Boozy Bookgasms - 99 Problems but a Beach Ain’t One!

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren This MMC has an impressive bank account and "package" to match! Join us on this tropical adventure full of sexual angst, sibling rivalry, and one booze filled handsy in-law.  Spoiler alert - we love you Blaire!     Signature Cocktail: The Goddamn This one is a tropical nod to both the Island setting and also to Liam Weston's amazing package!  Ingredients: 3 oz orange juice 3 oz cranberry juice 1 oz coconut vodka 1 oz peach schnapps Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice and live out your cocktail bartender fantasy shaking the hell out of it.  Strain and pour into a tall glass over fresh crushed ice and add a beautiful umbrella and any other bougie tropical garnish you want. 

Ready? Yep. Can't wait. I feel like you're not, Kim, you're chewing. Are you still? I was not chewing. She was swallowing. I'm just breathing.

Oh my God. Just trying to breathe. Buckle of literature fans. We're in for some boozy bookgasms today. Join three cousins creating a titillating headspace where steamy romance novels collide with strong cocktails. So sit back. Sip slow and enjoy the ride.

Hello all and welcome back to Boosy BookGasms. I'm Jen. I'm Lynn. I'm Kim. I'm Stacy. Whoa. Well, hey there. Stacy.

Who's you? Our loyal listeners may have noticed that we have an extra voice on the pod tonight. Stacy from Minnesota. Welcome. And thank you for joining us. Welcome, Stacy. So does your mom have it going on? She does have it going on.

Yes. I got to say, thanks for the welcome. Stacey was our lucky winner. She submitted a book for the show and it's here to help us recap and review. Stacey, we are so excited to have you and can't wait to hear about the book that you've selected. But first, we have to have a drink. Always. Kim, what are we drinking tonight?

Okay, so this one is a tropical nod to both the island and Liam's incredible package. We're going to call this the goddamn, baby. Yeah. Again, D-Diam! This is some orange juice, some cranberry juice, coconut vodka, and a little peach schnapps. It is so good. That is so good. Anything coconut makes me feel like I'm on a good.

Tropics, definitely. Give me an umbrella. You hear the ocean waves. I don't love sweet drinks, but every time I go to the ocean, I feel like I need one very sweet coconut-e cocktail. I need one. Just one for the day. Yeah. One frozen sweet something.

thing, usually meanicolada for me. Yeah. Coconut vodka. This is great. This is good. So, Stacey, tell us about the book that you've selected. Well, I selected the Paradise Problem, authored by Christina Lauren. I've actually never read Christina Lauren.

We love her. A book before this time. But my little sister has a friend who has a friend that does book covers. And so she just passes all these books along to me. I had never heard of it before. It was great. I recommended it to this podcast because. because it's really that naughty but kind of believable and substantive vibe.

So I hope you all enjoyed it. Oh, I totally loved it. I think we all thought this is a good one. And we actually did another Christina Lauren book earlier this season called Beautiful Bastard. I felt like a totally, it was a totally different vibe. I agree. And you had mentioned that these are two authors, right? Christina Lauren's actually two female authors.

Yeah, I think it is. Yeah. So I wonder if they switched off for these books. Because the writing was very different this time around. I didn't realize that. The angst was still there. Just like Beautiful Bastard. They were constantly circling each other and like both thinking it but not acting on it or will they, won't they?

I thought there were some similar nods. There was a little bit of that. So we'll start out with our female main character, Anna Green. She is a 25-year-old starving artist, literally. She was raised by a single dad who was a mechanic and she has an amazing relationship. with him, but he's recovering from cancer, and she's trying to help with his medical bills and has a lot of financial stress around that. The prolog has her saying goodbye to her husband, who is our main male character, Liam Weston. They got married so they could have cheap housing

for college, and you know, I love a good marriage of convenience trope. So here we go. Liam gives her some paperwork in the prolog, and she signs it, and he, off he goes. They don't talk about it again. we flash forward to three years later and Anna is she's barely making ends meet as an artist. She's working at a gas station for an 18 year old boss who fires her. So good. For stealing a pack of gum, but really because she won't hook up with him. My favorite part of this is that it took him how many hours to watch the video to realize that she stole the gum. I'm like, this is a typical doucheback guy.

I mean, the intro to this was like fast and furious. It was like, okay, we live together. And I was really struggling with like their relationship in the prologue, like, were they? Okay, they were married. They didn't even care. They were barely friends. Like she was like, okay, bye, see. I mean, they didn't even talk to each other.

And then, yeah, now she's working with this 18. I don't think she even signed the paperwork. No, she did. But it wasn't divorced. She didn't read it. She didn't read it. I think the thing was like everyone assumes their divorce papers, but they weren't divorce papers.

Right. She didn't know. So she was pre-med in college and then changed her major to fine arts. So she's trying to be an artist, but struggling is generous. Like, she's not making any money off her art. Yeah. Just working at like the local Piggly Wiggly Wiggly. I mean, it's a pick-it-up or something.

It's like so bad. Yeah. Pigley-wiggly would have been better. It's worse. So the next day, she's, you know, kind of wallowing and self-pity. And she's high as a kite on a gummy. My favorite chapter. Just taking a me day to just kind of work through her.

A me day. This girl, a high is hilarious. Like, I want to be friends with her. She was so funny. So she's eating fruit loops out of a mixing bowl and watching Cohnen the barbarian. As when done. With their fruit loop on her. On her.

Yeah. But it was Fruit Loop F-R-O-O-T. Did anybody, oh, did you all, I read it. That's how it's spelled, a cereal. Oh. Her loops are spelled that way. Yeah, because of the O's. Oh.

