A marriage of convenience and three nights a month.

That’s all the sultry, self-made billionaire wants from the impoverished prince.

And at the end of the year, she’ll grant him his divorce…with a settlement large enough to save his beloved kingdom.

As a Latinx woman, Roxanne Medina has conquered small-town bullies, Ivy League snobs and boardrooms full of men. She’s earned the right to mother a princess and feel a little less lonely at the top. The offer she’s made is more than generous, and when the contract’s fulfilled, they’ll both walk away with everything they’ve ever wanted.

Príncipe Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos is one of the top winegrowers in the world, and he’s not marrying and having a baby with a stranger. Even if the millions she’s offering could save his once-legendary wine-producing principality.

But the successful, single-minded beauty uses a weapon prince Mateo hadn’t counted on: his own desire.

The drama was great until it wasn't. I really thought I could handle all the drama but sometimes I felt it overshadowed the romance a bit.

I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting with this book as I hadn't read into the blurb and when I started reading it, I was like oh yep - arranged marriage contracts which I normally love this sort of story and then when I saw the male lead was a part of the royal family - my interests spiked higher and then they were burst as I did not like the main female lead in Lush Money. Normally these sorts of books, it's the guy that takes control and is the alpha male and it works but when the female tries it, she just comes off looking like an ice-cold queen and heartless female. She frustrated me and I did not like her one bit which made this read a borderline 3 star for me as I just couldn't connect with her. Even when Mateo tried to warm up to her and put the ball in his court, she was like one of those nasty bulldogs and I get that she had to act tough as she made her way up the business ladder but having a baby and a marriage contract is not just another business deal - it does have to include some heart as seriously what type of mother is she going to be when the baby arrives and yes Mateo might be a great candidate but is Roxanne ready for her baby to have kingdom responsibilities. The other thing that annoyed me was she kept saying when "her daughter" was born - as she had already made up her mind, it wasn't going to be a boy. Hello, Roxanne babies don't work that way - we don't get to pick the gender we give birth too. Lush Money was an angsty love/hate romance read and if you are wanting to add diversity to your reading lists with these characters, you can tick it off your list. I am now in two minds about reading Book #2 Hate Crush but will give it a go.

I tried to read this book, but I couldn’t get into this one. The characters fell a bit flat. I wasn’t a big fan of the writing style. I don’t think this author’s books are a right fit for me.

*~~*ARC kindly provided from the publisher/author to me for an honest review *~~*

Full review to come

5 stars

Lush Money is a well constructed romance book where the plot is intriguing, the romance hits in all the right places, the character arcs are well orchestrated, and the ending is satisfying as hell.

Roxanne needs a royal baby while Mateo needs to save his kingdom. Both of their solutions lie in one another, but due to equally shitty parents, both Roxanne and Mateo have it in their minds that there is no "normal" way to go about it. Roxanne basically propositions Mateo to be her royal sperm donor, while Mateo detests every second of having to sell his body to save the kingdom. Due to this critical point I found it hard to stomach some of the scenes in the books because while I enjoyed the entirety of the romance, the beginning with Roxanne using Mateo as a way to assert her dominance did not sit well with me at all. Had the genders been reversed, it'd have made many readers outraged and I believe that just because the abuser is a woman, it doesn't mean it's less abusive. Sure, Roxanne atones for the way she treats Mateo but I still wonder if this couldn't have been avoided. Except, these days, a good "hook" is often sought after and I'm sure that this version of the book appeals to many readers. Except, it didn't suit me personally.

CW: dubious consent in the beginning

What a delightful twist on a classic set up for a romance novel. We've got marriage of convenience for a child. I think that Angelina Lopez does a great job setting up a really interesting twist on this plot with great leads that you want to know more about. I loved watching Roxanne and Mateo figure out they really did like each other and the ways they fought to be together.

4.5 STARS

Lush Money hit all the right spots for me. Sexy af. Strong, rich heroine who is taking control of her life and her desires. I loved how Lopez took a typical trope and turned it. Cannot wait to read more from her!

Three romance novels saw me DNF them because of their opening scene: Mary Balogh’s The Secret Pearl; Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Nobody’s Baby But Mine; and, Cecilia Grant’s A Lady Awakened. In time, I returned to all three and loved them. We can add a fourth, Lopez’s début, Lush Money. All four open with a scene where one or both of the protagonists are morally comprised; we see the them at their worst. All four involve a scene where the body is exchanged for money, or services, where the “other” is objectified and exploited. It is most interesting that in three of the four, including Lopez’s, the hero is objectified. What Lopez brings to the table is a flip to the classic HP ethos: the billionaire, in this case, the heroine, Roxanne Medina, “buys” Prince Mateo Esperanza’s, the hero’s, services to make her dream baby and cement her business empire. They marry, business-like, and “meet” once a month over a three-day period when Roxanne ovulates. So, what’s in it for Mateo?

