Guava Flavored Lies

Written by J.J. Arias

Narrated by Carrie Coello

All's Fair in Love and (Pastry) War

Sylvie Campos and Lauren Machado have hated each other since before they were born. For generations, the Campos and Machado families have blamed each other for stealing pastry recipes they claim their great-grandfathers originated before fleeing Castro's Cuba.

Having spent their lives as rivals, Lauren and Sylvie are now in their early thirties and primed to take over their respective family bakeries. That means working long, hot, seasons of outdoor food festivals where they are forced to endure each other-albeit with a lot of bantering and barb-trading. After all, no one knows how to get under Sylvie's skin like Lauren.

Sick of dealing with Lauren and her thieving family, Sylvie sets out to unmask the Machados for the traitors they are.

But when the truth is not what Sylvie expects, will the fiery exchanges between her and Lauren turn into something hot enough to melt away generational baggage? Could they get the chance to rekindle what they almost had in high school?

Find out in this laugh-out-loud hilarious, enemies-to-lovers, romantic comedy featuring plenty of steam, tension, and delicious Cuban food.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798765085325

Reviews for Guava Flavored Lies

[Jude · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’ve been wanting to read a J.J. Arias book for a while so when I saw this audiobook was available on Everand, it felt like the right time. It’s very light reading, which I didn’t expect—I don’t know what I expected though—and since I recently finished quite a few rather heavy stories, the timing was perfect.

Lauren and Sylvie are lifelong enemies, a family tradition that started with their great-grandfathers, each family accusing the other of having stolen their original pastry recipes. Think Romeo and Juliet but sapphic, Cuban, and with food. In Miami. Also, a lot less tragic. Maybe not so Romeo and Juliet after all.

Guava Flavored Lies is fast and funny, at times deliciously silly when the characters behave like total idiots. The slow burn is nicely done and the MCs endearing—once Sylvie’s annoying whining starts making sense. A couple of secondary characters deserved a bit more exposure but we got plenty of Regina, so I’m happy.

The narration is a little flat at times, really good at others. I read a review saying the accent and Spanish pronunciation are wrong but I wouldn’t know. I do know that a bad French accent hurts my ears so if there’s a risk of that happening to you, check the sample first. My friend Gaby, who’s Argentinian, loves the narration, and I trust her completely.

All in all, I enjoyed listening a lot and there was even some laughing out loud, especially in the second half. I’m looking forward to my next Arias book.

Read all my reviews on my blog (and please buy from the affiliation links!): judeinthestars.com

[Ana Andrade · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun book, but I must say the Spanish pronunciation wasn't the best, which took out of the story a bit since there's a bit of Spanish here and there. Like when the narration says "Lauren with a hard R" that's not just saying LAU-ren. It's actually Lauren pronounced in Spanish – a different way to say it. It's the same when Sylvie is called Sylvia by Lauren: they refer to each other in Spanish to be annoying. There are other pronunciation mistakes, like Dios: it's pronounced diOs, not DIH-os. But overall it's a fun enemies-to-lovers (even though Sylvie was on the verge of being unbearable).

[Lez Review · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story, funny and with low angst. My mother language is Spanish and I'm happy that the audiobook narrator pronounced all the Spanish words perfectly and made it sound authentic. The different voices and performance of emotions was spot on too. Highly recommended!