The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
Contemporary Romance
May 14, 2024- Gallery Books
ARC

Review by Angela

I have an up and down relationship with Christina Lauren books. When I love them I really, really love them (Beautiful Player and The True Love Experiment), but when I don’t, I’m left scratching my head at why (Something Wilder).

This book falls somewhere in the middle. I will admit that I read this straight through in one evening. It’s compulsively readable. The banter between the main protagonists is fantastic. I laughed. I felt the chemistry. I really enjoyed the intense open door love scenes. I do believe this is their sexiest book in years and that made me happy. But… BUT. Almost all of the secondary characters are terrible. There are exceptions, but damnnnnnn.

This is a fake (kind of) marriage of convenience, forced proximity romance featuring a free-spirited artist, Anna Green, and the heir of a mega rich grocery store chain family that needs her to appear as his wife at a family wedding in order to gain his inheritance. The book starts out with them in college in a marriage of convenience in order to gain cheap housing. It’s from Anna’s POV and she’s musing that her husband, West, is moving all his stuff out and leaving her the couch, tv, and the contents of the fridge. She seems to be okay with it. No drama. He gives her some papers that are supposedly divorce papers and they pleasantly say their goodbyes.

Fast forward to present day where she is a struggling artist working several low paying jobs to pay her bills and take care of her father’s medical expenses. After getting fired, and generally having a shitty evening, she wakes up the next day to her ex-husband at her door. Only he’s not really an ex (she should have read those papers), and he needs her to accompany him overseas to a fancy family wedding and to pretend that they’ve been in a loving marriage all these years. She agrees for a price. A price he can afford, and she can’t refuse.

Right from the beginning I had so many questions. Like how in the world did this dude who had such a controlling family get away with lying to them about his relationship and wife’s identity for so long? Liam’s (aka West) family is awful. There’s the overbearing, manipulative patriarch, the mother who gets in her digs with every interaction, and the older brother who feels like he is in direct competition with the MMC in every scenario. The younger sister seems to be willfully ignorant of what’s going on with the family dynamics. I won’t even go into the handsy sister-in-law. The only bright spot are the kids, which are West’s niece and nephews. Although their names are (I shit you not) Reagan, Nixon, Lincoln, and G.W. I mean…

I was so stressed every time Anna interacted with them. Liam was stressed every time she interacted with them too. Eventually, I mean this is a romance, the forced proximity and fake relationship works its magic and Liam and Anna start to have a real relationship. And it’s sexy. But there is a BIG SECRET at the heart of why Liam has stayed away from the family for so long and it’s a doozy.

The epilogue is long and wraps everything up, which I was thankful for. I finished this book in a matter of hours, then just sat there like–huh. Okay. I hated most of the characters. I also found some of the plot to be completely unbelievable, no matter how it was explained away. The revelations at the end set me back a bit. I did enjoy the actual relationship and chemistry between the main characters and liked that the book ended on hopeful note.

Grade- C

Content notes- Anna’s father has cancer