Oh. An aha moment. Look at this. We're learning. We're learning and growing. I like that Stacey also didn't know that. Stacy must not buy her children's sugar cereal. I don't buy my kids sugar cereal.

No. It's U.I. They're fruit loops. Okay. All right. Not these. I don't think there's any real fruit in there at all. There's no real fruit.

No. It's fair. Maybe that's why it's not F-R-U-I-D. Yeah. They can't. I'd be false average. It would. That's a lawsuit. All right. Fair. Fair. So, of course, today of all days,

Ring Dong, her ex-husband, Liam, shows up at the door. Of course, and of course, you know, he's super hot and polished, and she's cut yesterday's mascara, smudged across her face. Her hair's a mess. And she's not even wearing pants. Oh, that's right. She's only in her undies and, like, a t-shirt with her fruit. And she's got one slipper on. I mean, she's, He's a hot mess. But he's there because he needs a favor.

And this is the premise of our book. Liam is from a very rich grocery store dynasty that was started by his grandfather. I just have a question. Are you a dynasty if you're the sixth biggest grocery store chain in the country? They were very clear. They were the sixth biggest. I also thought that was a little strange. Big are you?

America's big, y'all. Yeah. It seems like it's an unnecessary detail. The sixth biggest, let's be clear. They mentioned it multiple times. Also, like, she didn't even really know his real name. She called him West. Yeah, because his last name was Weston and all his friends called him West, which was kind of cute.

But, yes, she had no, they're married. They got married. Her name. Like, in real life. Lived with him. Lived with him. Lived together for two years. She had no idea that he's wealthy or his name.

All good. But in her, or that they're still married. Right, or they're so married. And she's totally high. So this whole conversation where he has to re-explain all of this to her is like, might be one of the best parts of the book. She keeps poking him in the leg going, are you really real? Are you really? So good.

She peels the fruit loop off her boob and puts it in her mom. That was the worst. I'm sorry. And he's like, who are you? And he's so devastated. I have to ask her this favor. and she is not who I thought she was. Yeah, it's so bad.

So he and his siblings have a big inheritance waiting for them, but they have to get married to trigger the inheritance. Liam didn't realize that until he married Anna for the cheap rent, and then it kicked off the timer on his marriage. For the first five years he's married, Liam gets like $200 grand a year, and then if they stay married five years, he gets $100 million. Yeah.

So this is big bucks, and he and Anna have now been married for four years, years and nine months. So they are very close to the finish line. And the paperwork she signed in the prolog that she didn't read, it was all laid out there where she actually gets $10,000 when they hit the five-year anniversary. And this, to her in this moment is, I mean, it's a windfall. Like, she needs this money. She's really struggling. Life changing. She wants to take care of her dad. Liam's family is starting to get suspicious because nobody's met his wife. And they all think he's really married except for one of his brothers. He's been sending him doctored photos and fake updates on his life.

And he also told him she was in med school because that's what he remembered. She was in med school at the beginning. She was in medical. Yeah, she was pre-med. But she teaches her major three months after they moved in together. So for a year or nine months, she was not a pre-med major. He just never noticed. But he never saw her.

They were just. But the stories he comes up with, like she's in Cambodia. He made up a whole life for her. She's like her best life, like the cheating is not living. And so far it's been pretty easy to pull off because he's estranged from his father. For reasons, we'll find out later. And he hasn't seen them in five years. But now his sister, who he adores, is getting married on a private island.

And his mom called and basically said, you're bringing your wife. We're all getting a little suspicious about this whole deal. It's not optional. She needs to be there. And he knows if he doesn't bring her the first. father will make it difficult for him to get his inheritance. So Anna, she's really trying to process this as he's explaining it. But she's so baked. She's just super confused throughout the whole thing. So he says, hey, what do you say? It's a free trip. I'll buy you a new wardrobe on me. And she's like, no way. I have bills

to pay. I've got to look for a job. And she says, I need to be compensated for my time. And he's Mark, girl. And he says, well, how much? And she says, $10,000. And he's like, done. Like, I'm a little too quickly. Yeah. Yeah. I love how she counteracts this. Like, she's so fun in this moment. She won't give him a number.

She's like, what's going to make you uncomfortable? Right. Well, this is the best, right? Because even at the end, it comes back around where she's like, okay, what's a number that you'll still say yes to, but you might say no, but you'll still say yes to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But they land on, yeah, $100,000. But they leave in $300,000. Three days. Crazy money, though, for this girl. She has no job. $20 in a bank account. Her dad has $20,000 worth of medical bills. He was like basically a single father, so she's super close to him. Their relationship is really key, I think, too, to her personality and. Oh, totally. And how she relates to his family. His family. Because this is very foreign the way they trade each other. Yeah, she's very open. So she does take it almost immediately because the money is a no-brainer for her. She's like, what, 12 days on a private island with a hot guy? for 100K. She actually says I will dress like a Kardashian and act like a femme butt as long as I can take care of my dad. That's all that matters. Yeah. It's one of those things where it's like, do you even have a choice like when like put up against these circumstances? But it didn't feel like that in this book. But for me, she had no option. Like she was doing this no matter what. And he kind of knew that. When he realized she was unemployed, he's like, how can how can she say no to this? I mean, it was a pretty good deal. So her best friend Vivie is there when a

package arrives. There's a black amax and some fancy luggage delivered to her house as well as a list of events she needs to dress for. I thought this was so fun. So Vivi's like, all right, I'm going to make you a hair appointment, nail appointment, wax appointment, you've got to go do all the beauty stuff. Give me that Amax and I'm going to go shopping. And she does it right. I mean, everything that she did a great job. Yeah. Is Top O line. For sure. Thank God she told Vivie, right, because along with the black Amex, which I've never held in my real life, and I'm like, I, they're beautiful. And they're very heavy. I want to hold one myself. There was an NDA. Like, you can't tell anyone. And she's like, well, I already told Vivie. So that doesn't count. So Vivie's now totally in on the, she's grandfathered.

