Sunday, September 9, 2007

The Trouble with Paradise-Jill Shalvis

The Trouble with Paradise
Jill Shalvis
Berkley, Oct 2007, $14.00
ISBN: 9780425217191

In Los Angeles shy Dorie Anderson works in the junior fashion at Shop-Mart when she receives a call from All Continental Resorts that she has won a free trip to Fiji. She informs her boss and her mom that she is leaving on vacation.

At the dock in Fiji where the Sun Song anchors, Dorie is tongue tied when she meets “baseball cutie” Andy Hutchinson. She takes a step back and trips over her luggage spraining her ankle. Before she can get up off the plank, a man rushes past her shouting emergency. Dorie goes to see the ship doctor who is the same man who sprinted past her. Dr. Christian Montague assumes she is just like his emergency with a paper cut. However, he changes his mind when he sees her limp. She is tongue tied again and is embarrassed to mention the two splinters on her butt.

At the meet and greet gala, Andy makes it clear he wants Dorie. She runs to the bathroom when he asks her out. She meets guests Brandy and Cadence who are both nice. They discuss the men on board with Brandy picking crewman Bobby, Cadence the captain Denny, and Dorie the grumpy doctor. A storm devastates the ship. Christian holds Dorie to comfort her as she is scared, but he insists he doesn’t mix business with pleasure. The ship drifts to a deserted island, but Bobby is missing. As the doc and the clerk fall in love, something remains amiss about what happened.

The ensemble cast consists of unique individuals; especially fully developed is the lead make and the three females. The whodunit is fun to follow though it is more in the background to the entreatingly changing relationship between the lead couple. Although the climax is too fast and Dorie shows no after effect from a concussion, fans will enjoy this vacation romance.

Harriet Klausner

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