Review by beckyyreadss - The Paradise Problem

beckyyreadss 's review for:

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

3.0

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

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.

Content Warnings