A follow-up to The Spanish Love Deception, The American Roommate Experiment follows Lina Martín’s best friend, Rosie Graham, and cousin, Lucas Martín. When Rosie’s ceiling caves in, she decides to borrow her best friend Lina’s apartment since Lina and Aaron are on their honeymoon. But, unbeknownst to Rosie, Lina has already lent her apartment to her attractive cousin (and Rosie’s internet crush) Lucas, who is traveling in America. Even though Lina’s studio apartment only has one bed, Lucas convinces Rosie that they can temporarily cohabitate. Shortly after, Rosie, who has recently quit her job to pursue her dream of being a romance writer, comes up with a plan to go on a series of experimental dates to combat her horrible case of writer’s block and meet her impending deadline. When Lucas discovers Rosie’s plan, he volunteers to be Rosie’s “fake” date even though his time in America is temporary.
The American Roommate Experiment is a contemporary rom-com featuring the friends to lovers, forced proximity, there’s only one bed, and fake dating tropes. It deals with themes and topics such as change in career and lifestyle, imposter syndrome, mental health and self worth, family and companionship, and love and heartbreak. In addition to fans of The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas, The American Roommate Experiment would be perfect for fans of A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, By the Book by Jasmine Guillory, Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon, Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur, and Wait for It by Jenn McKinlay. It seems the moral of this story is that you should embrace change and know your own self worth; “You’re not the same, but you don’t need to be. Because you’re here, with me. Opening your eyes every morning and smiling at the world in a way only you know how to do. You lost something, but you didn’t lose everything, Lucas. You didn’t lose yourself; you just…changed.”
In my opinion, the best thing about The American Roommate Experiment was Lucas and Rosie’s relationship. Their “experimental” dates, while being totally romantic and swoonworthy, often went hilariously awry (my favourite was when Lucas and Rosie tried to pick “their song” on their first experimental date)! It was enjoyable to see whilst Lucas and Rosie’s feelings grew, they also helped each other to deal with personal struggles and come to terms with big life changes. Furthermore, I appreciated that the characters’ struggles (e.g., imposter syndrome, career-ending injuries, job and lifestyle changes, writer’s block, self worth and mental health) were very realistic and relatable. Having previously enjoyed The Spanish Love Deception, Lina and Aaron still play supporting roles in The American Roommate Experiment, so it was great to see what my favourite characters were up to post happily ever after!
On the downside, I found that The American Roommate Experiment was extremely slow to start and that it took a while for the plot to be set-up and the story to get going. It also seemed like some of the information at the beginning of the novel could have been compressed so that the rising action (the experimental dates) could have started sooner. I personally didn’t see the need for Rosie’s brother’s storyline (it didn’t seem essential to the main storyline) and, even though Lucas was swoonworthy and sweetly protective, I found some of the experimental dates to be overly cheesy at some points. I was also surprised that there was very little spice in Lucas and Rosie’s story despite there being a lot of mutual pining; the spice levels were like that of The Spanish Love Deception. Lastly, since Lucas lives in Spain and is only in New York temporarily, there was a sense of impending doom throughout the novel because there was an ever-present time limit on Lucas and Rosie’s “experiment”.
Overall, even though the plot was a slow to start, I enjoyed Lucas and Rosie’s sweet relationship and comical “fake” dates. If you enjoyed The Spanish Love Deception, you’re definitely going to want to read Lucas and Rosie’s story!
The American Roommate Experiment is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of September 6th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
From the author of the Goodreads Choice Award winner The Spanish Love Deception, the eagerly anticipated follow-up featuring Rosie Graham and Lucas Martín, who are forced to share a New York apartment.
Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks.
Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline.