Yeah. Thank God for Vivie. She would never, Anna would never be able to do that on her. She would have not known the first thing to life. She couldn't have stomach the price tags on these clothes. She wouldn't know what to buy. She was struggling with the Brazilian wife. I don't know that I would either. I went. I went. Yeah. Now we've got Vivy who knows and we have Liam's brother who also knows. The younger brother knows that their marriage is a sham. So now you've got four people in on it. Yep. And we move forward with beautiful clothes. Everything is bare, waxed, done. But she does her hair. And instead of going fembot, she actually goes with her natural pink. It's not natural, but that's her color. For her, it is natural. That's her thing. Yeah. It's her. It's her. look. That's her look. So she, authentically, that is the only thing she kept. Right. She She went and bought except for the hair, right, which is the one thing she could hold on to is. So she shows up to the airport looking like a million bucks. And Liam is noticing. And he even says, I didn't know if she'd keep the pink hair, but I'm so glad she did. And I've seen women that have their hair pink. And if it's done right, it's really sexy. I mean, you can do it right. And she's five foot 10. It sounds like she's kind of a smoke. show but doesn't know it. And of course, he's also very handsome. And they have a very cute moment in the lounge where she goes to the bathroom and she has these new fingernails. Now, I don't know how

people function in life with these fingernails. I've seen it. I've seen it happen. I don't know. How do you do anything? And they're super long. And she can't button her pants. So he has to like go in there. It's a very cute little scene. He thinks she's. propositioning for sex and he's like, you don't have to do this. And she's like, you're an idiot. Just help me zip my parents. But he's not saying no. He's not saying no. He's like, but you don't have to. Well, and she showed up right away. Hot mess, like, because she showed up like 15 minutes before the flight was going to board into the lounge. So he was like, well, she won't she? And then she's like, okay, I'm here. Here's all my stuff. Got to go to the bathroom. And then she's like, wait, come into the bathroom. He's like, what is happening? Well, she wasn't even going to take her phone. He made her take the phone.

She's like, hold my stuff. Hold my purse. And then she heads to the bathroom. He's like, whoa, at least take your phone. And then the next thing he knows he's got this text, come see me. This is my favorite. Come do this. And he's like, well, how did you zip your pants at home?

And she's like, well, there was a hanger and a safety clips. And like, there was all these. I had told. He's like, you didn't think about that, like when you left your house. And that's what kind of hot. messless woman is. Like she took her two hours to get into the cell. But she never thought she might have to go to the bathroom. She's amazing. I don't care. She's a woman in the moment. It's always in the moment. She's in dearie. I really, she grew on me at first. It was like she was kind of annoying.

Oh, I loved her out of the game. I was like, yeah. She's endearing. She was really cute. The trip's all first class all the way, right? And he fills her in on the family and what she needs to know on the airplane. So Liam is one of four kids. He has an older brother, a younger brother and a younger sister who's who's the one getting married. Our older brother is Alex, and he's a pretty much a spineless suck up to the down. Yeah, boo. His wife, though. Oh, one of my favorites. I'm not Blair. She? Now, we gave Blair in Legacy a real hard time about her name, but I'm going to say this Blair is a redemption arc for all Blairs because that Blair was a bit. No, this Blair is hilarious.

It's literally like the Blair from Gossip Girl. I think it's the same personality, Blair. It's like the snobby, rich girl. Yeah, symbolically, it's like the snobby rich girl, but redeeming at the same time. I didn't see her like that. I do. I saw her like, she came from nothing. She was working with him, got knocked up, hit the jackpot, and still maintain that.

Fuck you guys. She's now. I think that's how she's always been. She was like a VP in HR. Oh, yeah, she was in HR. Details. But she's very crass. And he has to tell Anna, like, if she asked you for a threesome, the answer is no.

No. We go in knowing Blair's going to be hilarious. And they have four kids ranging from ages 2 to 12. And Anna really bonds with these kids on the trip. And it's very sweet. Then there's younger brother Jake, who's a party guy. and nobody really takes them seriously, including his dad. And Anna already knows Jake.

He was a college friend, and he's the one that suggested their marriage in college when they both needed cheap rent. They knew each other before she actually met Liam. And then the sister Charlie, now, did you guys notice this is our third Charlie this season? A lot of Charlotties. Charlene. But she's a sweetheart and ease it alike. She's also a daddy's little girl and spoiled pretty rotten. And we'll find the dad's a total ass-hats.

you're going to see more and more as the book goes on. But Charlotte turns a blind eye to this because she's showered with his gifts and he's just kind of manipulative with her anyway. Well, but they do talk about kind of midway through the book how you can have a different relationship with people. And I think the dad treated her differently. She knew he was an ass hat, but he did treat her differently than he treated the sons. Yeah. He spoiled her. He paid attention to her. He didn't do anything with Jake. Liam was the golden child who didn't want anything to do with him, which you find out later, which is why he didn't have any money in college was because he wasn't taking any money. And then you have Alex who is the suck up, pay attention to me. I'm going to throw a tantrum if I don't get your attention. So with Charlie, it was just very endearing. It's the daddy daughter. She's the youngest and she wasn't really competing with the boys. Yeah. So Jake and Alex holds C-suite positions with the family company. But Liam quit, as we mentioned. As we mentioned, years ago after falling out with him and his dad. So we still don't know the details, but you can tell his dad did him dirty, and he hasn't forgiven him for that. So when Anna and

Liam get to the island, they're greeted by the parents. And like I said, the dad's just a total jerk. And the mom is atrocious to Anna. I mean, she's the worst. Well, okay, so originally I was like, hmm, this sounds familiar. But I think as you move into it, where she actually has a moment on the side with Wes, he said, cut her some slack. And she said, no, it's all just part of it. And she'll get through it. And then you also hear from Blair, we're best of friends now. It's so icky.

