The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas Review

A few variables needed to change in order to make The American Roommate Experiment successful.

The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas follows Rosie Graham, an ex-engineer turned romance author, who is struggling to write her next bestseller. When an accident makes her apartment uninhabitable, she decides to stay at her friend’s place until construction finishes. However, her friend’s charming cousin, Lucas, is also staying in the apartment. Not only do Rosie and Lucas agree to share the space, but Lucas also promises to take Rosie on four fake dates in order to inspire her latest novel.

The American Roommate Experiment is the second book in The Spanish Love Deception companion series. The two main characters of The Spanish Love Deception do play a role in the second half of this book. If you prefer to read books in a companion series in order, I would check out the first book in the series prior to reading The American Roommate Experiment.

When I first read the synopsis of The American Roommate Experiment, I was immediately interested. This book appeared to contain some tropes which I typically enjoy, such as the close proximity trope. That being said, I was still on the fence. I read the first book in this series, The Spanish Love Deception, when it was released. There were several aspects of that book which I did not enjoy, including the cringeworthy scenes and dialogue. Unfortunately for me, The American Roommate Experiment contained many of the problems which I had with The Spanish Love Deception.

One aspect of The American Roommate Experiment which I enjoyed was the first quarter of the book. I thought the first chapter gave Rosie a clear voice in the story and captured her personality. I think the beginning of the story was set up well to introduce the main plot points. While I think it took a little too long to get the main action started, which didn’t occur until about a third of the way through the book, the beginning was easy to read and I was very engaged in the story.

After the first third of the book, the story started to go downhill for me. While I found Rosie and Lucas to be likable, I found some inconsistencies in their characters and their storylines to be imbalanced. I appreciate that the author tried to give Rosie and Lucas interesting backstories in order to make their actions understandable. That being said, Rosie’s backstory was far more developed than the backstory given to Lucas. Additionally, I wasn’t a huge fan of how his character developed throughout the story. Initially, Lucas is described as incredibly charming. However, his character quickly turns incredibly cheesy. His character never felt consistent to me. While I want characters to grow throughout the story, he almost seemed like a different character by the end of the novel.

Another aspect of the story which hindered my reading experience was the plot. As I mentioned earlier in my review, the main action of this story doesn’t start until about a third of the way through the book. Once it begins, many of the situations and conversations became extremely repetitive without moving the plot forward. Rosie and Lucas go on a fake date, something spoils the end of the date, and then the two question the upcoming deadline of their fake relationship. As a result, it sometimes felt like I was reading the same scene or dialogue over and over, just taking place at a different time and location.

Additionally, I did not like how the characters from The Spanish Love Deception were included. Lina, the main protagonist of The Spanish Love Deception, is the cousin of Lucas. She warns Rosie about Lucas and tells Lucas not to hurt Rosie because it would put her in an awkward position. I believe this was included to tie in previous characters from the series and to provide tension to the relationship between Rosie and Lucas. That being said, I am not a huge fan of this trope in novels and I find it as a flimsy way to add tension as well as slightly annoying.

The greatest aspect of this novel which made it difficult for me to enjoy was the cringe worthiness in the scenes and dialogues. I would say the first third of this book doesn’t contain much cheesiness. However, there is one line towards the beginning of the novel which worried me about the direction it was headed. As the book progresses, the dialogue becomes more and more cringeworthy. By the last quarter of the book, I just wanted to finish because it became so persistent that it was unenjoyable for me to read.

All in all, The American Roommate Experiment felt too similar to The Spanish Love Deception for me. Like The Spanish Love Deception, The American Roommate includes fake dating. The characters, which initially didn’t start of similar, slowly changed into having some of the characteristics of Lina and Aaron. Overall, The American Roommate Experiment wasn’t a stand-out read to me. I give this book two and a half out of five stars.

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