Firstly, he is more sinned against than sinning because the MoC is set up by his father, Monte Real’s King Felipe (in northwestern Spain). Mateo, San-Francisco-based, is working to develop a wine grape to put his principality on the map and save his future kingdom and people from financial ruin, ruin stemming from his father’s degenerate, profligate ways. Mateo is a scholar-scientist at UC Davis and had been working on a plan to save his people and kingdom, thank you very much, without his father’s evil, ludicrous scheming. But when Roxanne, sexy as heck and cool as ice water on a hot day, makes him a financial offer he can’t refuse, the moral dance is on … and it ain’t an Almack’s waltz.

I was, at first, shocked at the crudity and aggression of Roxanne’s initial moves towards Mateo: hauling him in to her office, having him tested for, um, virility, speaking to him via Skype as if they’re sealing a business deal, which they were. Mateo is incensed, angry, and turned on. Like the HP-heroine, Mateo is at the mercy of his desire; even via Skype, Roxanne’s frosty demeanor, icy blue eyes, vital swirls of long, black hair, make Mateo feel ” … like a voyeur and exhibitionist at the same time.” In a way, both characters are voyeurs and exhibitionists: the objectification is an equal-opportunity animal in Lush Money. Like the best HP-heroine, Mateo isn’t a doormat. He’s sexually aggressive, angry, frustrated and plays a game of emotional cat-and-mouse with Roxanne by demanding an “amendment” to their MoC: one day of their designated three will be spent getting to know each other, talking, doing date-like things. Initially, whether they’re in the bedroom, boardroom, or pizza parlor, Mateo and Roxanne hurt and insult each other. But like the best of the MoC trope, especially in the challenging contemporary setting, proximity and intimacy force Roxanne and Mateo’s vulnerabilities and strengths into the foreground of their merely convenient relationship and make it anything but convenient, instead emotionally-challenging, world-disturbing, and settled-self-jarring.

What of Roxanne, where does she come from, beautiful, rich, accomplished? Like many an HP-hero, Roxanne’s vulnerability comes from humble beginnings and an upbringing at best negligent at the hands of her self-centred, self-serving mother. Roxanne wants to keep her life separate from any and all emotional attachments, except for her perfect baby, which Mateo will give her and then, they’ll divorce. Having reached the pinnacle of financial success, Roxanne wants her world to be complete with an heiress. She very specifically wants this baby to be a girl, and is stupid thinking it’s inevitable it will be. Not matter their explosive and explicit (be warned, this is not for the sex scene faint of heart) sexual chemistry, the novel’s strength comes from how Roxanne and Mateo’s lives become entangled in other ways: how she helps him with his financial woes, how he supports her through personal crisis and emergencies.

What was objectified is humanized, made soft and vulnerable. The uni-dimensional of physical desire becomes the multi-dimensionality of a human being, a stalwart friend, a teasing boyfriend/girlfriend, a tender lover, and the envisioning of a life of commitment, love, family. Necessity: “He had a kingdom he needed to save. She had a fairy tale to create,” becomes possibility, compatibility, the deep knowing of another person where their true self lies. As with the best romance, betrayal rears its ugly head from the exposed vulnerabilities of Roxanne and Mateo, but the grovel and HEA-resolution are perfect, as Mateo quips to Roxanne: ” ‘It’s a perfect story, how mommy saved daddy.’ ” And how daddy won mommy. With Miss Austen, who would be admittedly scandalized at the between-the-sheets acrobatics and vulgarities, in Lopez’s Lush Money, despite a tad overly-long (get that editing hand in there), dubiously morally-constructed, and caricatured evil parent-characters, we glimpse “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Angelina M. Lopez’s Lush Money is published by Carina Press. It was released in October 2019 and may be found at your preferred vendors. I am grateful to Carina Press for an e-galley, via Netgalley.

I found this well-written, and enjoyed having the heroine be the billionaire for a change. It's a great idea, and allowed the couple to explore power dynamics in a way the very hot. I was surprised that the skin/hair coloring described in the book was the opposite of the cover. Roxanne is Latinx, but described as pale, and Spanish Mateo is described a deeply golden in coloring. I''m guessing this was reversed on the cover to communicate his European-ness, and her being a POC. I just found that weird.

