Elena Armas Talks New Novel 'The Fiance Dilemma' and How She Went From Bookstagrammer to Bestselling Author

Elena Armas is a fan of love stories. In fact, she was an avid romance reader and #Bookstagram blogger long before she penned her first bestselling novel, The Spanish Love Deception. After graduating from school with a chemical engineering degree, Armas spent her days working as an engineer and blogging about romance books in her spare time. “I always loved literature, and I always loved to read, but I never allowed myself to have the aspiration to be like, 'Hey, I'm going to be an author one day.' It just didn't seem possible,” Armas tells FIRST. But thanks to encouragement from fellow blogger friends, who loved her debut novel idea, Armas eventually wrote and self-published The Spanish Love Deception on Amazon — and what happened next still surprises her. FIRST sat down with Armas — who now has three New York Times bestselling novels under her belt — to discuss her rise to BookTok fame, what inspires her to write and why she thinks “there is nothing more personal than a romance book.”

Keep reading for all the details, plus learn about her newest novel, The Fiance Dilemma, out today, which transports readers to Green Oak, North Carolina and follows the optimistic yet unlucky-in-love Josie Moore.

What is Elena Armas’ new book about?

The Fiance Dilemma delivers all of Armas’ signature charm and more. When Josie Moore’s no-longer-absentee father announces his retirement with a splashy magazine piece, she learns that her problematic dating history — and four failed engagements — isn’t exactly great PR for her family. To fix her image, she concocts a sham engagement with Matthew Flanagan. Soon, Josie and Matthew are caught up in a PR whirlwind, playing their part as two happily engaged lovebirds. But before long, the entire town is convinced Matthew is The One for Josie and all these fake feelings start to feel very real.

First for Women: Did you always know you wanted to be an author? What inspired you to write romance?

Elena Armas: I’ve always loved literature, but I actually graduated from school with an engineering degree. So I'm an engineer. And when I wrote The Spanish Love Deception, which is my debut, I did it in my free time, while still working my full-time job at an engineering company.

Then I found this community of bloggers that would read and review books and post online. And I got really into the book blogger community, and that started opening doors and making me see things a little differently. So when I first had the idea for the Spanish Love Deception, I had a lot of friends online who were in the same community as me and they encouraged me to consider publishing. And that's what I did.

FFW: Can you share the moment you realized The Spanish Love Deception had gone viral? What did that feel like?

Elena Armas: Because I had been blogging for a while when I self-published the book, I knew what to do in terms of marketing. I'm not an expert, but I had seen how publishers would market and promote a book so I applied some of this stuff to my own book, even though I was self-publishing. However, I didn't have huge expectations. My goal wasn't to quit my job and be a full time writer, it was just to put something out there. And if it sold, and people loved it then great, I was making some money on the side, which was also great. But it wasn't until six months after the book came out that it went viral on TikTok.

And it wasn't because of me — it was all very organic. The TikTok was created by a reader with a small online account who had read the book on Kindle and loved it, so she posted a video where she retold the plot of the book as if it was her own life. That went viral. So one morning, six months after I wrote The Spanish Love Deception, I woke up to hundreds of tags online. The TikTok had over 6 million views and my book was in the top 100 on Amazon. That was the start of it all. It was a life changer — like, really, a huge life changer.

FFW: Can you tell us a little about how you prep for novels? Where do you find inspiration for stories or characters?

Elena Armas: It really depends on the book idea. Sometimes there's a spark of an idea and then you develop the characters for it. And other times a character comes to your mind first and you build everything around that. For me, I have done both. For The Spanish Love Deception an idea came to me when I got a wedding invitation in the mail, and I built everything around that. But for other books, I've had the idea for the characters first.

For example, for The Long Game and The Fiancé Dilemma, I had the idea for for the characters first, and then I kind of hand-picked the rest of the elements afterward. For The Fiancé Dilemma, I had the idea for Josie, who is this quirky, voluntary mayor of the town where she grew up. And like, that's her whole world. And then this very rom-com-eqsue hero, named Matthew, who is going to swoop in and help her. I also keep notes in my Notes app where I will jot down ideas or things that inspire me. Whether it's an ad, a photograph, a TikTok or a movie scene. I immediately write it down because I have the worst memory and, with this, I have an archive of a bunch of ideas. Even if I don't get to use them all, I like to have them.

FFW: Once you move past the idea/research phase, do you jump right into writing? Do you have any routines or rituals surrounding writing a novel?

Elena Armas: In the past, I used to have the idea first and jump straight into it and sort through it as I go. I did that with my first two books, but then I realized that sometimes it works against me! When I'm writing I tend to 'word vomit' onto the paper — and it's not always productive and effective.

So I'm trying to establish more of a plan and process. But I still really like to get into a story by allowing the characters to grab my hand and just walk me through the story. I feel like that's a really nice way to describe the process because it gives you a good mental image. I'm not a complete discovery writer, but I like to leave certain things to that freedom, that improvisation and liberty that the characters in my head all have at some point.

FFW: Without too many plot reveals for those who haven’t read, what is one thing you would like readers to take away from The Fiancé Dilemma?

Elena Armas: I personally love to get lost in story and forget the world exists.  It doesn't matter what kind of universe it's in, I just like to get lost in it. And that's my main goal as a writer. I hope my readers can just escape into a place that, hopefully, make them fall in love with something — whether it's the characters, the story or the love story. I also want them to feel seen. And that's my main purpose with The Fiancé Dilemma specifically. I was very intentional about the heroine finding someone who really sees her — and this person is Matthew. As much as Josie's an optimistic, quirky, always positive kind of girl, she goes through some stuff that is not easy to sift through. She gets hurt and criticized for a lot of choices she makes in her life. That is, until she finds this one person who actually loves her for who she is, and who really, really sees her and loves all parts of her. And this kind of love is possible — it's not an expectation that's "too high." I hope readers take this away from the novel.

FFW: If you could give a romance elevator pitch for this book what would it be?

Elena Armas: The Fiancé Dilemma has all the things we love about those rom-coms from the '90s and the 2000s, but with a current twist. And rightfully so, because in a lot of ways this story started as me trying to reimagine Runaway Bride and wanting to give that story the ending I wanted. So, it has all of these things — and spice.

FFW: Romance is huge right now! Why do you think this genre is so important to readers everywhere?

Elena Armas: I think it's because romance contains all these intimate and personal connections within the stories. It puts emphasis on the importance of love that we should all get the chance to experience if we want it. To me, there is nothing more personal than a romance book. It's all about the journey. It's all about the characters. It's all about all these little things that we as humans get to experience every day. Romance also provides hope for the happily ever after and it makes me feel good as a reader, and as a writer, to know that people, even in fiction, can get there.

FFW: Last but not least, we’d love to hear a few recent romance reads you are loving! Any good recs we can share with our readers?

Elena Armas: I recently finished a book that's coming out December of this year. It's Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson. It's a contemporary shifter romance set in Scotland — and the hero is…The Loch Ness Monster. Just trust me! Drop everything and read this book when it comes out. It's delicious and just so good. Another book recommendation is Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young. The fantastic thing about this book is that it has great disability representation. It's a happily ever after with a lot of tenderness throughout. It's also so sweet and funny — I loved it.

Pick up Elena Armas' latest book, The Fiancé Dilemma, available now.

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