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  • Simone Elkeles

    Simone Elkeles

    Author

    Simone Elkeles (born April 24, 1970), is an American author known for the teen romance Perfect...
Leaving Paradise (Leaving Paradise #1)
Leaving Paradise (Leaving Paradise #1)
Simone Elkeles | 2007 | Young Adult (YA)
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
3.25 stars, and that's simply because of the ending.

Unlike the other book I've read by the author, [b:Perfect Chemistry|4268157|Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, #1)|Simone Elkeles|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403424645s/4268157.jpg|4315675], I wasn't as drawn into this. I liked certain parts more than others and the romance seemed to just appear between one chapter and the next but at the same time I kinda really liked both characters and wanted them to get together.

I know there's a second book that continues this story and I'm off to hunt it out so I can see how these two work out.
  
Return to Paradise
Return to Paradise
Simone Elkeles | 2010 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Meh...I guess I was expecting more romance and a grovelling Caleb after the way he left her in the last one and we didn't really get that. No it was all arguments and then apologies and then more arguments.

If I'm honest I was going to give it two stars up until the epilogue, and then one bit bumped it up half a star or so because Caleb from [b:Leaving Paradise|17558140|Leaving Paradise (Leaving Paradise, #1)|Simone Elkeles|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363610968s/17558140.jpg|531712] appeared and made good on something he said in the first.

As for some of the other characters. They really grew on me, Lenny definitely had by the end after some of the stupid things he'd said and done in the first part of the book. Julio wasn't such a bad guy. Kendra...huh. <spoiler>Leah did the right thing. Lou and Maggie's mum getting together was nice.</spoiler>

I wasn't all together impressed with this but there were some quite sweet bits and some rather hot bits that made it worthwhile if you want to read how Maggie and Caleb's story ends.