I did start to lose interest in the story, because I found Roxanne annoying. I love an alpha heroine, but there's a lot of description of her thin, perfect body, which I found boring.

I was excited to read this title, because many of my friends enjoyed it, but the way that consent was handled in the first 20% of the story made me so uncomfortable I couldn’t read the rest. Sorry.

In Lush Money, self made billionaire Roxanne Medina has decided she wants a child that knows its father, but doesn't want to have an actual romantic relationship with said father. She also wants her child to be a princess. So she decides to enter into a contract with Prince Mateo, who comes from a small, struggling principality. She'll provide money and he'll provide a short term marriage and a child. Mateo has no interest in this deal, but his father (and his principality's extreme debt) forces him into it. The plot of this book is bonkers! And at first I was a little uncomfortable with Roxanne and Mateo - they really hate each other and I felt like consent (or lack thereof) was a serious issue during their first few encounters. But as Roxanne and Mateo started to get to know each other - and as the plot dialed up - I couldn't put this book down. It was super soapy and I really enjoyed it. I also felt like Lopez let her characters' relationship develop - you can actually see why Mateo and Roxanne begin to care about each other. I find that missing in a lot of romance novels - often you're meant to just kind of believe two people who just met are in love. I can't wait to read the next book in this series, featuring Mateo's awesome sister, Sofia.

Angelina M. Lopez gives us a promising contemporary romance debut with Lush Money. This is rightly described as a soap opera in book form. What I realized while reading is that while I enjoy watching soap operas, I don’t particularly like reading them. It’s too hard for me to continually suspend disbelief, even if I’d eat up the exact same scenes if they appeared on the screen. Who can say why?

But here’s the thing. While there were things that didn’t always make sense to me (paparazzi in San Francisco?!), I still found this to be a gripping and engaging read. Lopez made me care deeply for Roxanne and Mateo and I loved that billionaire Roxanne was the one with the power. She’s a true alpha heroine and it was fascinating to see her take on the characteristics and actions more often associated with men. I fear people will think less of her as a result because of patriarchal societal expectations of women. However, I found her to be a fierce and fascinating character, even if she was making mistakes and not always treating Mateo as well as he deserved to.

Mateo was no slouch though. He’s pretty much a dreamboat prince who cares so much about the wellbeing of his country. While initially he’s horrified by Roxanne’s offer and hurt by the way she treats him, he still does his best to do right by her and he’s the one who can see there’s more to meet the eye. I was all in for Mateo. He’s tirelessly toiling to figure out a way to save his country’s vineyards and industry, even as his horrendous parents do the opposite. He also fears he’s not good enough to be the prince and that he’s a fraud.

Both Mateo and Roxanne have a lot of healing to do from their families of origin and it was nice seeing them both do the work, albeit in different ways. I could understand why Mateo tried to stay away from his dad, to the point of working in UC Davis, instead of Monte. But I had a hard time understanding why Roxanne was so ashamed of her past to the point that she would pay off her mother for her silence. Roxanne never did anything wrong! Her mom was a neglectful, horrible mother. If anything, the whole town let Roxanne down, not the other way around. I also wasn’t clear why the priest who ultimately took her to the shelter didn’t report her mom as he’s a mandatory reporter. There’s no way she should have retained custody. I get that Roxanne’s past was painful and she didn’t want to think about it but I wasn’t clear on why she thought it would reflect poorly on her as a businesswoman, especially since a big part of her story is how she had to bust open doors to get to where she is.

The middle dragged in places and there was perhaps a few too many external conflicts for my taste. But I did appreciate a well-placed twist toward the end. I look forward to seeing what Lopez does next.

CW: toxic parents, past child neglect, characters focused on getting pregnant, side character in car accident resulting in hospitalization and surgery

All I needed to know is that this book had a billionaire heroine with a smattering of enemies-to-lovers. I began repeatedly stalking NetGalley offerings. I checked daily for weeks before the gods took pity on me. Baby plots aren’t my bag, but I was willing to overlook that for the sake of A FREAKING BILLIONAIRE HEROINE. And honestly, the pregnancy plot doesn’t rank high on my issues with this book. Both the hero and heroine were magnets for exhausting levels of drama and an assortment of garbage people, but that didn’t stop me from losing precious sleep finishing this book.

Roxanne Medina wants a baby. After achieving vast financial success, she wants for nothing save a baby. Rather than going the route of an anonymous sperm donor, she wants to share custody; her child having a father is important to her given her own upbringing. Roxanne wants a man who is desperate enough to agree to fathering a child for money, while also possessing fantastic genes and the social standing to give their child everything he or she could want.

