Title: The Paradise Problem
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Romance
Pages: 352
My Rating:

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The Paradise Problem

Anna is a struggling painter who has just lost her job at a convenience store. A day later, Liam is standing in front of her. Years ago, Anna married Liam just so she could live in a certain apartment. They barely saw each other, they were only married on paper.

The last time they saw each other was two years ago, and now he is standing in front of her again. He tells her that they never got a divorce and that he needs her. Liam is attending a wedding soon, and he needs Anna to pretend to be his wife. In exchange, he is willing to pay her a lot of money, which would solve all of her financial problems.

Review

I was trying to get out of a reading slump when I saw this book on my wishlist and decided that it might be the one that would finally end my slump.

I liked the story, although I don’t always enjoy the fake dating trope. I guess that’s just a personal preference. The story started off great and I was immediately hooked. At first, it was a bit confusing. Anna and Liam were married, yet they seemed happy that they were going to get a divorce? Thankfully, the situation was explained pretty quickly.

The characters were likable enough. They both had reasons to pretend they were a happily married couple, even though they were basically strangers who were only married on paper. Anna needed money for her father’s treatment, and Liam needed Anna so he could secure his inheritance. I especially liked the moments when it was just the two of them and they started to bond and get to know each other. There was definitely chemistry between the two main characters, but sometimes I felt like something was missing. I’m not exactly sure what it was.

There were also several side characters, and they were a lot less likable. The worst of them all was Liam’s father. The whole family is incredibly rich and spoiled. I mean, Liam’s sister is getting married on a private island, and they go all out. They can basically just throw money at their problems. I have nothing against rich people, but I really didn’t like the side characters. They were just super annoying. At one point, I honestly wanted to hit Liam’s father in the face with a chair or something.

Overall, I think this was just an okay book for me. Maybe it was because I was still partly in a reading slump, so I’m trying not to be too harsh and say it was “meh.” I think that’s why I’m giving it 3/5 stars (or hearts). But I can still safely say that this is my least favorite Christina Lauren book. Their other books usually have me giggling and blushing, but that didn’t happen with this one.

The post The Paradise Problem – Christina Lauren | Book Review first appeared on Bettie Toon.

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Title: The Exception to the Rule
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Genre: Romance
Pages: 101
My Rating:

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The Exception To The Rule

C. accidentally sends an email to the wrong person. T. is kind enough to let C know he sent the email to the wrong person. At the end of the email, she wishes him a Happy Valentine’s Day.
One year later, T sends C. another email wishing him a happy Valentine’s Day. Now many years later, they still send each other an email on February 14th. They have one rule, they don’t share any personal things that can reveal their identity. But after 10 years, they are ready to meet each other in real life.

Review

I was a little behind my reading schedule and I still am. So that is why I was pretty excited to find this book series. This book series contains 6 short stories written by different authors. This way, I can finally try to catch up with my reading challenge.

I think it is also one of the first times I read a book that is less than 200 pages to be honest. If you don’t count the kid’s books I read as a kid. Part of me likes short stories now because it makes reaching my Goodreads reading challenge goal easier. It is also nice that you can read and finish one book in one sitting. It took me an hour to finish this. If you want to read more, but don’t have a lot of time to read, these short stories are perfect.

In this book, you won’t know their full names until the end, so in this review, I am also going to use C. and T. instead of their full names. I think this story was cute. They started a small tradition of writing to each other on Valentine’s Day, but they didn’t get too personal. In the first part, you read their emails and nothing else, which is an interesting concept. But this way you can’t figure out who they are. But after writing each other emails for 10 years, they are ready to meet each other. They are both now in their early twenties and ready to find out if there is something between the two of them. From that part, the author adds more context instead of just sharing the email conversations they have.

For a short book, it is interesting that the author wrote a slow-burn love story. In the shorter books I read, the main characters always fall head over heels. So I kind of liked this. It also makes sense, because the main characters were only 14 and 16 when C. accidentally sends the email to T.

Overall, I liked this story story. I absolutely loved the ending. It was a real page-turner. Yes, of course, I wished this story had more pages because I liked this story. But at the same time, I also think it has the right amount of pages if that does make sense. Maybe I would have liked this book less if it had more pages. I am definitely excited to read the rest of this book series, which is called ‘the improbable meet-cute’ in case you were wondering.

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<p>The post The Exception To The Rule – Christina Lauren | Book Review first appeared on Bettie Toon.</p>