Forced Proximity Interview | Christina Lauren (The Paradise Problem, Something Wilder)
Co-authors, best friends, and prolific romance authors who are finally tackling an inheritance plot in their latest release!
For Christmas 2021, my husband got me Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, and I devoured it in under a day, having absolutely zero context for romance as a genre or Christina Lauren as a powerhouse name in it. Now, of course, I realize how lucky I was to begin my romance reading journey with one of their books, and so I’m over the moon to get to share this interview I did with them!
Also, be sure to pick up The Paradise Problem, their latest release! It’s my latest 5 Star read for 2024, and I’m itching for a reread despite it having been less than a month since I read it for the first time. Inheritance shenanigans, eat the rich, fake dating/marriage of convenience? Yes, please!
Forced Proximity: Thanks so much for joining me! Please introduce yourselves in case of the unlikely scenario that someone here doesn’t already know and love your work.
HELLO! We’re Christina and Lauren, best friends and coauthors of thirty books and counting.
What hobbies do you have outside of work that aren’t literature-related?
Lauren would tell you that her only hobby is writing (Christina answering this one, so I can correct her and brag on my bestie), but she does a ton of other stuff. She’s the mom of two busy teens, does Pilates, sees a TON of concerts, reads more than anyone I know, loves to travel, and can cook like it’s her job. Seriously, she makes the best Thanksgiving dinner ever. Christina loves to garden. She’s obsessed with bees and had several hives before her husband developed an allergy. Now she must love them for afar. The only place she’d rather be than her yard is at Disneyland, a BTS concert with Lolo, or riding her bike.
Which of your protagonists, from any of your books, would you most like to be forced into proximity with? Why?
This question is probably meant to be about our heroes, but there’s nothing we’d love more than a chance to hang with some of our heroines. We’re romance authors but can only dream of being as cool as Fizzy from The Soulmate Equation and The True Love Experiment. We’d love to watch movies with Hazel from Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating or Anna from the Paradise Problem. We’d kill to go on a trip to Vegas with all our girls from The Wild Seasons books. That being said, we’d happily be locked in a room with any of our heroes, too.
Is there a romance trope that’s an auto-read for you? What about one you’re suspicious of unless a favorite author tries it out?
Christina loves a good enemies to lovers storyline and Lo is a sucker for anything involving a brother’s best friend with lots of good old fashioned pining. We aren’t big into dark romance or anything with themes of abuse.
What’s something you wish you knew at the beginning of your writing career?
The career of an author is made of hills and valleys, and the only thing in your control is the book you write. Celebrate the high points and work your butt off during the lows.
Find more from Christina Lauren on Instagram and their website, and be sure to grab your copy of their latest, The Paradise Problem.
Next week, I’ll be recommending books with amnesia plots!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
I would've liked to have known when they started writing together and how that process works. Not sure if that's something you'd ever write about on here (I'm new to your 'stack), but I'd be interested in reading about it.