Gwen’s review of The Trouble With Paradise by Jill Shalvis
Contemporary romantic suspense published 2 Oct 07 by Berkley Trade

Dorie finds herself on the most exotic vacation of her life (only vacation of her life).  In a single day’s time she leaves the drudgery of a workaday job at a big box store (for which she is over-qualified with a degree in clothing design), and a mother who nags her about how her sister married a rich doctor and was popping out babies.  She ends up in the South Pacific, the object of two men’s affections, sailing on an exotic sail boat into a blue blue sky.  Life could be worse!  Oh wait… Did I mention the hurricane, or the killer among them?

Here’s the book blurb:

When Dorie Anderson meets a cute guy, she becomes a huge klutz. But one phone call has turned her dead-end dating life into an adventure: she’s won a trip on a singles’ cruise to Fiji. On board, she soon meets pro baseball player Andy, and the ship’s hunky French doctor. She’s sure she’ll fall head-over-heels in no time. Unfortunately, she’s right: soon, she trips over her luggage right in front of them. Mortifying. But a bigger disaster is just on the horizon. Dorie finds a man murdered in his bunk the same night a storm wrecks the ship, stranding everyone on a deserted shore. It’d be a perfect setting for romance-if it weren’t for the fact that there’s a killer among them.
Read an excerpt.

The blurb is a little misleading.  Dorie, the heroine, doesn’t actually find a man murdered in his bunk – she finds blood all over his bathroom, but no body (he presumably went overboard).  And can I say, I HATE this cover?  Simply removing the palm tree with the photo on it would have made it soooo much better.  That man has a luscious back.  But I digress…

This was a very cute story about a relatively normal woman (girl?) who finds herself in extraordinary circumstances and she makes the best of them.  Ignoring the only slight improbability that Dorie would have won this trip to begin with – or that it would be quite this exotically wonderful (South Pacific?  Gulf of Mexico, perhaps), it was still a fun and sexy story.

I enjoyed this light romantic suspense (less on the suspense, more on the romance).  I really enjoyed Dorie’s inner dialogue – she cracked me up several times and awed me with her honesty while irritating me with her lack of self-esteem.  And I liked how her character was honest with her love interest about how she felt.  It was a rather refreshing, good book.

Grade: B+

What’s next for Jill:
coming 18 Dec 07