The Spanish Love Deception

As The Spanish Love Deception begins, Lina has escaped Spain, her former lover Daniel, and the suffocating nature of her family. Lina is so disenchanted with her previous life that she seldom visits Spain. Yet, when her sister Isabel announces her wedding, she is drawn back into the emotional maelstrom and believes she must pretend to have a boyfriend—not for herself but to make her family happy. Why does she fall back on emotional traps that she has worked so hard to escape?

When Gerald first insults Lina in Chapter 2, telling her that planning an all-day party would not take brains, why does Lina not call him out? Why do none of the other male directors speak up on her behalf?

In certain portions of the novel, Elena Armas describes a full day or a period of multiple days in a single chapter. Sometimes, she does the opposite, devoting multiple chapters to a single evening or car ride. Why do you think Armas makes the structural decisions she does?