Reviews with content warning for Medical content - The Paradise Problem

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The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

22 reviews

aileron's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I pre-ordered this book hoping I would enjoy it like Twice in a Blue Moon, however I was nervous with starting this book as I didn’t enjoy Love and Other Words and I was right to be nervous. I think this is the end of me reading Christina Lauren.

This book has two points of view. Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam 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 and West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has no interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. But there is a 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 life. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing truth love that sprouted from a lie.

I enjoyed Viv and Anna’s dad in this book and the fact that both were calling Anna out and basically being like what is your issue with Liam? Reagan was really sweet, and I liked her innocent and how she was just done with everything, just like me. I haven’t read much of the marriage of convenience trope, but this one just wasn’t it.

The main issue I had with this book is that Weston’s family was just unbearable, and I wanted to smack the shit out of all of them. Anna and Liam had absolutely no passion and then jumped straight into passion all because of the one bed trope, neither of them tried to “fight” it. I'm glad that there was no third-act breakup, however within this book it would have worked if there was a third act breakup. The main issue was the family secrets, which I just didn’t want. The family secrets were just exhausting, and I just didn’t see the point of carrying on the family secrets and keeping whispers. There was a lot of repeated information, and it could have been cut down by about 100 pages with all the daddy issues from Liam and what is PIZA, like Christ we get it.

I think this is going to be the last book I read by Christina Lauren for a while because I struggled with this book and if it wasn’t for the case of me reading multiple books at a time this probably would have put me in a reading slump.

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beebowbabe's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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kelseyfontaine's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really loved this book! A perfect summer read that I was able to fly through. I’m a sucker for a tropical island setting, and while I’m not normally into a marriage for convenience trope, this book had me hooked! I loved the chemistry and build up between Anna and Liam, and it was interesting to read not only a heartwarming romance, but to also see a bit of money/power dynamics within rich families. With a heart-throb male lead, a beautiful setting, and a story different than what I’ve read in the past, this was my perfect beach read! My only complaint would be some of the cringy language used, like “Goddamn” in the place of ~something else~ and “lol” used normally in a sentence. Other than that, a great read for my few days on the beach!

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pantslint's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was super corny, but cute. I just love how cartoonishly evil Ray Weston is. He's truly super-villain terrible. I just love the messiness of the Weston family; I would watch a reality TV show about them.

The Paradise Problem is one of the perfect examples for why I read romance—there are clear divisions of who and what is good vs. bad, the main characters are flawed but lovable, the banter between the lovers is funny and cute, the love/sex scenes are hot and sweet, and everything concludes in a happy ending. Yes, the tropes are repetitive. Yes, the FMC is the same quirky, messy gal in almost every contemporary romance novel. Yes, things are unrealistic.

But I simply do not care, because I'm having a good time regardless of it all. The Christina Lauren duo love to write drama, and I'm just going to keep eating it up.

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snipinfool's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Anna and West married to qualify for married student housing at UCLA. The marriage was in name only and as soon as they both graduated, West gave Anna papers to sign for their divorce. Almost five years later, Anna was working as an artist and was struggling to make ends meet. She hoped she would find some bit of success and sell some of her paintings before she had to find a career that paid her bills.

West had a difficult relationship with his family because he had not gone into the family business. He was happy teaching economics and cultural anthropology at Stanford. When his mother called to fill him in on the travel plans for his sister’s wedding, she made sure West knew that he was expected to bring Anna as well. The family felt it was time they finally met his wife since they had been married almost five years. West had let them think they were still together. He had to contact her to see if she would be willing to go to the wedding and pose as his wife. Anna didn’t know it yet, but West never filed the divorce papers. He had his reasons and hoped Anna would understand why and agree to go to the wedding.

This was a fun twist on a "Pretty Woman" type of storyline. As roommates, West and Anna rarely saw each other, so they were barely friends. Each had to take a crash course on the other’s likes and dislikes and Anna had to be filled in on how to navigate the choppy waters surrounding West’s family. West’s family was quite horrible, but I loved Anna’s best friend and her father. They offered all of the love and support Anna needed. West and Anna’s romance was a bit insta-lovey, but it worked ok with this plot. Christina Lauren continues to write main characters I love. I closed the book at the end with a smile on my face thinking about their happily ever after.

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kendra_taylors_version's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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redempta's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

4 🌟

Good book but nothing more.

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carla20's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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thatswhatshanread's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A very cute vacation read, this one is perfect for summer!! In the vein of CLo’s other paradise-set fake marriage romcom, “The Unhoneymooners”.

This one was super immersive and escapist with the right elements of romcom success: great spicy scenes, likable main characters, a fun exclusive island setting. The fake dating and marriage-of-convenience trope worked well, which surprised me because usually the fake marriage trope is just so unrealistic to me but made a lot of sense for this story, and really aided the sexual tension. Anna’s personality was a little much for me at first, but I loved how she interacted with Liam and balanced him out. Liam was HOT and closed-off, not quite tall, dark, and mysterious but full of intrigue and a soft center. I really liked them together. “Pretty Woman” vibes.

The plot was fairly predictable, but my main qualm (most of the reason I give it 4 stars) was with Liam’s family. They SUCKED!!!! I understand they are filthy rich but the Westons kinda turned me off the story at times. Liam’s dad especially was awful and gave me so much secondhand rage. The rich vs. lower middle class comparison here felt very “The Menu” as far as outrageous privilege and the insane, malicious stakes of the 1%. The Weston family had no redeeming qualities to speak of.

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