Synopsis
Irene Steele shares her idyllic life in a beautiful Iowa City Victorian house with a husband who loves her to sky-writing, sentimental extremes. But as she rings in the new year one cold and snowy night, everything she thought she knew falls to pieces with a shocking phone call: her beloved husband, away on business, has been killed in a helicopter crash. Before Irene can even process the news, she must first confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death on the distant Caribbean island of St. John.
After Irene and her sons arrive at this faraway paradise, they make yet another shocking discovery: her husband had been living a secret life. As Irene untangles a web of intrigue and deceit, and as she and her sons find themselves drawn into the vibrant island culture, they have to face the truth about their family, and about their own futures.
Rich with the lush beauty of the tropics and the drama, romance, and intrigue only Elin Hilderbrand can deliver, Winter in Paradise is a truly transporting novel, and the exciting start to a new series.
Review
The three books in this series go down like ice cold Pina Coladas on a hot white-sand beach. You can practically smell the suntan lotion and hear the waves in every paragraph. And oh yeah. The story? The story is a riveting, no holds barred 5-star read all the way through.
Meet Irene Steele. Suburban one-percenter whose life is consumed by the Victorian mansion she is renovating in Iowa City. Her sons, Cash and Baker, are grown and off on their own, and she’s got a husband, Russ, who adores her even though he is away on business pretty much most of the time. No matter. He remembers all the important dates in grand style and is making so much money that dropping tens of thousands for an area rug hardly causes a second thought. Irene Steele sure does seem to have it all.
Irene’s happy daze is rudely shattered one New Year’s Eve when news arrives that Russ has been killed. Traumatic as that is, this turns out to be only the very least of the shocks awaiting Irene and her sons in the days, weeks and months to come. The circumstances of his death draw them to the idyllic island paradise of St. John in the US Virgin Islands where the culture shock is surmounted only by the ever-deepening mysteries they find themselves trying to solve. Not only did Russ appear to have exponentially more resources than even Irene suspected, he also had another woman in his life. A plethora of other shady characters emerge, including a voice on a phone known only as Marilyn Monroe.
Over the course of the series, they slowly unravel the astonishing secret life of their husband and father even as they deal with their own respective calamities. While Irene struggles to come to terms with the deception and loss of the love of her life, ski instructor Cash is trying to find his feet after running a business into the ground, and his older brother, Baker, is stunned to discover that his in-demand surgeon of a wife is leaving him–for a woman. But the island–a character in its own right–begins to work its healing magic on each of them with warm trade winds and colorful inhabitants.
Filled with sweet poignancy, comic relief, and swirls of new romance, this sunny series is written in a breezy, heartfelt style that nevertheless hums with suspense. If you’re ready for a trip to the tropics, you can hardly do better.