Troubles in Paradise (Paradise, #3)

Slow build for a final book in a trilogy. I felt more time was spent introducing small characters with minimal roles or relevance to the actual storyline than on further developing characters that started with larger roles. Felt very anticlimactic and underwhelming in comparison to the first two books.

3.5 stars

The final instalment in the Paradise series takes us back to the Caribbean on the island of St. John where we see familiar characters trying to settle into their new lives on the island while new evidence unfolds about the helicopter crash that killed Irene Steele’s husband Russ, and his mistress Rosie.

While I enjoyed the series overall, I didn’t quite love this book. I loved being transported back to the Caribbean with characters I have grown to love. However, while some characters continued to be developed and show growth, some characters (specifically Baker and Ayers) went backwards in a way that was disappointing after loving them in the last two books.

Again, the story uses multiple POVs, and Elin Hilderbrand has done a wonderful job of writing these in a way that flows and weaves their storylines together without it being confusing. However, there were some POVs featured in this book that I felt did not add much to the story and could have been done without.

In general, there were quite a few things that I felt the story could have done without (i.e. the hurricane, random new character). These made the book feel like Hilderbrand was grasping at what to do with the storyline to finish it off.

While I was quite disappointed in this one, I still did enjoy it. I would highly recommend this series for a quick, easy read to transport you to somewhere tropical.