Books by the famous romance author duo Christina Lauren are always a hit or a miss for me. I can either really love a book by them or not vibe with it at all. And this one? I really loved it.

It had me kicking my feet and giggling by the end and let me tell you this, I will recommend this book to ANYONE. Even if you’re not a romance book reader.

Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

What did it for me is that it’s not only a romance, but it has family drama mixed in there with it. In fact, that was, oftentimes, kept me reading! The romance between the two main characters, Anna and Liam, was convincing enough. Their slow burn romance and marriage of convenience kept me on the edge of my seat. It kind of reminded me of “Just Go With It,” that rom-com with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The one where they had to fake being married and then divorced so that it would please Adam Sandler’s (his character’s) girlfriend in the movie? While this one isn’t that plot exactly, it had the vacation vibes and marriage of convenience to go with it.

The family drama was really intriguing. They really amped up the drama and the issues that dated back way before the “fake marriage” even happened (it happened five years prior to the book’s beginning).

While I loved Anna’s character and how she took no crap from anybody, I really loved Liam’s character! He shouldered a lot of his family’s issues and kept to himself, and wanted to keep to himself. But as hetraveled to his sister’s destination island wedding, he was dragged into his family’s sphere of influence, after years of trying to distance himself from them. And he had to bring along his estranged wife, who thought they had been divorced for years. I loved Liam and his perseverance and the vulnerability he showed towards the end.

Is it just me, or does this book make CLo’s steamiest book yet? Maybe it’s just me. I’ve only read a little less than a half of their books, but this one was high on the spice chart. But it didn’t distract from the plot—okay, maybe there were too many chapters filled with steamy scenes, but it didn’t make the writing bad.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Like, anyone. Even if they’re not a romance book reader. With the family drama, and the family being a very wealthy family so money is involved, I think that anyone can be tied into that storyline. It’s definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

Rating: 4.5/5

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