I have mixed feeling about this book. I think it’s a strong but inconsistent debut. In many ways, it resembles a reversed-gender harlequin presents novel. High-handed billionaire, impoverished love interest forced into marriage to save their country, tragic backstories, etc. I didn’t love the coercion and dehumanizing of Mateo in the first few chapters but I did like how Mateo stands up for himself. I liked a lot, but not everything about this story.

♡ AN E-ARC OF THIS BOOK WAS KINDLY SENT TO ME BY THE PUBLISHER THROUGH NETGALLEY. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY REVIEW IN ANY WAY. ♡

DNF. now that i've gathered my thoughts, i think it's time for a review.

to be quite honest, i don't know if the problem is me or the book. i really was excited for this one, had high expectation despite it having little to no hype in the book community. and yet i was disappointed.

the synopsis looked like everything i could ask for in a book. a latinx romance? a female self-made billionaire? girl power? yes? i just couldn't get into the book. i was constantly asking myself what the f*ck was going on. because quite frankly, i found the plot to be messy. i have had my fair share of messy books, but this one was...yeah. and it's sad because it had so much potential. i get that this book is supposed to have a LOT of sexy times, and i won't lie and say that wasn't one of the reasons i picked it up, but i found the sex scenes to be sometimes just...thrown. like the sex scene doesn't have any place during that moment, why would you add it, i just-. i get that it's the point, but still, i don't know...

but the part that annoyed me the most was the characters. i hated that roxanne made some decisions without even the slightest concern for mateo. like, it concerns him too? stop thinking only about yourself? i mean, she does apologize, but it just wasn't convincing to me. i couldn't connect with her.

so yeah, i don't know if i'll give this another try, butif i do it will certainly not be in the near future. it's just not for me right now. BUT. i do hope i get to read the author other books (when they come out), since i enjoyed the writing style because it's simple yet not flat.

i would recommend LUSH MONEY if you:
♡ like romance-centred books (obviously)
♡ enjoy and/or are comfortable with sexy times in books

This is a book that I feel pretty conflicted about. While I enjoyed it, there were parts about the plot that I just didn't feel that great about. So while I enjoyed the slow-burn of these two actually coming to love each other, the beginning of their relationship starting as a contract gave me some pause.

I like fake marriages and marriage of convenience stories, but the fact that Mateo is basically forced into the marriage to have a baby with Roxanne just felt...off to me. Also, why couldn't she just get a sperm sample from him instead? Like did they have to actually do the deed for her to have a child? I know it's a romance, and sometimes plots have to suspend believe, but I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.

I did like both of the characters a lot. The story does explain why Roxanne is the way she is. She has had to fight and scrap her way to the top all her life. I admire that about her, and I was glad to read a Billionaire Romance where it's the woman with the money. Mateo was an interesting character too, but he really beats himself up a lot. He just wants to do the right thing, but it ends up just being the wrong thing in the end.

I do think some of the conflicts with Mateo's father and the Monte stuff just felt like a little too much to be added into this book. Like I get that's why he agreed to the marriage in the first place, but it just felt a little heavy-handed.

I did enjoy this book, just had a few issues with how the marriage of convenience stuff worked out.

*I received a review copy of this book via the publisher from Netgalley and voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had a hard time rating this book. Ultimately though I decided, based on the fantastic writing and the fact that it’s HOTTER THAN BLAZES…four stars.
.

Like I said, Angelina M. Lopez is a fabulous writer and this book is one hell of a debut. The premise here is that Roxanne, a billionaire business mogul, has contractually arranged to marry Mateo, Prince of some Spain adjacent land. She will bail out his country financially and he will… impregnate her. The deal is three nights a month until they produce a legitimate heir and then they’ll divorce. What could possibly go wrong?

This book starts off with explosive hate sex but each of these characters have a soft side that is revealed along the way. There is chemistry for days and lots and lots of drama. So, yay for that.

But. Like I said, I kinda struggled rating this one. There was some stuff in this book I didn’t love. For example, right out of the gate is a disparaging reference to a woman’s age and waist size. Dislike.

And…so this is totally personal… but I didn’t care for Roxanne’s approach to having a child. Her insistence that it HAD to be a girl, it rubbed me the wrong way. Having experienced infertility…this felt icky and heartachey for me. Her motivations for wanting a a child… I dunno… Of course, she grows a lot by the end of the story and not everyone has my history… which is why I tried to be unbiased and I still gave this book four stars.

Still, I look so forward to reading more from Angelina M. Lopez. This book is out on October 14th. Thank you Netgalley and Carina Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

This one is hard for me to review. I had high hopes for Angelina M. Lopez’s Lush Money, and I really did enjoy it for the most part. But I also found that there were one too many side plots that overshadowed the romance for me.

