The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

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.

I was so, so excited for this book. If you know me, you know that The Unhoneymooners is one of my favorite books ever and I was so excited for another fake dating CLo book set in a tropical location. The Paradise Problem seriously had all the makings of a favorite book for me, but I ended up being so disappointed in it. Here are a few of my very unorganized thoughts on this book so I can move on and away from this.

I hated how Anna was portrayed (like is she really this dumb and hopeless?). I am so tired of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and that’s what the authors tried so hard to have her be. The romance felt too rooted in lust, and this has way more steam in it than I’m used to in Christina Lauren’s more recent releases. There’s also way more language than I’m used to from them. I hated the main dude’s entire family. The family drama was seriously so over-the-top. What poor little rich people. I loved the setting. This could have been so good, but they took everything I loved from The Unhoneymooners and did a complete 180. Oh, and it is so jam packed with modern pop culture references that will not age well at all. This ended up being my biggest bookish disappointment of 2024.