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.
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.
PRAISE FOR WINTER IN PARADISE—-
"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."—Brenda Janowitz, PopSugar
"A new series from Nantucket author Elin Hilderbrand-that's set in St. John!"—Modern Mrs. Darcy
"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."—Bookreporter
"The perfect vacation read."—Hasty Book List
"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."—Susan Maguire, Booklist
"This fast-paced novel offers the voices of several different characters, as well as a hefty load of intrigue."—Nancy Carty Lepri, New York Journal of Books
