Guava Flavored Lies

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.

©2022 J.J. Arias (P)2022 Tantor

I've listened to it several times and is so good!

In the beginning I was worried it was going to be a bit heavyhanded, but it turned out really good! I could empthise with both of the sides of the conflict and fell in love with the characters. It is also funny! The characters and the story is sweet and fun.
My criticisms are that some times with the narrator I wasn't sure who was saying what, but after a while I caught an ear for how the 2 main characters are performed differently. Secondly, sometimes it was a bit to keep track of the timeline of the story, how much time had passed. Also sometimes it was a bit unrealistic, but it's a fun story and was nothing that took me out of it too much!
I definitely recomend the book and the author! I can't believe it isn't more popular! It's one of my favorite books I've read in a while, especially in the genre!

Comedic rivalry galore

Rivals to Lovers with plenty of relatable comedy! J.J. Arias did a great job capturing the backstory and relevance flawlessly with several nods to real Latin culture. Narrated wonderfully. Definitely a SLOW...SLOW burn but with such a wonderful story being told, I didn't miss the immediate spice I was expecting. I recc the book and look forward to reading/listening to more novels from this Arias. We'll done.

top notch!

loved the narration & it made the story come alive! I hope arias bring more of her work to audio!

Unique Yet Familiar

This was a great listen! I loved the spin on Romeo and Juliet with the feeding families and especially loved how the author put an intriguing spin on it. The chemistry between the MCs was captivating, and the passionate moments were both sexy and sweet! More, the narrator did a phenomenal job!

I will definitely loom for more books by this author and even the narrator. Thank you!!!

Unexpectedly Cute

I really enjoyed this book. The MC's had history, character development and were communicative. I appreciated that there was no current angst or falling out that most WLW stories have to build up the plot line. This was a feel good, entertaining storyline with lots of funny moments.