She's testing her. It's a hazing. Anna holds her on, though. It's a hazing. It's still, like, just because she was hazed doesn't mean she needs to carry on the tradition. It ends with us. It's so icky. The whole, all the ways that she gaslights Anna and the way that she treats her.

And for Blair to be like, listen, I hated her too, but now we're besties. I'm like, That doesn't make it okay that she treated you like garbage for the first 10 years with this family. That's horrible. Anna was just so forgiving. Yeah. Well, and at this point, she's like, I'm here to do a job. I don't care if this woman's nice to me or not.

I just want my hundred grand. But also, it's obvious they're all products of their environment. They all rotate around this one ass hat, Ray. They're just dealing with him. Who is just awful. Yeah. So it's survival of the fittest and, you know, shit rolls downhill and she caught it. But I mean, her comments to me, like, cracked me up.

Oh, that's so great you can wear that. You look so comfy. Not everybody can wear their hair that way for you. Even to Blair. Oh. How nice that you don't have to worry about what you eat. Like, you just don't care. You just don't care.

You can just eat all the time. She was awful. I just don't know how you can forgive it. Like, she's not even endearing. She's horrible. So the bulk of the book is them at this island wedding. And they're going to parties and they're navigating the family drama all. week. And it was so fun to experience this through Anna's eyes. And she's so grounded and she's so

real and she's amazed by the opulence of everything, but also disgusted by the excess of it. There were times where she's like, I'm embarrassed for these people. Lounge chairs at the wedding? Well, it was like on the beach? It was over the top. Yeah. One of the things is like it's a conservation island. So it's an island in the middle of Thailand and it's all solar and wind powered and supposed to be very conservationist and eco-friendly and everything's made from the earth and whatever. And they got quote-unquote special permission from the government to send over trunks and trunks of crap for a theme party. And she's so like, wait, what? Why did you spend your money this way?

And why did they allow you to do this? But, you know, money talks. And that's sort of the theme. Yeah. And you get the sense, too, that Liam's not super comfortable in this world either. I mean, he's driven the same Honda for 10 years, and he's not materialistic at all. There were those two incidents at the table. Terrible.

Gross. Yes. But that table, they were having brunch. And those two incidences, I think, really solidified for her. She was kind of getting sucked into the sort of opulence of it. But this is what really made it was she said gross. The bride's honeymoon, Airbnb or whatever, got flooded. So the dad just was going to buy her another home.

And the mom goes, well, we already bought her home for her wedding. And he's like, this is a vacation home totally different. And so now they have two homes as like their wedding. And then he runs into the waitress. She spills champagne. And then he gets her fired because she spills champagne. Do you know how much I'm spending on this wedding and this, you know, no nothing is spilling champagne? And Liam loses his shit on this one.

Like he was pretty disgusting. What are you talking about, dad? You ran into her. Like, not my problem. And none of the siblings. Thanks. Alex, Jake or Charlie, none of them said anything. You could just visualize it, though. Everybody's eyes go to their eggs. You know, just... This isn't the first time they've seen this. Yeah. Yeah. Gross. I thought the authors did an

amazing job with the landscape. So we've talked about this a lot in other books where the landscape can really make or break it for me. And I felt like I was on this island. I'm picturing the sunsets and the ocean and the sand. And it just made me want to go on vacation. Same. Made me really enjoy this book a lot more because the setting was just so beautiful. Definitely. You could see yourself going on the kayaking trips and being with them in the bungalow. Norclean. I've never stayed in a place like this.

I don't know if you all have, but like those overwater bunkalows that you always see advertised, right? It's on my bucket. Yeah. I'm just like, mine too. The Maldives. So I'm like, okay, I know exactly where this is. And I want to be right there in that pool. overlooking the ocean in the morning.

And yeah, I totally could picture everything. So to the surprise of nobody, they end up hooking up. That's a very fun. What? No way. A lot twist. You skipped over a lot there, Jenny. It was a long time until they hooked up.

It was a long time until they hooked up, like over halfway through until they actually. They would do the fake kissing and this and that for the show. But you could tell that was leading up to it. That was happening. It took too long. They should have done that sooner. So the other Christina Lauren book, we were talking about this before we started, but they hooked up in chapter one. That's true.

Yeah. It was sexing after sexing after 16 just strung together with sort of a plot, but not really. And this was a really great plot with a lot of lead-up and a lot of Ains. And I thought it was really well done. It was just hard for me to believe these were the same two authors. because the books were so very different. Oh, see, so I had a different view. Like, that one wasn't a marriage convenience.

It was like a situation of convenience because they were working together. And there was a lot of sex, but there was still a lot of will, they won't they, angst throughout the first part of Beautiful Bastard. And I feel like that you could still see that in this book. Oh, I don't remember that at all. I remember it was like, wham, bam, damn, done. Like, immediate. And in fact, I believe if I go back and listen to it again, I think I was like, oh, my God, how many corners of this office? But they kept avoiding each other.

Like, we'll have sex avoid. Sex avoid. Well, I mean, you need a down period. But yeah. And like the same thing in this book where they were just like for this is just such contract. We're tracked each other. No, it's just for a contract. This was a lot of relationship building.