Spanish prince and viticulturist Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos is the prime candidate as his country is failing due to the king’s excessive spending. Mateo has plans for a new crop of vines, but they’ll take three years to fully mature and he isn’t sure he has the finances to hold out for that long. But Mateo isn’t the one who brokered this deal. His father has essentially sold him off to Roxanne (without Roxanne knowing Mateo was not 100% on board).

Being cornered into this arrangement makes for a bitter and angry Mateo, though he sees no other short-term option for his financial troubles. Roxanne and Mateo will hastily marry and meet three times a month for a year in the hopes that she gets pregnant. At the end of a year, they’ll divorce and Mateo will receive a handsome payout.There are scheming family members, public scandals, and oodles of pants feelings that make everything way more complicated.

Unlikable heroines are definitely my jam, but Roxanne was nearly too unlikable at the beginning. Not only is Roxanne and Mateo’s first sexual encounter rife with dubious consent and arousal non-concordance, she frequently makes hurtful decisions for her own gain. There are several incidents where she blatantly ignores Mateo’s requests, like to wait on announcing their marriage, as he has a lot going on and would prefer to be more present once the news hits and paparazzi comes out of the woodwork.Of course, Roxanne apologizes whenever she realizes how much she’s hurt Mateo, but as he reminds her, she hands out apologies so carelessly that they hold no weight. I’m with him on this one.

She defaults to thinking the worst of people and flashing money around to solve her problems. She bribes the media, shaping the public narrative about her background and business dealings. Her hometown is full of people who love the success story she’s become and it doesn’t hurt that Roxanne always finds ways to give back to her community, but in her words, “Greed can look like gratefulness if you’re doing it right.” In her mind, her hometown hasn’t sold her out to the media only because of all the funding she’s given them; that’s how little she thinks of people.

It’s sad and frustrating. At times, I understood that her perspective has been skewed from growing up poor and being abandoned by a narcissistic mother. However, there were moments where Roxanne just seemed cruel, such as when she uses her influence to publicly punish Mateo for making rather reasonable adjustments to their arrangement. I preferred the confident and warm woman that peeked through when she didn’t have to uphold the title of “Roxanne the Billionaire.” Though Roxanne shows emotional growth and mentions going to therapy, her baggage was heavier and more damaging to herself and her personal relationships than Mateo’s. I wanted to see more of Roxanne addressing her childhood trauma than Mateo sparring with his shitty, scheming dad.

Mateo equally flummoxed me. He is easily one of the most self-loathing heroes I’ve ever read and I didn’t understand where it came from. Like Roxanne, he has awful, unreliable parents, but he’s dedicated to his kingdom, reviving the land with a new experimental vine, and bringing glory back to the country’s vineyards. He’s altruistic, cares what his people think of him, and unlike his dad, isn’t afraid of hard work.

Why does he hate himself so much? I have no idea because while these feelings existed prior to the contract he signs with Roxanne: the contract only exacerbates the problem. The notion that he has to “sell his body” to save his kingdom is clearly a decision he isn’t happy about and one that he feels forced into making. He makes frequent derogatory comments to himself and to Roxanne that he’s being treated like a prostitute.

The notion of sex work in general is viewed negatively in the text as well. In another example, Roxanne’s mom was known as the town “whore” with nothing but disastrous consequences for the heroine (Roxanne being bullied, her father’s identity unknown), despite this appearing to be a willing choice Roxanne’s mom made as a source of income. Her mom shows no indication that she regrets being a sex worker. Granted, she’s a terrible person otherwise, but that should have no correlation to her being a sex worker and I felt the opposite was being implied.

Okay, griping over because there were things I so enjoyed about this book, namely the gender-flipped power dynamics.

Morally ambiguous billionaire status is usually reserved for heroes and I liked seeing a woman in that role, despite Roxanne going too far in certain situations. She has agency over her body, over her success and finances, and is quite clear on her ambitions and how to make them happen. She makes no excuses for her wealth and often offers up whatever she has at her disposal to Mateo.

There’s this badass but cheeky moment with Roxanne where she just casually shrugs and proclaims, “I’m a billionaire married to a hot prince. Not sure what else you could offer me.”

Hell, yeah, you are!

This is Lopez’s debut and from just this one book, she’s easily in my top five writers if you want some grade-A dirty talk and hot sexual situations. I’ve read enough romance that reading sex scenes in public don’t really faze me, but this book had me furtively looking around as if everyone on this damn bus just knew I was reading about two people having rough sex in an alleyway.

