Publishers Weekly
11/02/2020
Hilderbrand wraps up her Paradise series (after What Happens in Paradise) with this excellent story of secret lives and second chances. Things begin with Irene Steele’s husband, Russell, dying in a helicopter crash. Russell was ostensibly on a business trip to the Virgin Islands when he died; however, Irene learns that Russell led a double life. He spent part of his time with Irene in Iowa—a loving husband and goofy father to their two adult sons—and part of his time in St. John, where he had a longtime girlfriend and a 12-year-old daughter, Maia. After the FBI suspects Russell’s death was the result of foul play, Irene and her two sons, Baker and Cash, uproot their lives and move to St. John to find answers. The soapy setup has all the classic whodunit elements, but the dreamy island setting and St. John’s charming, quirky residents are the real draw. In the island’s bighearted community, Irene, Baker, and Cash each find a chance at love. While the sailing is not always smooth (their relationships are complicated by Russell’s legacy, and hurricane season looms) Irene finally gets some resolution and enjoys island life. This low-stakes, sun-drenched drama is pure escapist fun. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"Nobody sets a scene like Hilderbrand, and readers will relish the satisfying conclusion to this vividly escapist trilogy that is as aspirational as it is emotional."—Susan Maguire, Booklist
Bookreporter
With great verve, [Hilderbrand] has done it again . . . She is witty and engaging, and keeps her readers intrigued with a memorable set of characters. . . . Be prepared to read a fast-paced and entertaining novel for several hours, which will keep you longing for the second book in the series.
Booklist Susan Maguire
As she does in her books set on Nantucket, Hilderbrand excels at establishing a setting (the food! the luxury! the sea turtles!) that will inspire wanderlust...Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer blockbuster; her fans will be thrilled that she's looking to take on winter.
Modern Mrs. Darcy
A new series from Nantucket author Elin Hilderbrand-that's set in St. John!
Booklist
Nobody sets a scene like Hilderbrand, and readers will relish the satisfying conclusion to this vividly escapist trilogy that is as aspirational as it is emotional.”
New York Journal of Books Nancy Carty Lepri
This fast-paced novel offers the voices of several different characters, as well as a hefty load of intrigue.
PopSugar Brenda Janowitz
What do you do once you've become queen of the Summer novel and mastered the art of the Christmas novel? You start a new series, of course! This Fall, the incomparable Elin Hilderbrand brings us to St. John for the first novel in her new The Paradise series...Another compulsively readable hit by Hilderbrand.
Hasty Book List
The perfect vacation read.
Library Journal
05/01/2020
In Winter in Paradise, Irene Steel learned that her recently deceased husband had been leading a double life on sunny St. John. In What Happens in Paradise, she and her two grown sons are looking for answers there. Here, they're getting answers—and find their lives transformed. With a 250,000-copy first printing.
Kirkus Reviews
2020-07-14
The Steele family’s three-volume St. John adventure comes to a poignant end.
As the author warns in the foreword, if you haven’t read the first two books of this trilogy (Winter in Paradise, 2018; What Happens in Paradise, 2019), don’t start here. If you have, read this one slowly, because at the end we'll be saying goodbye to the series' endearing cast of transplanted Midwesterners, their new friends in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the many wonderful bars, restaurants, estates, bungalows, beaches, and seafaring vessels they frequent. In truth, you may find a leisurely pace easier to maintain than usual. The confounding mysteries and shocking reversals that drove the first two installments are wrapped up here, but the answers are pretty much as expected, and no new excitement is introduced. Threads that could have added a plot boost—a high-powered New York lawyer hired to deal with the devastation Irene Steele suffers as a result of her dead husband’s criminal activity, the FBI investigation into same, an old diary, an unplanned pregnancy—play out gently, or are dropped, instead of picking up the momentum. Hilderbrand’s choice to tell us in the introductory note about her fictionalization of Hurricane Irma takes away any element of surprise that might have had, and she doesn’t use the disaster for much in the way of plot, anyway. Oh, well. There are still plenty of lemongrass sugar cookies and a gorgonzola Caesar with pork belly and wood-grilled sirloin, served with an expensive bottle of cabernet pulled from the cellar of some annoying rich people, reviving the old joke about wine descriptions one last time: “Notes of fire coral, DEET and the Tide Pod challenge.” Just like everything else in 2020, this is not quite what you had hoped for, but, on the other hand, the comfort of a Hilderbrand novel is never something to sneer at.
Like your third serving of a delicious meal—still very good, but not much excitement left.
