Bestseller duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, writing as Christina Lauren, absolutely crush it in their latest rom-com release, THE PARADISE PROBLEM.  Yes, it’s a rom-com with a ridiculously silly plot (marriage of convenience with a sexy millionaire who needs a wife to get his inheritance).  But there are some very weighty concepts beneath the surface fluff of this delightfully fun story.  The exploration of betrayal, dysfunctional families, and crushing life events is very skillfully done.  Once again, Lauren proves to be a can’t-miss author.

Anna Green is a down-on-her-luck aspiring artist who just lost her convenience store gig.  She’s juggling several dead-end jobs while paying for her dad’s cancer treatment and painting when she can grab the time.  Anna had married fellow grad student Liam Weston five years ago so they could each take advantage of married housing while in school.  Anna thought they had divorced at the end of school (who reads those long lawyerly contracts anyway?!).  But Liam shows up at Anna’s door begging her to come to his sister’s wedding and act like they’ve been happily married for the last five years so that he can cash in on his multimillion-dollar inheritance.  Off they jet to a tiny private island for the destination wedding, where Anna must pretend to be the rich and pampered wife of a grocery empire heir, rather than the desperate starving artist that she is.

Crazypants, right?  But oh my goodness, this story is just so fun!  Despite the premise and many of the characters being cheerfully over the top, THE PARADISE PROBLEM nonetheless has exquisite emotional depth.  Liam’s family is, quite frankly, horrific.  Despite years of therapy, Liam still struggles to deal with his incredibly toxic father as well as the rest of his terrible nuclear family.  Anna has had many agonizing struggles of her own, but with the assistance of a marvelous dad and a great best friend, she’s come through with a well-grounded emotional base and a pragmatic attitude that provides such a great foil to Liam’s angst. 

THE PARADISE PROBLEM provides plenty of gloriously steamy romance.  The fish bowl setting of the Richey Rich destination wedding with the marriage of convenience aspect is splendidly zany and provides lots of laughs.  But what could have simply been just a hot and fun rom-com has amazing emotional complexity.  This book is firmly on my Keeper Shelf, and I know I will return to it over and over to revel in the engrossing romance that Lauren’s THE PARADISE PROBLEM delivers in spades.