Like other reviewers have noted, there is a dubcon scene right out of the gate. I could see why it happened that way with Roxanne’s personal journey, but it’s important to note. Roxanne definitely has a take-charge personality, and I liked the swap of the self-made billionaire Roxanne saving the impoverished prince.

I loved Mateo as a character, too. He has a lot of responsibility, and he’s definitely not 100% on board with Roxanne’s plan, and I loved how Mateo isn’t afraid to speak up and check Roxanne’s actions. They played off each other really well.

The sex scenes are plenty and super spicy which I really, really liked. These two have explosive chemistry. What I didn’t enjoy was all the extra plot happening. Roxanne and Mateo have plenty of inner demons to slay, that all the extra characters took away from that. It felt unnecessarily drawn out, and I just wanted things to come together a little quicker.

That said, this romance flips the script. We get two stubborn and driven individuals who clash, but challenge each other in all the ways that matter. Its tense atmosphere keeps readers desperate for each moment of temptation and heat as well as its threads of affection and acceptance.

Recommended for billionaire lovers with a love of high heat and enemies-to-lovers plotlines.

3.5 stars!

Lush Money has a whole lot of fun playing with romance tropes.  Featuring a confident, smart alpha heroine who’ll do anything to get what she wants and a beta hero seeking romance, it’s a fun, sexy, strongly written read – but one I had to downgrade due to some uncomfortable consent issues.

Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos – just Mateo for short – is the only male heir to the tiny Spanish principality of Monte del Vino Real, and he’s a man of the people, preferring to spend his time at his family’s vineyards digging in the dirt.  In fact, he arrives, still dirty from the garden, to his meeting with Roxanne Medina, a meeting arranged by his father for reasons Mateo does not yet understand.  When Roxanne’s assistant starts plucking hair from his head for DNA testing, he soon learns why.  Monte del Vino Real (as the name may have telegraphed) is known for its many vineyards, and is nearly out of money as it tries to cultivate a new type of wine.  A marriage of convenience to a rich woman like Roxanne will fix their cash-flow problem and buy Mateo time as he tries to get the grapes cultivated and growing.

Roxanne – a hard worker who built her company from the ground up in total defiance of the racists and sexists who’ve tried to shoot her down – sees the marriage to Mateo as a simple, cut and dried matter.  She’ll give him money to revive his country, he – after a testing period – will provide her with a child – preferably a female one – for which she will allow three nightly visitations a month for one year. The marriage will be purely a professional arrangement that will solve everyone’s problems, will end with a divorce, a large settlement for Mateo and shared custody of the future child. Plus she thinks he’s fascinating, and they’ve both been too busy to clean their pipes, so where’s the harm?

But as Heart once sang – what about love?  Mateo doesn’t want to bring a kid into a relationship that has none – his parent’s marriage was an affair-fraught disaster and he has multiple half-siblings - and after dealing with her lousy mom and absent father Roxanne doesn’t think love fits into her life.  Mateo resists Roxanne, but as he will soon learn, it’s hard to resist the woman for long.  So he proposes that one night a week they’ll go on a date and get to know each other, cutting the sex down to two nights a week.  There’s nothing more horrifying to Roxanne than emotional intimacy – but to get her “perfect baby”, she’ll do it.  Sparring and fighting, mistrusting and trusting, getting caught fucking in the back of a truck by the press and getting into fist-fights at state dinners, Mateo and Roxanne will have to do a lot of work to turn their romance real – or at least make it look real.

The best way to enjoy Lush Money is to take it as a very soapy, over the top truffle.  These characters are larger-than-life, shouting, cursing, lying and sobbing.  Once you accept it for what it is, it’s easy to enjoy the kinda hooty ride.

I sympathized pretty early on with Mateo, who just wants to do the right thing and then gets roped into The Roxanne Horny Picture Show.  He acquiesces quickly enough and then returns fire on the aggression front and Pop Go His Daddy Issues. You still pity his dizziness to a degree – as well as his repeated inability to look before he leaps.

Roxanne was just as hard to love.  La hermana has Issues.  Just like every alpha, she had an absentee dad and a garish and embarrassing sleep-around of a mom, whom Roxanne now resents and pays off to stay quiet and out of her life (her mom is dug up and used as a secondary villain in the rushed and chaotic final hundred pages).  Roxanne’s control issues somehow make her an excellent boss.  She’s pushy and aggressive, but has her vulnerable side.  Her fantasy about a baby – perfect and female – is a great inversion of the male alpha fantasy of a perfect son.  Slowly, her layers are revealed; fittingly, it takes ages to dig to her soft underbelly, though adding a too-sweet backstory about her connection to the small town priest and the orphanage he runs comes too little, too late in the story.