The large cast of characters has provided some choice sequel bait and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a princess/security guard romance next, if my reading of subtext is correct. I was invested in everyone and I think that’s what was most important to me. I want to want the main couple to succeed, to get their happily ever after, and for the people around them to be supportive in that outcome.

I didn’t stay up past 1am because I was hate-reading or just determined to finish the damn book. The hook was in and I desperately needed to know how things were going to unfold. I can forgive a number of issues if I’m engaged enough and honestly, reading Lush Money reminded me of my General Hospital-watching years. I couldn’t help myself. The plot lines may have seemed out there or a character may have driven me up a wall, but by god, I was going to tune in every single day at 4pm because for that small period of time, nothing else matters except for these two people angrily kissing in secret or someone’s evil twin wreaking havoc while the real Emily Quartermaine has gone missing!

What I’m trying to say with my convoluted General Hospital analogy is that I couldn’t put this book down. I read it in one sitting which, for a person who frequently gets distracted by a laundry list of things, is high praise. The angst is high. The sex is hot. It should be high on your TBR pile if you’re in the mood for an emotional rollercoaster with gender-flipped tropes.

I love everything about this book. It reminded me a of a telenovela because it has a completely OTT plot but only in the BEST way. Roxane as the millionaire made me so incredibly happy - she is not exact lovable from the get go but I loved her so so much. She's always been the only person she could rely on and trying to become a little vulnerable was not easy on her in any way. I did love Mateo but Roxane was amazing.

Roxanne is a tough woman who knows what she wants. She's all business, but when it comes to emotion, she's a hurt young girl. In pursuit of perfection, she thinks she can buy herself a husband that will come in, make her a mother & then leave. Well, she chose the wrong guy.

Enter Mateo. He's a man of principles. He's not just going to take this arrangement without getting to know Roxanne a bit better. Mix in hot and heavy steam, finances, secrets & redemption & you've got LUSH MONEY.

I really enjoyed this story. This story is high on the steam, but it's also high on well-developed characters. As I've gotten older, I really need more intimacy & less sex/steam. This book delivered both. 4 stars.

Complementary copy given for honest review.
I fell in love with the characters in this book. The author was so vivid with details. The description does not do the book justice.

I know everyone loved this book and I was glad to see how successful it was, but I ended up feeling that the twists were not my cup of tea. Even though it's flipping a lot of tropes, it's hard for me to see even heroes being treated that way. Pregnancy plots are also just not for me. I loved the writing style and the author is such a great, enthusiastic presence and advocate for her book. I am hoping the next one in the series is more for me.

Rating 4.5
This book was riveting and I really enjoyed this one. And whew the heat coming off this one was a lot!! So steamy I tell you.

I will say that I was iffy on the nurse just sticking Mateo with the needle without his permission. She didn't even ask before she got all in there and acted like it was no big deal when he yelped. That was a no from me.

But I was totally hooked on the building relationship between Prince Mateo and Roxanne. Angelina can write emotion like whoa. Roxanne has her plan for this contract and Mateo is basically forced into it to save his community from being bought over by some Americans. The complexities of the two MCs were great. Initially we are presented with Roxanne as this self-made millionaire who is a ice queen is just about getting what she wants from the prince, and Mateo as the prince with a failing wine-producing principality. They have a rough start because Mateo is now beholden to Roxanne and this contract where he gets her with child and she gives him a massive pay out once that happens.

They're attracted to each other but obviously he doesn't want to feel like he's being used for his sperm, which is how it basically starts out. But soon enough a friendship and more blossoms. and they learn each others hearts and secrets.

I love how that played out. It sure didn't come easily, and they both messed up. The black moment had me on the edge because I was like just tell him the truuuuth!! But we know how that goes lol.

The book goes back and forth between the US and Spain and I know nothing about wine making so it was intriguing to learn the process through Mateo. And it was too jargon heavy or anything like that, it fit in seamlessly with the story, in my opinion. Made it all that more richer as we got to see why it's so important to Mateo.

The secondary characters were great. Even the ones I despised. Like both Roxanne and Mateo's parents were terrible. I'm intrigued by Roman though (I won't spoil who he is) and I hope he gets a book somewhere down the line.

Mateo's sister Sofia is next and we I cannot wait.

So, I really enjoyed this super hot, emotional debut!

The Bottom Line
I really enjoyed Mateo and Roxanne’s telenovela...I mean, romance - it was drama-filled, with a very hard beginning, but the journey was worth it for me. If you’re into soapy fairytales with Spanish flair, I would recommend this.