Book Review: Troubles in Paradise

Synopsis:

Troubles in Paradise is the conclusion to author Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling Paradise Trilogy.

In Winter in Paradise, Irene Steele’s idyllic life in her beautiful Iowa City Victorian house was abruptly upended when she learned that her loving husband, Russ, away on business again, has been killed in a helicopter crash on the beautiful Caribbean island of St. John. When she arrived on the island, accompanied by her sons, Cash and Baker, she learned Russ was a man with many secrets. Not only did he has a relationship and daughter, Maia, with Rosie, who was killed with him in the crash, but his business interests were not as her led her to believe.

The second installment, What Happens in Paradise, focused on the aftermath. Irene, Cash, and Baker all return to the island and take up residence in the lush villa Russ owned there. Rosie’s best friend, Ayers, discovers Rosie’s diary and it reveals the details of Rosie’s relationship with Russ, and sheds more light on the mystery surrounding the helicopter crash. Irene grows closer to Rosie’s beloved stepfather, Huck, as she serves as his first mate, guiding tourists on fishing expeditions, and she tries to unravel Russ’s complicated estate. Ayers struggles to make her relationship with philandering Nick work, even as her feelings to Baker grow. The story’s jaw-dropping conclusion sets the stage for the third, and final, volume.

When she returned to Iowa after her first trip to St. John, Irene realized the home she worked so hard to restore was “dark, overwrought, suffocating . . . and lonely.” So as Troubles in Paradise opens, she just settled in at the villa on St. John. Baker and Cash have also decided to take up residence on the island, with Baker making plans to enroll his son in school there.

But when the FBI shows up, Irene’s foundations are again shaken and the fact that she knew little about the man she loved is driven home.

Undaunted and with help from their friends, Irene and her sons establish their lives on St. John while evidence mounts that the helicopter crash was no accident. Rather, sinister forces were willing to use any means to protect their interests.

The residents of the island watch the Steels family drama unfold — along with the driver of a Jeep with tinted windows who seems to be shadowing them.

On top of all that, a storm gathers strength in the Atlantic and is bearing down on St. John as the Steeles are surprised by the help they receive from a mysterious source. All is revealed about the secrets and lies that brought Irene, Cash and Baker to St. John. The truth has transformed them all and they embark on new beginnings in the paradise that has become their home.

Review:

Author Elin Hilderbrand delivers a compelling and satisfying finish to her beloved Paradise Trilogy with the aptly-titled Troubles in Paradise. Indeed, her endearing characters face numerous challenges as the story winds toward its conclusion.

Winter in Paradise set the stage and focused on exposition — the characters’ reactions to the shocking deaths of Russ and Rosie, and their struggles to come to terms with loss and the revelation of the nature of their relationship. The next chapter of their journey was examined in What Happens in Paradise. Irene found strength she never knew she possessed as she reviewed her life up to the point of Russ’s death and realized that it was ultimately empty and unfulfilling. Cash left his failed Colorado business behind and began working on a tour boat with Ayers, his feelings for her growing. And Baker decided to move into the villa and raise his son on beautiful St. John, while Ayers tried to convince herself that Nick could fully commit to her and be faithful.

But FBI agents descended on the island to investigate the helicopter crash and Russ’s business dealings. As Troubles in Paradise begins, Rosie and her sons are shaken to learn that they have nothing. The government seizes Russ’s assets, including the showplace home in Iowa that Irene spent so long restoring, the antiques she filled it with, . . . and the villa in which they are residing.

Of course, they are not without resources because over the course of the year they have established relationships on the island. Cash has the means, thanks, in part, to the settlement of his divorce from a successful physician, to check into a resort until he can find suitable housing. Determined to stay on the island, he proceeds with looking for employment, getting his son started in school, and getting acquainted with the mothers dropping off their children each morning. It’s not easy and readers will relate to his parenting struggles and efforts to establish a new life. He also grapples with his feelings for Ayers, wondering if she is ready to move past her failed relationship with Nick. Hilderbrand’s depiction of their interactions is charming and touching.

Cash has a job he enjoys on the tour boat, a new love interest, and finds a charming house to rent.

Maia, who lost both of her parents, yet inherited a whole new family, is growing up and sneaking around with her friends. In addition to breaking into the villa with her friends, they find another secret place to meet. Is she getting involved with the wrong crowd of kids and headed for trouble?

Irene moves in with Huck and Maia, and continues working on the boat with him. They care deeply for each other, but it is not all smooth sailing for the couple.

Ayers is harboring more than one secret with the power to change her life, as well as the lives of the Steele family. She knows she should turn Rosie’s journals over to the FBI. They contain the story of Rosie’s romance with Russ and she would like to preserve them so Maia can read about her parents when she is old enough. But they also hold evidence, particularly about Russ’s boss, Todd Croft, that could lead to answers about the helicopter crash — who was behind it and why. Rosie’s words are Ayers’ last remaining line of communication with her beloved friend who was taken from her so violently and without warning.

Hilderbrand compellingly delivers answers to all the questions raised in the first two installments of the story. In particular, she unravels the secrets that Russ was keeping. She introduces the people he was working for, how he got involved with them and, perhaps most importantly, why he continued. She compassionately examines the impact of those revelations upon Irene, a woman who thought her life was well-ordered, on a predictable trajectory, and stable. She thought she had a happy, loving, long-term marriage, and never could have imagined that her husband was a duplicitous cheater who fathered a child with another woman. But the things Irene learns help her to see that her life was illusory and not as satisfying as she once believed. And that Russ was inherently and completely human — a flawed man who made bad decisions, and misjudged people to his own and his family’s detriment. But still a good man in many ways. Will she be able to use that knowledge to heal and be able to enjoy what she has gained, despite her losses?

The island of St. John survived Hurricanes Irma and Maria in late 2017, and Hilderbrand notes that the island depicted in her trilogy is the one that existed before those devastating, category 5 storms tore it apart. But she also points out that the Virgin Islands have, in the interim, recovered and St. John is better than ever.

Hilderbrand’s characters find themselves in the midst of an emotional and psychological hurricane that descends upon them the morning that the helicopter carrying Russ and Rosie crashes. It’s as real as the actual hurricane that descends upon St. John near the end of the book. In the process of surviving both, they learn about resiliency and determination, and that life requires the ability to be flexible and pivot when circumstances unexpectedly change. They are served lessons in patience and acceptance of things that cannot be changed. The Steeles find a new family that includes Maia, Huck, and Ayers. Irene, in particular, delves deep within herself to decide if she is capable of forgiveness, as she reinvents herself and redesigns her life, concluding that it, like St. John, was badly damaged, but not destroyed.

Troubles in Paradise is a story of hope, personal power, and family. A fitting and emotionally resonant conclusion to an engrossing and entertaining story.