Roxanne and Mateo hate and lust, manipulating one another and the press and using their money to their advantage until they finally bang up against Mateo’s awful father and Roxanne’s worse mother and have to work together.  Their romance felt very Jackie Collins to me, colored by Roxanne’s need for control and Mateo’s need to be seen as a well-rounded man; for a lot of readers it’ll be catnip.  I enjoyed the sweet parts and raised an eyebrow at the OTT ones.

The best side character is, without a doubt, Mateo’s botanist, ex-rebel Sofia who is still tartly lively and also tries to beat up Roxanne.

But this is one of those romances that’s not going to be for everyone. I had to dock a few points off Lush Money’s final grade for a few reasons, because as wonderful as it is to see all of these tropes be reversed, to see the woman as the tough, aggressive billionaire and the man as the more vulnerable one, dubious consent isn’t cool and fun, and the first sex act between Roxanne and Mateo definitely counts as dubcon.  Some tropes still belong in the trash, no matter who’s enacting them.  And yes, because this is Romancelandia, Roxanne wants to Do the Do naturally without turkey basters being involved, which I found amusing for a character so calculating and determined to keep herself at arm’s length – and who had Mateo jerk off into a cup for DNA testing.  There’s also some overripe dialogue (Example – Mateo, thinking about the dubconny sex he’s had with Roxanne: “She’d treated him like a stud in her stable.  And Jesucristo, he had neighed.”  Also: “His cock was a hard, happy friend stretched down his pantleg.”).

But if you like camp, high emotion, reverse-old skool romance, you’ll enjoy the heck out of the aptly named Lush Money.  Heaven knows I did.

Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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Début Novel by Angelina M. Lopez. And what a GEM it was. Superb book cover, checked. Amazing writing, checked. Great characterization, checked. That first sex scene together was very Hot. She just took what she wanted. The power play between the two was amusing to read. They started as enemies, per say, and they journey to friends was not without a few bumps in the road. We got to know some interesting secondary characters. Bring on book 2 about the sister, I can't wait.
Thanks the publisher and netgalley for this ARC. The opinions expressed here are all mine.

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.- Goodreads

Unfortunately, this book was not for me and it is really simple why. Roxanne was, I wouldn't say an abuser, but she didn't care about who/what she did, just as long as she was getting what she wanted. This includes trapping a man she sterotyped into an arrangement that he didn't want to do. All I kept thinking was if she was a man and the roles were reversed this would not look as if a person is being strong and empowering. She was wrong and I couldn't get over that. Was there character development for her? Absolutely. She became someone tolerable.

Príncipe Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos did not deserve her and that is what I have to say about that.

Overall, I know plenty of people who would love this book.; I am just not one of them.

Lush Money features a self-made billionaire and the impoverished scientist prince she contracts with to marry her and get her pregnant (to then live happily divorced ever after). Marriage of convenience! What could go wrong? Certainly the sizzling hot attraction between them won't turn into friendship or *gasp* love?

It'a sort of modern fairy tale with wicked parents, loyal friends, and a kingdom in need of saving. All set against a backdrop of wine and grape vines.

I loved how Roxanne knew what she wanted and pursued it, while at the same time remaining honest. She was complex, but not tortured. I appreciated Mateo's desire to save his kingdom and demonstrate his worthiness, though I grew slightly weary of his lack of belief in himself at parts. Overall, I found their journey together really satisfying. I really liked this book.

AND I'm really looking forward to Sofia's book, and hopefully Roman's.

So happy Angelina has found a publishing home. Huge congratulations on this book.

This trope won't be for everyone, but if it is is your trope, then look no further! This book is exactly what you are looking for.

4.5 I really liked this book. It had been recommended to me, but I wasn't so sure about it at the beginning! By the end, I loved it. I did enjoy the bit of gender swapped roles in the story, and I loved that the story got stronger as I read. I'd definitely recommend it!

So, so good. Marriage of convenience is my favorite trope and it’s always interesting to me when it’s set in a contemporary romance. I loved the pairing of a billionaire woman and impoverished prince. Most often it is the other way around and I love the stereotype turned on its head. The vulnerability and sweetness on both sides really got to me. The dynamic between Roxanne and Mateo was excellent.

My only small complaint is the theme park bit was a little silly to me but I guess people have done stranger things for money. Maybe a casino would have made more sense? Regardless this small point didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all and the bad guys needed some sort of motivation.

What a debut novel - well done!

Thank you Carina and NetGalley for the ARC!

Lush Money is a very promising debut from an author I’m looking forward to seeing more from. Recently, I’ve been drawn to low drama romances with characters whose lives are imaginable. Lush Money is high drama and features a sell made billionaire and the heir to a small European Kingdom. I loved it.