I did too. Yeah. I like the lead up. I like it. They eased into it. Like I said, they finally hook up at the 64% mark of the book. I thought the writing was was really well done and you're kind of falling along with them and getting to know them. And then, you know, there's nothing like being thrown in.

to a toxic family dynamic to speed up getting to know someone. I think that helped too. She really, I think, fell for him even more. He was vulnerable. She felt for him. Yeah, he was vulnerable. And he was vulnerable with her. I mean, he really is not vulnerable in his life.

He is not close to his family. And she was his person during this very hard time. He had been with his family for five years. He was kind of thrust back into this environment. And then we haven't even talked about the fact that the dad has a reporter. at the island doing like a profile on the dad. And he keeps wanting to have Liam interview with this guy and Liam's trying to avoid him. So there's all this pressure on Liam to come back to the family business.

The dad, Ray, just keeps wanting to him back. Well, he's forcing him. Yeah, he's really pushing it off. But doesn't want to say no because he doesn't want to push his dad too far. So Liam the whole time is trying to navigate the situation. And so Anna is his foundation, his strong. whole. His person. Yeah. She's the only thing real that he sees and can grab onto and talk to. And she knows he needs it. At one point, she says, I'm here for you. I'm your right or die. We're in this together.

As soon as she said that, he lost his mind. I mean, like, listen, he has his brother Jake who knows he's in this fake marriage, who he still won't talk to because he's keeping everything. He's not talking to his siblings, like, because he's afraid that they aren't going to be there for him. And she's like there. And as soon she says, I'm your right or die, he does shut down a little bit. Yeah, he did. So the whole time they're on the island and they're building their relationship, the brother Alex is asking a lot of nosy questions. He is clearly suspicious and there's a lot of competition between him and Liam because the dad has always wanted Liam to take over his CEO and the brother wants that job. Liam does not want it, but the dad is not taking no for an answer, mostly because he's just a narcissist and you

don't not say yes to him. And it is really caused a lot of animosity between the two brothers. And everything comes to ahead the night of the wedding. So Alex has done some investigating and uncovered that the marriage is a sham. And he gets up on the stage and humiliates Anna in front of the entire wedding ceremony. He didn't uncover the marriage was a sham as much as he uncovered that she was not a medical student. Well, he knew they didn't live with each other. Yeah, true. He uncovered that she worked at a gas station. He uncovered all the facts that basically alluded to the fact that the marriage was a sham. But it was all because the dad essentially told Forbes, the outlet that was there covering the wedding and that William was going to be the CEO.

And Alex, the CFO, the son that's been there the whole time, who was like the big suck up. And he thought he was a shoeing for the CEO job. Ray has been playing them against each other, unbeknownst to either son, really. and tells Forbes, no, Liam's the CEO. And so when Alex gets one of that is when he goes bananas. So there's this other subplot with the inheritance, which is there's like a clause that if any of the marriages are found to be frauds, then they all four lose their inheritance. But Alex doesn't know this. So Liam is now trying to protect all of their inheritance, not just his own, all of theirs, but Alex doesn't know this.

So when Alex finds out that the dad wants Liam to be the CEO, he, he's. he loses his mind, but Liam's like, ah, don't cut your nose off to sweat your face. You don't know everything. But he's drunk and he is pissed. He's out, out Liam and does it at Charlie's wedding. Basically, Anna runs out of the wedding. She's humiliated.

He puts her on blast, calls her a phony, calls them both con artists. And after the wedding, Anna and Liam go back into the tent and the entire Weston family is all sitting around just miserable. Including the bride. The bride's there. Like Alex ruined her wedding. Dad is blaming Alex for making the family look bad and admits he knew the whole time this marriage was a fake. And the dad says he wants Liam to take over a CEO or he will expose the fake marriage and Leon will lose his inheritance.

Like we said, Alex and the siblings don't know is that all of their inheritance is on the line. And he knows that Liam knows that. And he knows he's got him over a barrel. He knows that Liam doesn't care about the money. but he also knows Liam's not going to screw his siblings. Anna tells the dad off and says that his terms are fucked up and it's only a matter of time before every person in this room leaves you. She wants Liam to walk away from this money and his toxic father,

but we don't know his decision. And do we know at this point the whole scandal that the dad has been involved in? We don't know what it is. Yeah. It keeps coming up. Pisa. Something happened when Liam built a program. We're not sure how it went wrong, but we know something happened and Liam was to blame.

But that's all we know. But I just want to say that Anna's speech here where she called out the dad was like beautiful, so beautiful. I can see the movie scene where she's in there in the tent with all the dirty dishes, just calling the dad out. Like, it's just so wonderful. They should get married just because she did that. I think they do. I love that too. I love that part.

And she stands up. Yeah. She stands up and he's the only one and humanity. Only one. The only one. And humanity. So she runs out, but Liam stays back with the family lawyer. Then we don't know like what transpires.

While they're on the island and while all this drama is going on, Anna got a call from her art agent, letting her know that she found a show for her paintings. Liam ends up buying them secretly to support her and she finds out and gets upset, which is the reason for our third. act breakup. And I can't believe we've had two books this season where the third act breakup is because of paintings. And the boy forcing the arts. I mean, art is important. It ultimately ends up with like the guy just wants to show their support, but they do it in the most stupid way. Well, the first one we read. The Irish one. Kiss of the Irish. It was just icky the way that he did it. This one was like, it was sweet. This one was very 50 shades of gray, though. Yes. It was. It was very much so. And he bought it before the art auction opened. So she didn't even get a chance to see if they would have been bought. No one ever saw the painting. He bought them before it even went on sale. Pre-flight, an hour before the flight, they break up about an hour before the 15-hour flight. They were priced at $200 each. And for some reason, someone anonymously bought them for $1,000 apiece. Then she starts piecing it together and breaks up with him because he manipulated her career.

