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A review by lastingliterature
Meet Me in Paradise by Libby Hubscher
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Marin and Sadie grew up with a journalist mother who loved adventure, adrenaline, and travel. When she loses her life on one of her work trips, Marin and Sadie take different paths with their grief. Marin becomes a mother-like figure to her younger sister and while she does become a writer in advertisement, she lives a very quiet, reserved life and takes zero risks. Sadie, on the other hand, makes recklessness her defining personality trait, which is perfect for her job as a photographer that travels across the world.
Sick of Marin’s safe life, she tricks her sister into a trip of a lifetime. Marin, for the first time in her life, is given an opportunity to fully let loose and have some fun on her own. It doesn’t help that she also had the help of hotelier, Lucas Tsai, to show her the many adventures awaiting her on the island.
Time for the review part. This is where it gets hard for me… I’m going to separate this into the first half and the second.
First half:
This book seemed right up my alley and with the warmer weather happening, a paradise romance seemed perfect! Right away, however, something felt off. I think my biggest problem with this book is that I felt zero connection with Marin and Lucas. They were attracted to each other from the start, and even after a couple of days of flirting and fun, I didn’t feel any type of chemistry between them. Marin is very bland and was pretty annoying to me, and she treated Lucas horribly for the first two days. Why would he be into her?! Lucas, too, was pretty dry until at least halfway through. The only character who got me to crack a smile was Ken, Lucas’s friend!
At this point, I would have rated it a 3.5 maybe. It seemed like a generic beach read.
Second half:
This is where all of those positive reviews are coming from. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a good chance you will shed some tears. My problem with this is I wish I could feel this kind of emotion in the first half. I understand where the author was coming from setting it up the way she did, but once I got to the juice of this story, I felt like I wasted some of my time for the first 250 pages. With that being said, this chunk of the book was beautiful and heart-wrenching and I literally started crying during my 10 min break in between teaching classes.
TL;DR: This book’ll sneak up on ya!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW: sickness, death of family, depression, grief, loss
Sick of Marin’s safe life, she tricks her sister into a trip of a lifetime. Marin, for the first time in her life, is given an opportunity to fully let loose and have some fun on her own. It doesn’t help that she also had the help of hotelier, Lucas Tsai, to show her the many adventures awaiting her on the island.
Time for the review part. This is where it gets hard for me… I’m going to separate this into the first half and the second.
First half:
This book seemed right up my alley and with the warmer weather happening, a paradise romance seemed perfect! Right away, however, something felt off. I think my biggest problem with this book is that I felt zero connection with Marin and Lucas. They were attracted to each other from the start, and even after a couple of days of flirting and fun, I didn’t feel any type of chemistry between them. Marin is very bland and was pretty annoying to me, and she treated Lucas horribly for the first two days. Why would he be into her?! Lucas, too, was pretty dry until at least halfway through. The only character who got me to crack a smile was Ken, Lucas’s friend!
At this point, I would have rated it a 3.5 maybe. It seemed like a generic beach read.
Second half:
This is where all of those positive reviews are coming from. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a good chance you will shed some tears. My problem with this is I wish I could feel this kind of emotion in the first half. I understand where the author was coming from setting it up the way she did, but once I got to the juice of this story, I felt like I wasted some of my time for the first 250 pages. With that being said, this chunk of the book was beautiful and heart-wrenching and I literally started crying during my 10 min break in between teaching classes.
TL;DR: This book’ll sneak up on ya!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW: sickness, death of family, depression, grief, loss
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, and Death