Roxanne Medina is a self made billionaire. She wants a child, wants the child to have a father, but doesn’t want to put in the effort a romance would require. Mateo Esperanza is the heir to the throne of a small Kingdom next to, or possibly surrounded by Spain, Monte del Vino Real. His tiny kingdom is known for it’s wine, but has been hit hard by bad management, an indifferent king, the demand for wines from France and California, and the looming danger of Climate Change. Mateo thinks he can save the country by developing a new wine stalk that will survive the changing climate and produce a high quality wine grape. His father wants to turn half the country over to a Disney like company that will turn it into a theme park, or in the alternative, sell his son to a billionaire who wants a baby and wants her baby to be in line for a throne. The two sign a contract to have sex three nights a month for a year at the end of which Mateo will get a huge amount of money to save his kingdom and hopefully Roxanne will be pregnant.

Roxanne and Mateo have a bad beginning. In fact, the first couple of times they have sex, the consent is dubious at best. Some people will be put off by the cold, angry sex they initially have, but if you move past that, they start to become real people to each other. Their feelings for each other are expressed through sex and lovemaking long before they are willing to say words to each other. Even at their worst, Lopez imbues them humanity and good intentions. You know you aren’t rooting for monsters even when they do damage to each other. The odd situation they’ve put themselves in and the continuing machinations of Mateo’s awful, awful father drive them to become partners and then friends, and then true lovers. So many things about this book could have gone horribly wrong, but they don’t because Lopez is a very good writer. Roxanne and Mateo are wonderful characters, surrounded by some wonderful side characters and some awful, narcissistic antagonists. I can’t wait to see what comes next. I really hope Lopez has plans for at least four of the side characters.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book. The love story was great. Who doesn’t love a prince? I liked both characters and they both had issues that were resolved. I recommend this book.

A lot of my friends have liked this and I was really excited about reading. I’m all for subverting gender roles, but...not like this. CW - non-con or dubcon depending on your reading of the scene:
[
In the first sex scene (which is very early), it's clear he finds her attractive but also doesn't want to be there. He's half-hard, she gets him all the way there with her mouth, then rides him.

I found this tremendously upsetting. It reminded me of experiences when I was young where I just thought "get it over with so I can go home." Arousal isn’t consent. Yes, there are contracts and he knows what they're there for, but his emotional state said to me that he wouldn't be there if not for needing the money to save his vineyard. I think, if the genders were reversed in this scene, it would be far less okay for some readers, which says a whole lot of awful stuff about how we view men as being always ready for sex when, in fact, they aren't. (hide spoiler)]

I was given an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

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.
When I started reading I couldn't put it down.Angelina M. Lopez is magnifysent and amazing writer.I cannot wait to read more of there books.Keep up the great work.You should definitely read this books.Can't wait for the next book.

Smart Bitches: I’ll going to mention it on the next whatcha reading post (Saturday, August 24).

Tweets: https://twitter.com/aarya_marsden/status/1162140412301193217?s=21

Bookstagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1a6oMfg6vj/?igshid=1g6jg9wrtunha

🍾💵Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez🍾💵

“Medina,” his Titi said, all of her steel keeping her back straight in the chair. “Not Esperanza? I understand in America it is common for a wife to take her husband’s last name.”

It was a tradition they did not follow in Spain. Mateo sighed at her. “Titi, come on…”

Roxanne merely folded her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry, señora,” she said. “There are so many buildings I’d have to rename.”

*

💵Badass, confident, sultry, ice queen, and self-made billionaire heroine 💵 *

🍾Viticulturist/Spanish prince who is willing to do whatever it takes to save his kingdom🍾

💍A marriage of convenience, with the contract stipulating three nights of sex per month to ensure pregnancy.💍

🍆SO MUCH HOT SEX. Y’all are not ready. *fans self* 🍆

*
I LOVE THIS BOOK. It took almost a week to finish it because I was pacing myself and didn’t want to finish it quickly. And now I’m mad that I didn’t pace myself even more because the author doesn’t have a backlist that I can devour immediately. This book reminds me of the best parts of telenovelas and Harlequin Presents: lush, over the top emotions, melodrama, and a lot of money. It’s smart, sexy, and brilliant. I highly recommend it. It’s out October 14 but available for preorder at e-retailers.

Roxanne Medina, self-made billionaire, gets what she wants in business and in life. And she wants Príncipe Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos. In her bed, three nights a month for one year. She'll have his heir, romance not required.
What follows is an absolutely delicious, soapy, and over the top clash of the titans romance for the ages, and the start of what will sure be a stunning career for debut novelist Angelina M. Lopez.

I adore when a romance novel starts with a bang and Lush Money will have you racing to keep up with the twists and turns of a plot *just* this side of ridiculous, but made utterly believable by the passion and strength of the character development. I cannot wait for more!