{Release Day Review} Meet Me in Paradise by Libby Hubscher (@emhubscher @BerkleyPub) #ProjectParadise

Marin Cole has never: 
Seen the ocean
Climbed a mountain
Taken a risk on love 
....But if her sister's plan works, she just might do all three. 

Ever since her journalist mother died on assignment, Marin has played it safe, refusing to set foot outside the state of Tennessee. Her wild-child younger sister, Sadie, has trotted the globe as a photographer, living off of art and adrenaline.

When Sadie returns from a tough assignment abroad and looks a little worse for wear, Marin reluctantly agrees to a sisters' spa weekend on the tropical island of Saba. But her lifelong fear of travel is affirmed when Sadie misses the flight, Marin's luggage gets mixed up with another passenger's, and an episode of turbulence sends her hurtling into the lap of Lucas Tsai, the handsome stranger who stole her sister's seat.

For the first time in a long time, Marin has to step outside of her comfort zone as she explores the island with Lucas and learns what she's been missing out on. With each breathtaking new experience, Marin gets closer to her real self, the man she's falling for, and the heart-wrenching truth about why she's there in the first place.

​Marin Cole was always the sensible sister. Not only was she older than Sadie, she was infinitely more responsible and just a tad bit more restrained. Marin made a career of worrying about her only sibling -and for a very good reason. Sadie was an adrenaline junkie of the first order just like their late mother.
 
The only time that Marin felt like she could finally breathe is when Sadie was home safe and sound. But something was different this time.
 
Marin told herself that Sadie just needed a little rest and only agreed to her wild idea of a sister’s getaway to make sure that she got it. So when Sadie misses their flight, Marin is forced to take a look outside of the shell where she has barely existed for years.

​I’d like to say that I decided to go ahead and get in line to board the flight because I’m a badass. Or even because I was fully committed to my plan to convince Sadie to join the firm so she could stay home with me. But really, she goaded me into it. Just like she could goad me into anything. I would show her just how big of a pansy-ass I wasn’t. Ha. Of course, when it came to picking up my carry-on and actually walking over to the line, my indignant resolve faded fast. Heaving a sigh, I leaned over to grip the handle of the carry-on. Why the heck was I doing this again? 

​Lucas Tsai was unlike any man Marin had ever encountered.  Sure, he was the GQ kind of gorgeous - but he was also enigmatic, brilliant and heartbreakingly kind.
 
Falling in love while being stuck on an island paradise wasn’t ever in her plans.  Neither was losing the one person she loved more than life itself. 

And then Lucas Tsai, hotelier, secret Sabaoke superstar, and jet-setting international hottie, kissed me. The moon was shimmering on the ocean, waves flowed in over the volcanic rock beach, seabirds swooped and dove in the sky, and I noticed exactly zero percent of that. I was too busy noticing Lucas’s hands in my hair, on my waist—oh, and up under my too-short-thank-you-Mrs.-Right dress, his lips tender and firm—and by the way, if you’re hypothesizing that a guy who can speak eight different languages fluently can do amazing things with his mouth, you’d be right. At that moment, he was speaking the language of Get that dress off you and get these pants off me and let’s go reenact our little post-massage mishap with a mature-content rating. Who was I? I was like a woman who’d lived with amnesia for years, amnesia that made me forget that I had needs and wants until this very moment. My memory was back, baby. I was needing and wanting all over this beach.

Libby Hubscher delivers an unexpected emotional masterpiece with Meet Me in Paradise! She flawlessly balances just the right amount of humor and wit with the kind of sorrow that can only come from experiencing a devastating loss. 
 
Each of her characters radiate a special soulfulness that literally leaps from the page and grabs you by the heart.  It’s far more than just another romantic comedy.  More than a story about sisters.  It’s about finding the meaning of your life and living each and every day as if it were the last.
 
So read the book. Swoon over Lucas. (Trust me on this!) Take the trip. Drink the wine. Eat the cake. And never forget to cherish every moment of it… 

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