And so meanwhile, after the breakup, Liam turns down the CEO job and the dad leaks documents to the press in an effort to make Liam look bad and get revenge. She actually told him, your family will always choose the money over you. And he was like, no, that won't happen. He doesn't say it won't happen. He knows it probably will, but he's not willing. Well, he doesn't want to hear that. Yeah. He doesn't want to hear that. Yeah. He doesn't. No, well, who does? Like, that's a blow. But then when when he actually tells Jake with. going on. Jake's like, well, thanks for taking one for the team. Yeah, totally. It's like his test, right? He's like, she said, your family will never pick you. They will only pick the money. But then he finally says to Jake, this is what's going on. And Jake's like, thanks for taking one for the team.

Yeah. Sucks for you. Move on. And he's like, she was right. That's the moment. Yep. And the real reason that Jake, the last straw was Jake's dad said, even if you had turned this down, I've got more dirt on you. I was going to release more documents that made you look guilty in the whole piece of scam and basically destroy you. You would lose your job at the university. He had an ace up his sleeve. He said, I have leverage on you no matter what you choose. I was just going with the fake marriage thing. Yeah, I was going for you will have to screw your siblings.

But if you want to screw your siblings, I have more. I just feel that that was one of the most awful moments in the book that I like, really, is that really happy? It's dirty. Does this happen to people? This guy has no redeeming quality. I mean, I read it. It was there, but it's a little unbelievable that that could happen. He was against your own kids.

It's succession, though. It's succession. It is like what people will do for money. And I think that was like an underlying current, right, through the whole book, which is like, what will you do for money if you need it? Or because you have money. Or if you don't need because you have it because you're not used to not having it. The whole like what you'll do for money undercurrent is very real here. And it's a very light book.

But it's- It was the theme. It was very indecent proposal meets pretty woman. Oh, that's a good. If you had to sum it up, what would you do for that amount of money? Right. You know? But he already had all the money.

And but if you had it your whole life, what do you do to keep it, right? Or do you think about it even? Like, if you just have it, you have it. And you might not even think about it. I mean, he manipulated everything. Well, not's the thing, too. Like, they don't need it, but then they're used to that lifestyle. And it really made a big thing for Liam, right?

To see money through her eyes. money through her eyes, right? And like what she didn't need. So a little backstory on the true reason behind Liam's falling out with his dad. So when he was a teenager, he created an inventory software for the grocery store that they called Pisa. Liam's dad asked him to alter the software inadvertently giving him capability to spy on employee emails and not just their corporate emails, like their personal emails, anything they checked on their computer, the dad could see it. Oh, yeah. He was like a like a computer science wonder boy. He was interning with the company in his like junior year of high school or something and created this program. But then went to college. But he created it. His name was attached to it. Handed it over, went off to college. And did everything his dad asked him to do. But the dad uses the information he finds in the employee emails to deny a promotion to someone he finds out is pregnant. He's using it to solicit pictures to extort people. I mean, he just turned straight up evil. And they start suing him.

And he starts settling all these cases out of court, but word gets to the board that they've done this. And he blames the whole thing on-like, my young kid, he said it was Liam doing all of it. A 14-year-old boy at the time. I mean, it was self-preservation, right? My kid's underage. He won't get really blamed at all. So I'm just going to blame it on him. I mean, he struggled in college.

He had to switch professors. He had to switch majors because of this. Yeah, it was national news. I mean, he created the program when he was 16 or something, but like he came out when he was 20. So, I mean, four years. He'd created. He had left. He'd been in college for a couple years.

Then it comes out. He gets blamed. Yeah. When the dad blamed him for this, Liam decides in that moment, I do not want to work for this man. I cannot stomach it. He also saw some behaviors that he thought were pretty despicable and just knew his morals and values did not align with his fathers. And this was the last straw. I am not going to work for this company.

Well, the dad never took no for an answer. And he cut him off kind of thinking he'd come back, but he didn't. He ends up making his way through college on his own. Well, this is why he and Anna ended up together, right? Dad cuts him off. Yeah, he didn't have the money. He needs cheap housing, so he gets married to go into family housing. When he realizes he's getting this inheritance, he puts it into a foundation.

So he's never taken a penny of this inheritance. He has it in a foundation for the employees of the Western organization, anyone who works there can apply for a grant and they can use it for college or travel or to purchase a home. And his goal is really to rebuild the culture. His grandfather started, but he's trying to do it from the outside because he knows he can't work with his dad. When he became a professor, he became a professor of anthropology with a specialty in corporate culture. So he is very passionate about it and about fixing it. So he really doesn't want to hold on to this money for himself anyway. It was always to give back to that foundation for the

employees. Anna goes back to her dad. They break up. They have this awkward flight back. They trade banking information and the baggage claim. I mean, it's very awkward. She goes and hangs out with her dad, tells her dad everything. And Vivi calls and says, turn on the news. It's all for CNN. And she realizes, oh my gosh, Liam has said no. So she calls the only other number she knows. Blair's kid Reagan, Blair, the mom answers. And Blair tells her everything about pizza, about everything. Well, she gave her shit in first. Yeah, but in like the cutest way.

Yeah. Pretty little liar. Fake your marriage. Pretty little liar. She's like, I just thought I was going to have a friend. And Anna's like, you do. Tell me what's going on. Tacos and margaritas every day.

