What Happens In Paradise – Elin Hilderbrand

When each goes back to their regular lives, the Steele family individually finds themselves drawn back to St. John.  Irene leaves Iowa City and her magazine job behind, taking a job with Huck on his fishing boat.  Cash, having missed out on potential seasonal jobs out west, signs on to work with Ayers on the tour boat.  Finally, Baker, after learning his soon-to-be ex-wife is moving to Cleveland, decides to relocate with his son in the hopes of wooing Ayers.  Aside from the growing pains of their new, strange relationships, they have one other thing to worry about: the FBI.

What Happens in Paradise, released in 2019, is the second entry in Elin Hilderbrand’s Paradise trilogy.  It’s been about six months since I read the first installment, so it took me a while to remember who all the characters were and where we left them.  While this once again has me thinking of vacations to the Virgin Islands, I must say I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first one.  It kind of felt like a lot of rehashing where things left off followed by padding to get to what I assume will be a satisfying resolution in book number three.  Which, I will add, is already reserved at the library, but looks to have a several month wait.