THE OUTSIDER: A Spicy Contemporary Romance (Scandal Villa #5)

She’s the “regular person” they cast for contrast.
He’s the wellness king who’s forgotten how to breathe.

Violet Chen is not supposed to be on Scandal Villa.
She’s a public-school teacher from Maine who owns exactly one bikini, bought on sale at Target. She applied to the show drunk at her sister’s bachelorette party and promptly forgot about it—until production called, packed her on a plane to a Mediterranean villa, and introduced her to a house full of people who look like they were grown for social media in a lab.

Callum Rhodes is the opposite of “regular.”
Founder of a wildly successful wellness app, he’s the man millions of people trust with their morning routines, bedtime meditations, and “find your calm” affirmations. His investors love him, his followers worship him, and his entire career depends on being the most soothing man on the internet.

Inside the villa, Callum is supposed to fake a showmance with another influencer and keep his brand spotless. Violet is supposed to be the cute civilian who can’t compete. Instead, she keeps accidentally saying the quiet part out that the villa is insane, that the rules are rigged, that maybe everyone here is a little broken.

The cameras catch the way Callum watches her when she thinks no one’s looking, the way Violet sees through his perfectly curated persona, the way they gravitate to each other in the spaces between scenes. Midnight kitchen raids. Balcony conversations. A beach challenge that turns into real chemistry instead of scripted flirting.

When Callum’s panic attacks start to break through the glossy surface, Violet is the only one who notices the man behind the brand—and the only one who doesn’t want anything from him except the truth.

But truth is the one thing Scandal Villa was never built for.

As producers push Callum toward a marketable relationship, investors threaten to pull funding, and an unedited confessional goes viral, he has to decide what he’s really the illusion of perfection… or the messy, inconvenient love that might save his life.



Perfect if you

“ordinary girl in over her head” reality show stories

wellness influencer × anxious, secretly feral soft boy

slow-burn proximity that snaps into “oh, we’re in deep”

found family vibes among contestants who refuse to play nice

explicit, tender spice with real emotional stakes (no fade to black)

The Outsider is Book 5 in the Scandal Villa series by Sienna Lux.
Each book follows a new couple on the same outrageous reality show, with interconnected cameos, high drama, and a guaranteed HEA.

Content
The Outsider contains on-page explicit sex between consenting adults, strong language, discussions of anxiety and panic attacks, social media pressure, career burnout, and past breakup grief. There is no cheating between the main couple in the present timeline, no sexual violence, no harm to children or animals, and the story ends with a committed HEA.