never really hated Aaron. Both fall in love and live happily ever after the end. 

Thoughts-

This book is easily one of my favorite books. I read specific scenes just to get the story back into my head. I love how Aaron has eyes for Lina and only Lina. The romantic gestures such as Aaron learning a new language for Lina and Aaron having his full attention on Lina make the plot way better.

The Love Hypothesis~

Backstory-

We meet  Olive, a Stanford PhD who studies Pancreatic Cancer. She has to convince herself that she’s over her crush; to prove it, she ends up kissing our main male character, Adam Carlsen. Adam Carlsen is a department professor. No student likes him due to his strict and manipulative teaching. Both end up having to fake date and convince people they are in love so that Olive can convince her friends that she’s over her crush and Adam can convince the department he’s not leaving for Harvard. They swear they won’t fall in love. It’s easy in the beginning, but fake dating can escalate. 

Thoughts- 

When I read this book, I read it in one day. It was pretty good. I appreciate how Olive is a strong independent woman and how she’s so determined to achieve her goals. I also enjoy Adam’s cold behavior with Olive’s bright personality because even though one character is cold and one character is very bright, there can be this sort of balance between the characters that make the story more interesting and attention grabbing–a little like Beauty and the Beast.

Comparing the two-

Let’s talk about the romantic scenes first. In Spanish Love Deception, we are shown Aaron’s affection towards Lina. We see how both people love each other deeply and nothing is awkward between them. For The Love Hypothesis, in my opinion, Adam is kind of awkward. It’s like he needs a lesson about loving someone. I see how Olive has to take the first step. Nothing is wrong with that, but it would be nice to see Adam show some affection. 

With these two books, I feel like it would be nice to see a point of view from the male’s side rather than just seeing a woman’s perspective. The reader needs to see how the male is feeling and what they truly feel. The book would be ten times better with a male’s point of view at some point.

I would like to see a book truly mean what it’s meant to be about. If I’m going to read an enemies-to-lovers book, the characters should be enemies that hate each other. Or, if I’m going to read friends to lovers, I would like to see two friends with no romantic connections and build on from there. We can see how in The Love Hypothesis, Adam and Olive go from strangers to friends to lovers. In Spanish Love Deception, it’s claimed that the pair are enemies and can’t stand each other. But, reading on, I see that the characters don’t feel true hatred towards each other. 

Which book do I like better?-

Both of these books have flaws, but every book has something to improve or has some sort of flaw. In my opinion, Aaron’s affection towards Lina just made the book a little better than Adam’s awkwardness in The Love Hypothesis. I love both books, but you would see me pick up Spanish Love Deception again before The Love Hypothesis.