Melissa's Reviews > Winter in Paradise

“But love is messy, complicated and unfair.”

A sentiment fitting for just about everyone in this angsty start to Elin Hilderbrand’s newest winter series.

For readers looking to fill the void left behind after four holiday seasons spent with the Quinn family, brace yourselves. The enormity of the betrayal and questionable decision-making here is sure to go one of two ways. The curiosity of how things could play out—*spoiler* things end on a bit of a cliffhanger—may be enough to warrant a return trip to picturesque St. John or the indecisiveness of one and selfishness of many within these pages might find some readers making other winter plans. This Hilderbrand fan is determined to stick it out for the long haul.

Absent is the abundant holiday spirit that was always front and center at the Winter Street Inn, replaced instead with the beauty of life on the Caribbean Island of St. John.

It’s a phone call on none other than New Year’s night that skews Irene Steele’s perspective on her entire existence. A mid-western magazine editor, with two grown sons, and often embarrassed by her husband’s outward showing of affection, she’s content spending time alone in the Victorian that’s been her pet project. Russ, her husband, is constantly on the go for work, jettisoning from one locale to the next. Although, Irene was pretty sure he hadn’t mentioned the Caribbean as his next destination. Naturally, the news of her husband’s death in a helicopter crash over the expanse of turquoise water, with an unknown woman, leaves her with more questions than answers. With her two sons, Irene descends on the island, determined to find the truth.

Both Baker and Cash’s own lives are in turmoil, but it does nothing to mend the dissension and competitiveness that’s always burned between them. In fact, the flames are stoked when they find themselves vying for the same woman. Caught up in the grief of losing her best friend, Ayers is willing to overlook her one staunch rule—to never date a tourist—in the hopes of alleviating just a fraction of her pain. The resulting relationships (or love square?) are complicated at best.

Sure, do I wish someone in particular—I won’t mention any names here for fear of spoiling it for someone else—had been more decisive from the start and not fallen back on what felt like the easy choice in the end? Sure. Was there one relationship that left me choking on the combining phrase that often precedes the word love when referring to underdeveloped feelings? Yes. It didn’t help matters that this particular he wasn’t my pick for her. Although, in his defense, he did categorized his own feelings as love at first sight. And, even I have to admit, their time together was kind of brazen and comical.

What draws me to Hilderbrand’s work time and again is her innate ability to create complicated but relatable relationship dynamics. And to do so through multiple voices. Characters I often find myself enamored with, even in the midst of some of their biggest mistakes. It’s safe to say, despite their faults and penchant for keeping secrets, there’s a lot to cling to here.

And now I’m left to ponder, how would things have to play out in order to get what I want for the characters? What comes to mind—one adjective, two syllables: awk·​ward. Only a return to St. John will tell.