Book Review: The American Roommate Experiment

I’ve been so excited to read The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas. I’m a big fan of The Spanish Love Deception and The American Roommate Experiment is a spinoff of that. In The Spanish Love Deception, Lina and Aaron get together in an enemies to lovers/fake dating situation. The American Roommate Experiment follows the story of Rosie (Lina’s best friend) and Lucas (Lina’s cousin).

You might be wondering why I took a photo of this book with donuts. If you read the book, you’ll understand, but there’s a whole thread of the storyline dealing with pastries and cronuts. I didn’t have any cronuts, but I did coincidentally have donuts on hand on this particular day.

If you read TSLD you might remember that Rosie was following Lucas on Instagram and hinted at a little bit of a crush on him.

At the start of TARE, Rosie is staying at Lina’s apartment because of an issue at her apartment that requires a contractor to come and fix it. Lina and Aaron are on their honeymoon and Lina hasn’t gotten rid of her apartment yet. Rosie knows Lina wouldn’t mind her staying there. What she doesn’t know is that Lucas, Rosie’s pro-surfer cousin, is coming to New York City to stay for 3 weeks and Lina promised him the apartment.

With nowhere else to go last minute, Lucas insists that Rosie stay at the apartment too. The problem? It’s a studio apartment with one bed and bedroom walls. The two quickly figure out how to live together in close proximity, become friends, and even help each other. Rosie quit her job a few months ago to focus on her budding career as a romance writer, but has had a severe case of writer’s block. Lucas has been keeping a secret about his surfing career that has left him feeling lost and without a purpose. Rosie tries to get Lucas to open up and Lucas proposes to take Rosie on “experimental” dates to give her inspiration for her new book. But will the dates feel more real than experimental?

I absolutely loved this book! Rosie and Lucas were so perfect together. I loved how easily they fell into becoming friends and all the flirting between them when neither was sure how they other felt. As you guys know, I’m starting to like the friends to lovers trope more these days and this was a fantastic one. The slow burn was so satisfying and once you got to it, the spice level was so good.

If you’re a Lina and Aaron fan they make a few little appearances in this book!

I recommend this book for lovers of the friends to lovers, slow burn, and forced proximity tropes.

Bottom line, I loved the book and just want more Lina/Aaron and Rosie/Lucas!

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