She's like, I need to know where Liam lives. And she's like, I'm not sure. And then she texts Jake on the airplane. And he's like, oh, it's a cul-de-sac somewhere in. some city. I mean, like, they don't have any clue. I have part. Where he lives. But she watches the news, essentially, figures out where he is, flies to Palo Alto, ends up at his house. The press are all over her. He rescues her from the press scrum. And then she says, I know everything. So in this whole situation with Anna and Blair, Blair basically tells Alex, I'll keep married to you, but not if you're poor. So we basically appeal to Alex's most. awful trait, which is he wants to be wealthy. And he comes out against the dad.

So he doesn't leave Singapore. So dad goes crazy, thinks he's got Alex all tied up. Alex doesn't leave and says, actually, Liam didn't do anything with all my debt. Because he also didn't want to be poor. So it still comes around to money. The dad got screwed because he was trying to play Alex. They choose the money over everybody. They choose the money over everyone.

That was the moral of the money. He didn't choose Liam. He didn't choose the dad. He chose the money. And there was never any way that dad was going to turn against all of them because he needed them to help plead his case. He, like, shorted a bunch of stock. He was going away from racketeering and insider trading and, like, you know, harassment. Well, he immediately dropped stock before he leaked the document on Liam.

So insider trading instantly. And he had his hands in everything. I mean, he talks about hotels and gambling and sports and Amazon. Yeah. kinds of stuff. Yeah, Amazon. Well, he was like an early investor in all these companies. So it wasn't like he was only the CEO of the sixth largest grocery chain.

He was an early investor. But it wasn't the seven. Right. No, it's okay. But not in the top five. No. Right. Not good was it.

It's true. It's such a funny detail to me. I know. That's why it was so jarring. It was like they said it so many times. So, yeah, I mean, Alex ends up saving Liam and Anna and Liam live together. and now in love, but they were long distance for a while. Like a year.

Yeah. And then they eventually move in together. The five-year anniversary comes and goes. Nobody really does anything about it. They don't get the divorce. She finds her audience for her art. Liam donates 80% of his $100 million inheritance to the foundation and invests the rest for him and Anna, which still got 20 mil. Del is a lot of fucking money.

I'll take that every day. Dad goes to prison for a little bit. Dad goes to prison for 11 years. Yay. Loses his mistress. Oh, that's right. Which was such a random plot point. He did what with his mistress?

Well, we didn't hear about her at all, but she dumped him. She insisted and she dumped him. She told Janet, the wife, I've been the mistress. She immediately called her. So Janet was probably going to divorce him anyway. Totally. Was she though? Does that need to be a detail in the story at that point?

I mean. I needed to know that. dumped by everyone. Even the mistress that we didn't know about. Yeah. But you kind of knew about it. He's such a skeez. It seemed weird to be. I mean, I guess you'd assume so, but it wasn't like the mistress was ever introduced and all of a sudden. Also, the mistress divorce. Also, there's a mistress. He even had ties to the mob. Did you all catch that? Why is no one killing him? I don't understand why so many organizations had to come in at the last minute. Like the mob's here now.

You know, like, what? It was just twisting the knife. If he didn't think he was bad, how about this? Let's just keep going with it until the end. I don't know. But wait,

there's more. Yeah, right. So the mom is now she's divorced. She doesn't have very much money because all his assets are frozen. Let's talk about very much is. Yeah, she's fine.

I'm not worried about her. She probably liquidated. Yeah, she'll be fine. But she's less. She has like a real job. She's aggressive now. She's less wealthy and, less mean.

Yeah, which was interesting. When. Charlie's pregnant with twins. Yay. So Liam and Anna have a new house and they're hosting the family for dinner. And you can see the family working through to heal their relationships. I mean, they had lived in such a toxic environment for their entire life. So they're kind of navigating.

And a lot of them were in therapy because of what the dad put them through growing up. Well, they started therapy after everything went down. The only one that was actually. actually went through therapy was Liam. And they started doing family therapy after everything went down, like all of them together. It really did end in a very warm, fuzzy feeling. It closes with Anna, planning a romantic evening, putting her wedding ring back on for Liam and saying, now I really wanted to be real, because he had kind of left it open. She had given him the ring back when they broke up. He gave it back to her and said, you don't have to put this on, but I want you to have it. And when you're ready. So on their six-year wedding anniversary, she does the ring. the romantic evening. She puts on the ring. I think that's all she's wearing, actually. That's all she's wearing. Yes. I mean, hot. I love that. The end. We got our H-E-A. But did you feel like they drug that out a little bit? Like, I would have been ready for her to go in the

bedroom, put on the ring, and just be like, okay, let's do this right when it was supposed to end. No, I don't know it was like too long. Money doesn't make you happy. Right. Well, the world of the story is it makes you worse. I mean, turn it down. But yeah. That's because you're already a good human. Poor us don't think about that. But what would you do for it? Maybe I just take it. I don't know. Yeah. All right. So ratings. Stacey, why don't you start? How many stars would you give this out of five? I'm going to go four and a half only because I think the end got a little long. I think it could have been wrapped up a little closer. Okay. All right. That's. fair. That's fair. I will give it a four. I thought this book was really adorable, like a total beach read, which is exactly what it was supposed to be. It was a great plot. Everything was strung together. There weren't too many, or if any, really plot holes. Like, they really tied everything up by the end. It was a solid four, if not more than a four. I thought it was great and really liked it. It feels like there could have been more sex earlier in the book. That's all I'm saying. Oh, we didn't talk about that. Chili Pepper.

