The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
Reviewer: Wena
Main Leads: William Weston, Anna Green
Setting: United States, California, Palo Alto, Los Angeles
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Tags: Contract Marriage, Fake Relationship, Rich Family Drama
Published On: May 14, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books
Format: e-Book
Source: Purchased
Pages: 352
Purchase It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Half Price Books
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.
Christina Lauren is one of my feel good authors. Every single book that I read by them brings me all the joy. The Paradise Problem was no exception. This is such a fun summer read and I was able to escape the reality of my pretty mundane life for a few hours and just enjoy being part of a pretty chaotic island getaway while our main couple falls in love.
Liam “West” Weston is a rich guy with an inheritance that comes with strings. In order to gain access to his inheritance, he needs his brothers college friend Anna Green to marry him. But the charade doesn’t end with them getting married. They have to pretend to be in love and in a real marriage so Anna moves into West’s place and they pretend their life away. The arrangement works for the both of them because 1) they’re married in name only and 2) they give each other space to live their lives even though they share living space. All of that comes to an end when they go their separate ways and sign the divorce papers…only three years later, West finds out that they’re not actually divorced and they need to come together and play pretend some more because along with finding out they’re still technically married, he also found out some other stipulations of the inheritance so West needs Anna in a way he wasn’t prepared to need anyone.
As a struggling artist, it doesn’t take much to convince Anna to take on the role of West’s wife again, especially when West is all too happy to pay her some serious cash for her troubles. All she needs to do is fly to a tropical island and attend West’s sisters wedding and pretend that they’re still madly in love and happily married.
There’s a lot going on in this story between West’s family shenanigans, West’s personal struggles with his father, and Anna’s own struggles with where she’s at in her life, taking care of her father, and dealing with all of that while falling in love with each other really kicks them both in the ass and I really enjoyed seeing them work through their struggles and come together in love. It was messy, it was steamy, and with the beautiful island back drop, I was hella invested. They were so much fun getting to know on their own, especially Anna, that it was not hard to root for them. There were times when I didn’t understand why West thought and did the things that he did but I just chalked it up to rich people problems. I cannot connect with that but I still really loved West and I really loved the way that he loved Anna. They were such a fun couple and I was completely satisfied with their story, their romance, and all of the secondary characters made the story pop even more so I wasn’t mad about any of them, not even West’s dickhead Dad. I definitely recommend this if you’re in the mood for a steamy romance that makes you laugh with characters that will charm your socks off. It’s good, I promise!
Final Rating
