Allison’s Book Report - “The Paradise Problem” by Christina Lauren

Looks like we are headed into an early heatwave this weekend, and I am coming at you with an equally hot new summer romance. Enjoy this hilarious and spicy rom-com from the reigning queens of romance, bestie duo Christina Lauren, anywhere you like.

I find it worth mentioning that Christina Lauren is the pen name of two best friends who have become writing partners and have written many books together. Their newest release, “The Paradise Problem,” is another nugget of solid rom-com gold. Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for subsidized family housing while the two were attending UCLA. Virtual strangers during their marriage, they have not given each other a second thought since graduation. Three years later, Anna is a starving artist and Liam is a professor at Stanford. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but Liam is not interested in working for the heartless corporation his family has built. He is interested in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance, though, and receiving it is hindered by an antiquated clause in his grandfather's will. Liam will not see a penny of the huge payout until he has been happily married for five years. When the five years are almost up, his family demands to see the mysterious spouse he has been hiding, giving him no choice but to track down his feisty and foul-mouthed not-so-ex-wife, Anna. Anna is strapped for cash and agrees that, for a price, she will attend the wedding of Liam’s sister, which is being held on a gorgeous private tropical island. Feelings between the pair get complicated and, in the presence of his dysfunctional family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether Anna can play her part to whether his family’s toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as amazing as Anna, leaving Liam wondering if the money is worth losing her altogether.

If you love the classic fake dating/marriage of convenience trope with some sexy “only one bed in paradise” moments, this book is for you. I often fall in love with the male love interest in these stories - and Liam is definitely a ten – but “The Paradise Problem” had me falling for Anna even more. She is free-spirited, disorganized, and unrefined but so likable. I couldn’t get enough of the banter between the two, and the sexual tension is a heatwave all its own.

Stay cool this week by grabbing this steamy read, and pop over to my Instagram @allison.the.reader and tell me what you think I should read next in my never-ending quest for the perfect book to crack open next.