There's the sex. It was hot. Kim? I'm going to give it a four. I also felt like they drag out the end a little bit too long with her. Will she put on the ring? Won't she put on the ring? Is he going to wear the ring?

He will wear the ring whenever she's wedding. I'm just like, okay, just put on the fucking ring. They could have shortened it by three chapters. No, I really enjoyed it. I definitely four. I actually liked this one better than the last one that we were. read the beautiful bastard one. Yeah. Oh, I did too. I really did. I felt like the will they won't they was such a great buildup every single time that I didn't mind it. I was like,

okay, they're not going to do it, but we're close. Move to the next chapter. I'm reading it. My husband's sitting across from me and he's reading something else. And he's like, what part are you on? I was like, well, they're about to not have stuff. That's what's about to happen. Four for me. This was five stars. For me. Oh. All my favorite tropes. Okay.

I had my bill, you know. I had my marriage of convenience. I had the landscape is what made it five for me. I love a good landscape and this was my favorite landscape ever. It was a beautiful private island. There was no BDSM. No BDSM. The sex was hot.

There was no spanking. The face of the book was amazing. No spanking. Nobody wants to prank. No Blair spank. Blair spank somebody's ass at some point. She offers. Anyway.

Pretty sure. She was Hanzy. She was very handy. Well, they were afraid she was like propositioning them for a threesome the whole book. They were always worried. I'm surprised she didn't. I'm surprised she didn't in the steam room with the mom. I think she was, I remember.

She said Blair just made a noise that's so sexual. I'm uncomfortable. She was just there to have a good time. She was like going to make people uncomfortable just for her own giggles. Like that was her situation. But chili peppers, I'll start those off. I gave this three. because it didn't start till the 64% mark.

And then, I mean, the scenes we got were hot. We didn't get a lot of them, though. Maybe four scenes. And for a Christina Lauren book, after Beautiful Bastard where we got like 15, 20 scenes, I was surprised we didn't get more. But what we got was so, so good and romantic. You know, it was hot, but it was also like you were feeling the feelings too, which is another reason it was a five for me.

You know, I like to feel the feels. You do like to feel the feels. I also will give this. Oh, I'll give it like a three and a half. Like I think the sex scenes we got were good, but they started too late for a quote unquote trashy romance. Like, but I think you said it best, Jen. It was a romantic book. It was a trashy book in any way. I loved the sex scenes. I'll say they were three and a half. But there weren't enough of them. It wasn't trashy enough. And it started too late. I needed them to have sex sooner. I like the least to start at the 50% at the least. Yeah. Like, you know. The fact that you always throw a percentage out kills me. Like Kendall tells me. Like there are certain books. It's funny when I read them.

And I'm like, okay, we're at 30%. They still haven't had sex and they're not even close. What's happening? Like, I do look at like how close we are. I'm like, what is happening? We're already at 30. All right, Kim, breakfast. Oh, I was going to let Shagie go.

Oh, I wanted you to go, Kim. I mean, I can't. All right, all right. I'll go. I gave it a three on this vicometer, mostly because I thought they were romantic scenes. I liked all the angst. I liked the ups and the downs.

I liked it when he gets ready to shower and he just drops his bridges. And, you know, she's like, God damn. She calls his penis the goddamn. Yeah. So, I mean, there were just so many moments where it was romantic on the beach. And it was really sweet. And I didn't mind that it wasn't smutty. I mean, yes, I would much prefer a smutier version.

but I liked it. Did you listen to this one, kid? I didn't. I was going to ask that at the end here was who listened and who read. I actually read page to page hard copy books. I read. And Lindsay always does. I listened to most of it and it was very good.

Was it? I was tempted to like throw it in there. It was the same girl from Beautiful Bastard. I pretty sure it was the same. That happens. They use the same for actors. Yes, because they're comfortable with them. All right, Stace.

Oh, my chili peppers. Oh boy. I thought it was. hot. I give it a four on this fire. She doesn't read what we read. Listen. Listen. No. Page 236. Page 236. But that could read it. It was. Which scene was that? Was that the kitchen? Oh, that was a good one. That was a good kitchen. I can't even. Were they burnt the pizza? Because they, yeah. But he cleaned up her butt.

Yes. He cleaned up her bite. That's right. I just thought it was. That's so sweet. So it was hot and well-imaged. Well-written. Yeah. You can- imaged. I like that. Well-imaged.

Very descriptive. I had to read it. Have you read Cinner? Oh, my God. Don't. Don't read Cinder. Don't do it. Read stuff for Thanksgiving and then come back.

Give us your cherry peppers. I thought it's probably the most of sex that we've rated. Oh, for Thanksgiving. I mean, in a short amount of pages. Yeah, 200 pages or less. Have a bottle of water with you when you're reading. It's important to stay hydrated. It's an insight joke.

Why'd you hear that podcast? You'll know. You should listen to Thanksgiving. This was so fun, though. Thank you so much, Stacy, for recommending this. I'm not sure I would have gone for this. I'm glad we read it. It was great.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for joining us. And we will be doing this again in our next season. So start thinking up some book suggestions and send them into us. You can email me at Jen at boozybookgazems.com. You can email us right from our website, boosybookgasms.com. Or you can DM us on any of our socials that are all at Boosy Book Gasms, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

Join us next week where we'll be recapping season two, talking about all of our favorite moments and having some cocktails while we do it. Until we meet again, happy reading. And we'll see you next time. Happy reading. Bye. Bye. Thanks for tuning in. We hope today's episode was the climax of your day,

leaving you breathless and wanting more. Until next time, remember to indulge in the pleasures of life and to keep the passion alive. You can find more tantalizing episodes at boosybookgasms.com. Enjoy the ride. And we'll see you. soon.