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.
Christina Lauren, the instant New York Times bestselling and “reigning romance queens” (PopSugar), returns with a delicious new romance between the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship in order to receive a massive inheritance.
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
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